Women's track opens outdoor season

FAYETTEVILLE – Select members of the Arkansas Razorback women’s track and field team will compete at the Walt Disney World Invitational, Fri.-Sat., March 19-20, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Track and Field Complex, in Orlando, Fla.

For the Razorbacks, events begin at 9:10 a.m. on Friday and 9:40 a.m. on Saturday. Student-athletes competing include the sprinters, hurdlers, relays and horizontal jumpers. 2010 NCAA Indoor All-Americans Edina Brooks, Regina George, Whitney Jones and Shelise Williams will compete in numerous individual events and the 4×100-meter and 4×400-meter relays.

Freshman heptathlete Leah Orley will make her outdoor debut in the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles and the long and triple jumps. Junior Shantel Thompson will also make her outdoor debut for Arkansas. She will compete in the long and triple jumps.

The 2010 outdoor season has a new process of qualifying to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, in Eugene, Ore., in June. Regional standards or qualifications are no longer in place. In order to advance to the NCAA preliminary rounds, in Austin, Texas for the Razorbacks, a student-athlete must be a top competitor in their event. Each event will take a varied amount of competitors to the prelims and then to the finals. Some events will go straight to a final round in Eugene, Ore.