JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of South Alabama's men's discus thrower, junior Jan-Louw Kotze, qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships at the East Region Preliminaries in Jacksonville, Fla. on Friday.

Kotze's throw of 58.83m earned him a seventh-place finish and he will join fellow teammate Renaldo Frechou to represent South Alabama in Eugene, Ore.

"Jan-Louw got it done in a very high-pressure situation. It was the toughest regionals discus competition ever," USA head coach Paul Brueske said. "To advance to the NCAA Championships is quite an accomplishment."

Junior Phoebe Dowson finished 18th in the women's discus – six places below qualifying – with a throw of 49.95m.    

"Phoebe, like most of our athletes, finished higher than their ranking coming in. She had a pretty good day," commented Brueske.

For the men's 110-meter hurdles, junior Matt Dillon ran a time of 14.38 seconds and finished 38th. Junior Patrick Rohr competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and earned 26th place with a time of 8:57.68. The only Jaguar senior at the preliminaries, Nick Farrell, posted a height of 5.00m in the men's pole vault and finished 25th.

The last day of competition will include junior Christoph Graf running in the men's 5,000-meter event at 7:45 p.m., and sophomore Kaitlyn Beans participating in the women's long jump.   

"It is great to have our South Alabama student-athletes competing with the best in the NCAA," Brueske said. "We aren't done yet and we hope to add Kaitlyn Beans and Christoph Graf to the NCAA travel list too. The great thing is that everyone is back next year and we have a lot to look forward to."

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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