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

Deserea Brown SIUE's NCAA Qualifiers This Week Callie Glover, Hammer Tairisha Sawyer, 200 meters Juliet Alrich, 400 meters Deserea Brown, 400 meters Angel Royston, 400 meters Deserea Brown, 100-meter hurdles *Deserea Brown, 400-meter hurdles Valerie Simmons, 400-meter hurdles Christine Butler, Triple Jump 400-meter relay *1,600-meter relay *automatic qualifying

April 23, 2007 Brown Contributes to Four New School Records and Vandy Invite Record         EDWARDSVILLE, ILL. -- Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's Deserea Brown (Flossmoor) had a hand in breaking four school records this past weekend at the Vanderbilt Invitational.         Brown broke SIUE's and the Vanderbilt Invitational record in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 58.78. The time also automatically qualified Brown for the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships.         "It was nice to see an SIUE athlete break an SEC school's meet record," said SIUE women's track and field coach David Astrauskas.         Brown also set school records in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.03, which provisionally qualified her for the outdoor nationals along with her time in the 400-meter dash of 55.12.         "I cannot really describe the type of meet that Deserea had this past weekend. She was just amazing; every time she stepped on the track for an event she did something very special," said Astrauskas.         Brown was also an important part of the 400-meter and 1,600-meter relay teams along with Angel Royston (Florissant, Mo.), Tairisha Sawyer (Chicago) and Juliet Alrich (Carpentersville) which both set school records. The 400-meter relay team provisionally qualified for the outdoor nationals with a time of 46.72 while the time of 3:39.90 automatically qualified the 1,600-meter relay.         Callie Glover (Bartlett) improved her mark in the hammer throw with a distance of 52.98 meters and (173 feet and 10 inches).         "Callie has been adding a couple of feet each weekend, and we hope that trend continues. She is one of the top returning hammer throwers in Division II, and she is notorious for coming on strong at the end of the season," said Astrauskas.         Sawyer provisionally qualified in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.24.         "Tai (Sawyer) put together some very fast times this weekend. I'm happy to see another one of our veterans virtually secure a spot at the national meet. Tai has excelled in the short sprints at the national level, and she plays a role in our team's success," said Astrauskas.         Christine Butler (Matteson) also had a strong showing in the triple jump with a distance of 11.97 meters (39 feet and 3.25 inches).         "Christine has been battling some nagging injuries the past couple of weeks and has been unable to really train for the jumps. She competed well this weekend, but I think she will need a better jump to get in. She has experienced a lot of success on the national level in the horizontal jumps and she is our leader in that event area," said Astrauskas.         "Performance wise, this is the best that SIUE has performed in the five years that I have coached at SIUE," said Astrauskas.         Next up for SIUE will be the Drake Relays Thursday through Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa. SIUE also is playing host to the Cougar Twilight on Saturday at Korte Stadium.                 -siue cougars-