3/11/2010 - MEN'S TRACK & FIELD Buerkle and Preble headed for NCAA Championships

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• NCAA Track & Field Championships

BEMIDJI, Minn. -- The Bemidji State University men's and women’s track and field teams will be represented by a pair of student-athletes who have garnered invitations to this weekend’s (March 12-13) NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Albuquerque, N.M.

Kristi Buerkle (Jr., Stacy, Minn.) makes her second appearance at the championships.  The BSU 400-meter dash record holder and NSIC Female Indoor Track Athlete of the Year garnered All-America honors a year ago placing seventh in the indoor 400-meters.  This season she enters the meet as the nation's top contender. 

Buerkle is schedule to begin competition at 4:50 p.m. Friday in the 400 prelims.  The women's 400-meter dash finals are slated for 3:50 p.m. Saturday.

Joining Buerkle at the championships is another BSU All-America performer.  Zac Preble (Sr., Coleraine, Minn.) also makes a return appearance at the Division II championships in the heptathlon.  The multi-even standout looks for redemption after failing to record a height in the pole vault a year ago and slipping to tenth in the final day of competition. He also qualified for the event in 2008, but did not finish the competition due to injury.

Like Buerkle, Preble opens the event as the nation's top performer.  The BSU and NSIC record-holder, Preble scored 5,245 at the NSIC Championships to post his fourth consecutive heptathlon crown and garner the league's male field athlete of the year award.

Preble begins his quest for a national championship at 9:00 a.m. Friday morning.  The senior will compete in the 60-meter dash, the long jump, the shot put and the high jump on the first day of competition with the 60-meter hurdles, the pole vault an the 1,000-meter run coming on Saturday.

To follow Buerkle and Preble, log on to the NCAA's track and field home page at http://www.ncaa.com/sports/c-itrack/champpage/c-itrack-div2-index.html 

 --bsu--