GRESHAM, Ore. – The Eastern Oregon University track and field team will send 43 athletes to the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships which begins Thursday.

The CCC meet begins at 4 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Earl Klapstein Stadium on the MT. Hood Community College campus. Daily ticket prices are $6 for adults and $4 for students, children, and seniors.

The three-day championship provides the final opportunity for CCC athletes to hit automatic qualifying marks for the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships, which will be held in Indiana from May 27th to 29th.

To date, CCC student-athletes have hit automatic qualifying marks 89 times in individual events – 48 on the women's side and 41 on the men's side. Concordia leads the way with the most qualifiers (34), and is followed by Eastern Oregon (18), College of Idaho (12), Southern Oregon (12), and Oregon Tech (6). Six CCC relay teams have also earned automatic qualifying marks.

Concordia is vying for its fourth consecutive sweep of the women's and men's team titles at the conference championships. The Mountaineer men have finished in the top two seven straight seasons, winning the title in 2003 in Ashland and taking the co-title with Concordia in 2007 in La Grande. The EOU women have finished in the top three the past five years, but have never won a team title at the CCC Championships.

Last year Concordia and Eastern took the first and second place spots on both the women's and men's sides. The Mountaineer men finished 90 points behind CU, while the Cavalier women had 289.5 points and EOU finished with 166.5.

Eastern Oregon took eight individual titles last season, but only Cayla Weissert and Andrew Wise will have a chance to defend those titles in 2010. Weissert entered the Pole Vault last year as the favorite and hit 11 feet, seven inches for the win. This season, the senior comes into the weekend fourth in the conference, and teammate Maddison Stapleton has the top seed. Wise was part of a top three sweep for the Mountaineers in the men's 400 meters last year, crossing the line at 49.44 after entering the event as the third seed. The senior once again has the third fastest time entering the event.

The EOU men's 4x400-meter relay team broke a meet record in 2009 with a 3:17.93 finish. The Mountaineer foursome comes into the 2010 event with a CCC-best time this season of 3:17.03. Eastern has seven top seeds in this weekend's championships, and Ryan Booth is part of three of them.

The sophomore will run in three events this weekend and is favored in all of them. He is a member of the 4x400-meter relay team and has the top time in the 400 and 800 meter races. Competing for the 800-meter men's crown will be teammate, Andrew Perri, who is second in the conference with a time of 1:51.20. Booth's seed is at 1:50.64. Both times were ran in the same race at the University of Oregon Relays, Eastern's last meet, and are the fourth and eighth fastest times in the NAIA this season.

Alma Garcilazo and Chris Dilley each own a top seed and a second seed in events this weekend. Garcilazo has the sixth-fastest NAIA time in 2010 in the 800 meters and is the favorite in that event at the CCC Championships. Her seed time of 2:12.01 bests the current conference meet record of 2:16.00 set by Kristina Proticova of Northwest University in 2004. Garcilazo's 400-meter time of 58.16 is second-seeded.

Dilley has had a breakout senior season, and is coming off of a third place finish against NCAA Div. 1 competition at the U of O Relays in the hammer throw. The Portland native had a season best throw of 199 feet, four inches in Eugene two weeks ago, the fourth best throw in the NAIA this season and the top seed in the conference meet. His discus throw of just over 159 feet is second best going into the weekend in the CCC.

Twenty-nine of the 43 EOU athletes competing this weekend will be in multiple events. McKinzie Anderson, Stapleton, Dustin Cloud, and Wise are all in four events in the meet. Asa Miller will be the first Mountaineer to compete and will kick off the meet at 4 p.m. Thursday in the 100 meters of the men's decathlon. Miller will look to defend graduated EOU athlete, Chris Hoppie's, event title from a year ago. Miller is seeded fourth entering the decathlon.

The Eastern Oregon University Sports Information Department will be providing a live blog from the meet with updates of the events. A daily video journal with interviews from EOU coaches and athletes will be posted on EOUSports.com as well.

Eastern Oregon Athletes Schedule of Events

THURSDAY
4 p.m. – Men's Decathlon 100 meters (Asa Miller)
4:40 p.m. – Men's Decathlon Long Jump (Asa Miller)
5:30 p.m. – Men's Decathlon Shot Put (Asa Miller)
                   - Women's Discus (Ashlee Michelson and Marybeth Nash)
6:10 p.m. – Men's Decathlon High Jump (Asa Miller)
7:10 p.m. – Men's Discus (Tyler Bruck, Chris Dilley, Andy Munsey, Mitch Wheelhouse, and Jake Wilcox)
7:45 p.m. – Men's Decathlon 400 meters (Asa Miller)
8:50 p.m. – Men's 10,000 meters (Justin Dean and Terry Johnsen)

FRIDAY
4 p.m. – Men's Decathlon 100 meters (Asa Miller)
             - Men's Long Jump (Larry Warren)
             - Women's Pole Vault (Maddison Stapleton and Cayla Weissert)
             - Women's Hammer
4:40 p.m. – Men's Decathlon Long Jump (Asa Miller)
6:00 p.m. – Women's 4x100 relay ( Melisa Abesa, Kelsey Kinzer, Kimmy Moore, Maddison Stapleton)
             - Men's Hammer (Tyler Bruck, Chris Dilley, Andy Munsey, and Mitch Wheelhouse)
             - Women's Long Jump (McKinzie Anderson, and Alexa Loscutoff)
             - Men's Decathlon Pole Vault (Asa Miller)
6:05 p.m. – Men's 4x100 relay (Dustin Cloud, Kevin Sthen, Chris Wilson, Andrew Wise)
6:15 p.m. – Women's 1500 (Sarah Hanchett)
6:30 p.m. – Men's 1500 (Brian Bragg, Andrew Perri, and Carlos Quintana)
6:45 p.m. – Women's 100-meter Hurdles (McKinzie Anderson and Kimmy Moore)
7:00 p.m. – Men's 110 Hurdles (Dustin Cloud)
7:15 p.m. – Women's 400 (Melisa Abesa, Talissa Baldovino, Grace Deboodt, and Alma Garcilazo)
7:30 p.m. – Men's 400 (Ryan Booth, Tyler June, and Kevinn Sthen)
7:45 p.m. – Women's 100 (Kelsey Kinzer and Maddison Stapleton)
             - Men's Decathlon Javelin (Asa Miller)
8:45 p.m. – Men's Decathlon 1,500 meters (Asa Miller)

SATURDAY
10:00 a.m. – Women's High Jump (McKinzie Anderson and Grace Deboodt)
               - Women's Javelin (Kelsey Irish and Jessianne Heley)
               - Men's Shot Put (Tyler Bruck, Chris Dilley, Andy Munsey, Mitch Wheelhouse, and Jake Wilcox)
12:00 p.m. – Men's High Jump (Asa Miller)
               - Women's Triple Jump (McKinzie Anderson and Julie Butterfield)
               - Women's Shot Put (Jessianne Heley, Ashlee Michelson and Marybeth Nash)
12:15 p.m. – Women's 800 (Talissa Baldovino, Alma Garcilazo, Sarah Hanchett, Jessianne Heley, and    Kami Hernandez)
12:30 p.m. – Men's 800 (Ryan Booth, Andrew Perri and Carlos Quintana)
12:50 p.m. – Women's 400 Hurdles (McKinzie Anderson and Kimmy Moore)
1:10 p.m. – Men's 400 Hurdles (Dustin Cloud and Chris Wilson)
1:25 p.m. – Women's 200 (Kelsey Kinzer and Maddison Stapleton)
1:40 p.m. – Men's 200 (Andrew Wise)
2:00 p.m. – Women's 5000 (Nancy Cardenas and Karlee Coffey)
2:30 p.m. – Men's 5000 (Kody Coxen, Justin Dean and Terry Johnsen)
3:00 p.m. – Women's 4x400 Relay (Melisa Abesa, Talissa Baldovino, Grace Deboodt, Alma Garcilazo, Sarah Hanchett)
3:10 p.m. – Men's 4x400 Relay (Ryan Booth, Dustin Cloud, Andrew Perri, Andrew Wise)
3:30 p.m. – Final Awards