Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Track and Field	Women's Track and Field SIUE Athletics

February 19, 2007 SIUE Relay Earns Automatic Berth         EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- Simply automatic.         The 1,600-meter relay team set a new school record for the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville women's track and field team at the Hoosier Hills Invitational in Bloomington, Ind., over the weekend.         "Juliet Alrich (Carpentersville), Deserea Brown (Flossmoor), Angel Royston (Florissant, Mo.) and Valerie Simmons (St. Louis) just ran incredible legs this weekend. This relay time is very impressive, each athlete had to average right around a 56 seconds. Coach (Ben) Beyers has done a remarkable job of training these ladies," said SIUE women's track and field coach David Astrauskas.         It was the first time in recent SIUE track and field history that the Cougars have qualified automatically for the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships, which is set for March 9-10 in Boston, Mass.         SIUE, the defending Great Lakes Valley Conference champion, is looking forward to giving a strong showing at the league's indoor meet, which will be held Saturday in Crawfordsville, Ind.         Alrich, Royston and Brown also were successful running the 400 meter individually.         Alrich improved her individual 400-meter time at Indiana to 56.48.         "Juliet ran a very fast time this weekend, and she is currently ranked 8th in Division II. Her times continue to drop each week, and I am very excited to see just how fast she will run in the 400 meters," said Astrauskas.         Royston also dropped her 400-meter time to 56.85.         "Angel has ran well for us all season and continues to drop her times each week. This time was a personal best for her, and she is having a very good sophomore season," said Astrauskas.         Just behind Alrich and Royston, Brown dropped her 400-meter time for the season to 56.91.         "Deserea is having a very good sophomore season. Any event we put her in, it seems like she does well. This 400-meter time was very fast, and she is capable of running even faster. Deserea will be a big contributor to our team at the GLVC meet next weekend," said Astrauskas.                 -siue cougars-