MILWAUKEE, Wis. (May 12, 2011) - The Horizon League Champion University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee track and field teams will send athletes to a pair of meets this weekend in hopes of qualifying for the NCAA West Region Championships, May 26-28, in Eugene, Ore.

The Panthers will send 11 to the Clemson Tiger Qualifier, Friday and Saturday in Clemson, SC, while six will make the trip to Louisville, Ky., for the Cardinal Twilight on Friday. Heading to Clemson will be Durell Busby, Ben Crogan, Callanetta Burrows, Courtney Fisher, Erin Havener, Angie Kaufmann, Chiamaka Okonkwo, Reigna Pierce, Erika Suchla, Samia Taylor and Garrett Vetesnik.

Brittany Alsum, Scott Erickson, Tanaiya Fisher, Nancy Harmon, Matt Jensen and Dexter Schleis will head to Louisville.

A Look at This Weekend
The top 48 athletes in the region qualify for each event. Currently, five Panthers are ranked in the top 48 and are in action this weekend. Busby will compete in the 110m hurdles, where his school-record time of 14.20 is ranked 33rd in the region. Crogan is 33rd in the pole vault with his school-record height of 16-10 3/4. Vetesnik will join him in competing in the pole vault this weekend, looking to improve on his height of 16-6 3/4, which is second in school history. Both Crogan and Vetesnik cleared a league-record 16-4 3/4 at the league meet last weekend, with Vetesnik claiming the title based on attempts.

On the women's side, Taylor is 14th in the triple jump, while Pierce is 33rd. The duo went 1-2 in the event at the league meet, with Taylor setting a school record at 42-1 1/4 and Pierce setting a personal best at 40-11 3/4. Pierce will also compete in the long jump, where she has leapt 19-4 1/4 this year. Suchla will join the duo in the triple jump. In the women's pole vault, Havener's school-record height of 13-1 1/2 has her 29th regionally. She tied her own league record last weekend in winning a seventh league pole vault crown. Courtney Fisher will compete alongside her at Clemson this weekend.

Okonkwo will run in the 100m hurdles, where she was runner-up at the league championships and has run 14.14 this season. Her time is presently 82nd. Burrows will run in the 400m hurdles, heading into this weekend with a season-best time of 1:01.35, which is 60th. Kaufmann will also run at Clemson, competing in the 200m and 400m events. She PR'd and was runner-up in both events at the league meet, running the third-best 200m time (24.41) in school history and the fourth-best 400m time (55.56).

Throwers head the list heading to Louisville, led by league champions Matt Jensen and Scott Erickson. Jensen will compete in his title event, the hammer throw, where he has thrown 181-9 this season (73rd regionally). Erickson, the league discus champ, will also compete in the shot put. He is 62nd in the discus at 167-11 and 83rd in the shot put at 52-4 1/2. On the women's side, Alsum will compete in the discus throw and Harmon the hammer. Alsum earned all-league second-team honors in the discus, throwing 147-10 (83rd regionally). Harmon broke the school hammer throw record twice this season, pushing it up to 166-6 two weeks ago.

Tanaiya Fisher will run in the 800m and 1500m events at Louisville and Schleis will compete in the 400m hurdles. Fisher PR'd in both events at the league meet, running 2:13.03 for second in the 800m and 4:35.81 in the 1500m. Both of those times are fourth-best in school history. Schleis was runner-up in the league's 400m hurdles competition with the third-best time in school history (53.48).

League Championship Notes
The women won their second-straight league title and seventh overall in the final event. The Panthers trailed Youngstown State by one going into the 4x400m relay, won the event and ended up edging the Penguins, who finished third in the relay, 175-171 ... the men won the league outdoor championship for the eighth-straight year and have now won 13 of the 14 outdoor meets the league has held ... Milwaukee's men have a streak of 16-straight titles, including indoor meets, the third-longest streak in the country ... UWM is the fourth program to sweep the men's and women's four track and field titles in the same year, doing so for the second-straight year and joining only the 2001 and 2007 Panthers on the list ... Busby broke a league and school record in winning the javelin (191-11). It was his first collegiate attempt at the event ... Busby also set a league record in the preliminaries of the 110m hurdles (14.23) ... Vetesnik and Crogan set a league mark in the men's pole vault, Drew Feuk broke the league decathlon record (6,532 points) and Havener tied her own league pole vault mark ... all broken or tied league records were held by former or current Panthers.