Pirates Set For NCAA Outdoor Championships
June 07, 2011 | Track & Field
June 7, 2011
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DES MOINES, Iowa - A quartet of underclassmen will make East Carolina track and field program history this week as the first female relay team to participate in the NCAA Outdoor Championships, scheduled for June 8-11 at Drake Stadium.
Freshmen Aiesha Goggins, Tyshonda Hawkins and Tania Minkins join sophomore Tiffany Harris, forming a tandem that finished third at the Conference USA Outdoor Championships and sixth at the NCAA East Preliminary Round to book a spot in the national meet. Their school-record time of 3:35.75 set at the latter meet currently stands as the 20th-fastest among all NCAA participants.
Goggins also posted a qualifying time in the 400-meter dash and will begin her quest for a national title Wednesday before competing with her teammates in Thursday's national semifinal. She is also just the second female runner in school history to earn a place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships after Dava Rhodes competed in the 10,000-meter run in 1994.
While the national qualification is the first for an ECU female relay squad, it is also the first relay participation for either gender since the 4x400 and 4x100 men's teams finished a respective fourth and seventh at the 2002 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Both times of 3:02.81 and 39.66 were fast enough to warrant All-America status.
Goggins, who captured both indoor and outdoor 400-meter C-USA titles earlier this season, recorded the second-fastest time at the NCAA East Preliminary Round at 52.61. Her quickest time of the season, a C-USA and school-record 51.94 at the league outdoor meet, also currently stands as the 33rd-best mark in the world.
Should either Goggins or the relay team advance, the 400-meter national final is slated for Friday at 8:55 p.m. while the 4x400 race will be held Saturday at 1:40 p.m. The CBS Sports Network, formerly CBS College Sports, is providing live coverage of Friday's events beginning at 8:30 p.m. while CBS is scheduled to show Saturday's track proceedings in their entirety starting at 1 p.m.
