By By Whitney Spencer

The University of Louisville men’s and women’s track and field teams earned three automatic bids to the NCAA Championships on day one and collected three additional automatic bids for a total of six to the NCAA Championships on the final day of the 2009 NCAA Mideast Regionals held at Cardinal Park.

On day one, the Cardinal women were led by junior Jere’ Summer who won the Mideast Regional title in the discus with a throw of 56.81m. It was Oakland, California native’s top mark of the season and the second best throw in school history. After advancing in the hammer throw and shot put last year, Summers earned her first ever bid to the national championships in the discus after advancing in the hammer throw and shot put a year ago.

In the hammer throw, sophomore D’Ana McCarty picked up a point after throwing a personal best 58.74m to finish eighth while junior Lindsey Cook finished 11th with a distance of 56.44m. Summers was ranked third regionally in the hammer throw, but fouled on her second attempt and failed to make it out of the prelims finishing 16th with a throw of 55.35m.

Junior Tarah McKay qualified for Saturday’s final in the 1,500-meter run. McKay finished third overall with a time of 4:23.87, the third fastest in school history. Senior Heather Trimiew covered the 400-meter hurdle prelims in 59.42, finishing 11th but .18 seconds short of qualifying for the finals. 

On the men’s side, redshirt junior Tone Belt secured his spot in the NCAA Championships with a second place finish via a tiebreaker in the high jump when he clearned 2.22m and in the long jump with a fourth place leap of 7.72m. This was the third time Belt was able to qualify for both events. Freshman Wesley Smith and redshirt freshman Seon Powell also competed in the long jump. Smith finished eighth with a jump of 7.61m and Powell placed 22nd with a distance of 7.14m.Redshirt junior Steven Hnat finished sixth with a toss of 18.15m. Hnat who entered the weekend fourth in the region will now have to wait to see if he earns an at-large bid to the national championships.

On day two the Cardinal men were led by the stellar performance of senior Cory Thorne who won the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a personal and school record setting time of 8:36.98. Thorne earned his second trip to the national championships in the event and will enter the final event of the season with the second fastest time in the country. Others in the 3,000-meter steeplechase were sophomore Matt Hughes and junior Scott McClain. Hughes finished sixth with a time of 8:55.19 and should advance to the national championships as he held the nation’s 13th best time coming into the competition while McClain finished with a 27th place showing.

Also qualifying for the national championships were senior Andrew Hackney who placed sixth in the discus throw and sophomore Josh Grenwald finished ninth. Greenwald and Hackney would have the 13th and 14th best marks in the nation as of this weekend and should qualify for the national championships.

Leading the way for the Cardinal women was the shot put group who placed all four throwers in the top 12. Junior Jere’ Summers finished second overall with a distance of 16.48m and earned her second national championship bid of the weekend. Also in the shot put, sophomore Chinwe Okoro placed sixth with a toss of 16.05m, just missing an automatic bid and personal best while freshman Khadija Abdullah took ninth with a heave of 15.69m. Both still have the opportunity to qualify through at-large bids.

In the 1,500-meter run finals, junior Tarah McKay earned her second consecutive bid to the national championships. McKay, who held the eighth best time in the region entering the weekend, placed fourth.