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

Alicia DeShasier

April 2, 2007 DeShasier Starts Her Career On Top         EDWARDSVILLE, ILL. -- Alicia DeShasier (Carrollton) set the Missouri Relays Record, school record and automatically qualified for the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships in the javelin during her first meet for the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville women's track and field team.         The former softball standout, a first team All-American last season, who did not even know how to hold the javelin in October is putting her last semester of athletic eligibility to good use with her javelin throw of 162 feet, 1 inch (49.40 meters) at the Missouri Relays.         "Words cannot really describe Alicia's debut in the javelin this weekend. To hit an NCAA Division II automatic mark and be leading all of Division II by 11 feet in the first meet of your career is just awesome," said SIUE women's track and field coach David Astrauskas.         DeShasier's mark bested the school record set by Holly Noller when she won the NCAA Division II title in the javelin. She threw 160-4. Her throw also automatically qualified her for inclusion at the USA Track and Field Championships in June.         "She beat some girls who have been throwing the javelin for almost eight years. I'm very excited about her future in the sport of track and field, and I look forward to some longer throws," added Astrauskas.         Deserea Brown (Flossmoor) also had a strong meet, placing third in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 1:02.36 and sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.49.         "Deserea ran real well this weekend in multiple events. She did a great job of battling the wind in the 400 hurdles and the 400 meter," said Astrauskas.         Juliet Alrich (Carpentersville) completed along with Brown at 400 meters and placed fourth with a time of 55.78.         "She (Alrich) is basically starting right where she left off during the indoor season. This is a very fast time and her body is responding to high volume of training that she has been doing everyday in practice," said Astrauskas.         The 400-meter relay team of Brown, Alright, Angel Royston (Florissant, Mo.) and Tairisha Sawyer (Chicago) placed sixth with a time of 47.36.         "Scoring wise it is always important to get the relays into the national meet. We are headed in the right direction by hitting a provisional time in the very first meet. Tairisha, Deserea, Angel, and Juliet did a pretty good job of getting around the track," said Astrauskas.         SIUE will continue its season April 5-6 at the EIU Neil Moore Multi's in Charleston, Ill. before returning home April 7 for the SIUE Cougar Classic in Edwardsville at Korte Stadium.                 -siue cougars-