March 8, 2005

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The NCAA Track & Field committee informed three coaches around the country on Tuesday of a clerical error they had made while formulating the field for this weekend's NCAA Indoor Championships. One of three coaches happened to be Missouri's Dr. Rick McGuire. The Tiger coach was informed that freshman Trisa Nickoley was added to the publicly-released list of entries into the women's 800-meter run by mistake.

The committee failed to execute a rule relating to the selection of the championship field. As a final consideration to the makeup of the field, the committee looks to see if an athlete already entered in one event could be entered into another based on being the next athlete on the year's performers list. The committee may add the entry provided that the makeup of the meet, i.e. additional heats, is not compromised.

Nickoley (Tecumseh, Kan.) along with South Carolina's Shalonda Solomon and Auburn's Josanne Lucas had already been accepted into the meet in other events and were next on the list in the 800-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles, and 60-meter dash, respectively. However, the next spot, the 17th, would add a heat to the preliminary competition.

"They just made a mistake," Dr. Rick McGuire, who served on the NCAA Track & Field Committee from 2001 to 2003, said. "They forgot to check the list and see the problem it would have caused. We actually made this rule while I was on the committee to protect the meet from getting out of hand."

Nickoley, Big 12 Freshman of the Year, is still entered into the women's distance medley relay pool. Nickoley won Big 12 titles as part of the women's distance medley relay team and as an individual title in the women's 800.

For more information, visit ncaasports.org.