SOUTHERN'S MONICA ROBINSON SOARS TO WIN IN REGIONALS

	Monica Robinson earns spot in the NCAA Championships to be held June 7-10 in Sacramento, Calif.

May 29, 2006

Southern University's Monica Robinson has a flare for the dramatic, but on Friday, she even surprised herself. Although she ranked 18th in the region coming into the meet with a personal-best of 19 feet, 11Ø inches, which she posted in winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference title last month, Robinson shocked the crowd by winning the long jump with a leap of 21 feet.

Robinson was qualified for the NCAA Mideast Regionals in four individual events and one relay, and the decision by coach Johnny Thomas to limit her to the long jump and 400-meter relay paid off in a big way at Tennessee's Tom Black Track.

Robinson earns spot in the NCAA Championships to be held June 7-10 in Sacramento, Calif. The top five finishers in individual events at the four regionals being held across the country go to nationals.

Since the mark was aided by a wind of 2.9 meters per second, over the allowable of 2.0 mps, it won't count for record-keeping purposes.

Robinson fouled her first two attempts in the trials and was down to her last try when she unleashed the jump that would hold up through the rest of the evening.

"I just told her to go for it, and she got 21 feet on her last jump," Southern jumps coach Joseph Pierre said. "I knew she could do it because she was just fouling by a couple inches. This is big because I've always seen the potential in her."

"It came at the right time," said a relieved Robinson, who was also qualified for regionals in the 100, 100-meter hurdles and high jump. "I felt pressure going into the final jump (of the trials) because I had no mark. I just went out and took a deep breath and went for it."

It was the first regional championship for Southern since the NCAA added the meet to the championship mix in 2003.

"That's the first regional champion we've had," Thomas said. "And it was a quality jump, it wasn't a fluke jump. She competes in a lot of events, so we wanted her to concentrate on the long jump and relay here. It paid off."

The team of Pam Cockerham, Kaisha Weeks, Robinson and Dartania Jackson ran third in its heat with a time of 45.53 seconds and qualified for the finals. The Lady Jaguars had the seventh-fastest time among the eight finalists. The Jags finished 8th with a time of 45.96.