NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS CENTRAL
LIVE VIDEO STREAM - SATURDAY, NOON ET

D'ALESSIO PREPARES FOR NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Samford senior Lauren D'Alessio, the 2012 SoCon Champion and All-Region honoree, is set to compete in tomorrow's NCAA Championships in Louisville, Ky.  She is the Bulldogs' first ever NCAA qualifier and will be the only women's competitor representing the Southern Conference.

The women will run a 6,000-meter course at Noon ET followed by the men's 10,000 meters at 1:15 p.m. ET.  The competition will take place at E.P. 'Tom Sawyer' Park, the home course for the Louisville Cardinal.

VIDEO STREAMING INFORMATION
The NCAA Championships will be live streamed for free through NCAA.com.  The stream will begin at the start of the first race.  Click HERE for the live video link.

DIRECTOR OF CROSS COUNTRY ROD TIFFIN ON LAUREN'S NCAA BID
"I am excited for Lauren.  This shows what hard work and determination will do.  She decided as a freshman that she wanted to take her running to the next level and she has had a steady increase every year up to this point.  Thank goodness for us, she'll be back next year also so it will be fun to watch.

"It has been a great season and now she has earned the right to go compete with the best girls in the country.  It should be fun to watch."

'DOGS COMPETE AT REGIONALS, TWO EARN ALL-REGION HONORS
Samford competed at the NCAA South Regional last weekend, hosted by Florida State University, where the women's team placed eighth out of 29 teams in the 6,000 meters and the men placed 18^th out of 26 teams in the 10,000 meters.
 
2012 SoCon Champion Lauren D'Alessio led the way for the women with a 14th-place finish in 20:31.9.  Fellow First Team All-SoCon honoree Rachel Roberts also earned a top-25 finish, placing 25th in 20:46.8.  By finishing in the top-25, both runners earned USTFCCCA All-Region honors.  It is Roberts' first such career honor and D'Alessio's third consecutive award.

Holly Benson (86th, 21:55.6), Rachel Wooten (110th, 22:02.1) and Frances Bernard (113th, 22:20.4) were the last Bulldog competitors across the line, helping the women earn 327 team points.

Freshmen Luke Weishaar and Adam Jones finished closely together as the men's leaders, placing 75th (32:39.7) and 77th (32:43.8), respectively.  Later in a pack around the 33-minute mark, Brandon Hazouri (99th, 33:08.9) and Layton Dorsett (100th, 33:09.4) finished back-to-back.  Lucas Sieb (114th, 33:27.8) was the fifth Bulldog across, wrapping up their team point scorers, and Steven Crain (131st, 33:47.6) and James Graham (137th, 33:53.7) were the final two to finish.