Western Oregon University Athletics

MONMOUTH, Ore. - Annan Applebee will once again be representing Western Oregon University and the Wolves' track & field team at the 2010 Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., Mar. 12-13.

Applebee will compete in the 800m preliminaries Friday, Mar. 12th, at 5:50 p.m. The finals will then be held Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

Applebee qualified for the national championships with an NCAA auto standard time of 2:11.43 (2:11.53 after altitude adjustment) at the UW Invitational. Her mark was the first auto qualifying standard of the season at Division II and currently has her ranked eighth heading into the national championships.

Last season, Applebee participated in the indoor and outdoor national championships. She earned All-American honors at the outdoor championships by placing fifth with a time of 2:13.01. At the indoor meet, she narrowly missed qualifying for the finals by placing 10th with a time of 2:13.83 (top nine advanced to finals).

"Annan has now appeared in more national championships at the Division II level than anyone at Western Oregon besides Bridgette Johnson and Monica Smith," said Western Oregon head coach Mike Johnson, "and I think her experience will serve her well."

"It is unusual that this year's championships are being held at altitude and it could have an affect on all the races 800 meters and up," Johnson continued. "Annan's experience will be very valuable that race."

Chris Reed, Jeff Long and the men's 4x400m relay team of Matt Kaino, Ashtin Mott, Josh Moore and Anthony Yakovich all narrowly missed the cut for the indoor championships.

Reed was 17th on the final performance list in the mile and Jeff Long was 18th in a field which took 12 men to the championships. The relay team was 13th nationally and missed the cut in the nine-team field by .34 seconds.