MILWAUKEE, Wis. (May 13, 2009) - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's track and field team is sending 10 athletes to last chance qualifiers in hopes of qualifying more people for the NCAA Regional Championships.

Seniors Adam Schleis, Patrick Casey and Adam Podd, junior Quinn Mongoven and freshmen Nick Dalske, Ben Crogan and Garrett Vetesnik will compete at the Cardinal Twilight, hosted by Louisville. Juniors Isaiah Adams and Tyler Bucholz, sophomore Cory Yttre and freshman Jake Spaciel will head to the Georgia Tech Invitational.

Senior Eric Pitt and freshman Chris Schuenke will also compete in the 3000m steeplechase at the Gregory Invitational Friday.

The Panthers will look to reach qualifying standards for the NCAA Regionals, May 29-30, in Louisville, Ky. League champions are also eligible for the regional meet. The Cardinal Twilight is scheduled for Friday, while the Georgia Tech Invite will run Friday through Saturday.

Schleis will compete in both the 110m hurdles and long jump at the Louisville meet, which runs Friday. The Germantown, Wis., native won the long jump at the league championships with his jump of 23-10. That distance is second in school history. He also posted a season-best time of 14.62 in the preliminaries of the event at the league meet. Schleis will attempt to reach the qualifying standards of 24-1 in the long jump and 14.30 in the hurdles.

Casey will also compete in the long jump, as well as the 400m hurdles. He was runner-up to Schleis in the long jump at the league championships, leaping 23-6, the third-best jump in school history. In the 400m hurdles, he will be joined by Dalske. Both Panthers eclipsed the school record in the event, with Dalske lowering the standard to 53.11 in winning the league title. Casey was a close second in 53.14. The previous record was 53.89, which Casey co-held. The regional standard in the event is 52.51.

Crogan, Vetesnik and Podd will all compete in the pole vault. Crogan holds the school record in the event at 16-0 3/4. He cleared that height twice on the season, including at the league championships, where it matched the league record and netted him a league title in the event. Vetesnik, who took fourth at the league meet, was the program's previous record holder in the event, posting a height of 15-11 earlier this season. Podd's personal record in the event is 15-1, which is 10th in school history.

The regional standard in the pole vault is 16-6 3/4.

Mongoven will compete in the high jump, where he is the school and league record-holder. He has already qualified for the regional meet, eclipsing the regional standard of 6-10 3/4 at all but one meet this season. At the league championships, he cleared his record height of 6-11.

At the Georgia Tech Invitational, Adams and Yttre will run in the 400m and Bucholz will run in the 200m. Adams and Yttre could also join Bucholz in the 200m. Adams, who was named the league track performer of the year at the league meet, repeated as league 400m champ. He broke his own school and league record (47.73) and qualified for the regional meet with his time of 47.11. Yttre also eclipsed Adams' record time, taking second in 47.48. He will look to lower his time past the 47.20 qualifying mark.

In the 200m, Bucholz won a league title with a league-record time of 21.23. Adams (21.54) and Yttre (21.59) gave Milwaukee the top three finishers at the league meet. Should they compete in the 200m, they would have their sights sets on the regional time of 21.35.

Spaciel was the team's top 800m runner all season and will look to lower his season-best time of 1:55.06 in the event. To qualify for regionals, he'll have to see his time dip to 1:50.40.

Both Scheunke and Pitt scored in the steeplechase at the league championships, with Schuenke placing third. Pitt was close behind in fifth. Schuenke's league-meet time was a personal-best 9:29.44, which is fifth in school history. Pitt's PR of 9:40.76 came last season and is seventh all-time. The regional standard is 9:07.00.