Bryan Steele Clinches Second Straight Berth to the NCAA Championships in School-Record Time

5/28/05 -- Junior Bryan Steele (Gaithersburg, Md.) earned his second consecutive berth to the NCAA Championships in the 400-meter hurdles, breaking his own school record for Long Island at the NCAA East Regionals in New York.

Steele sprinted a blistering 50.17 seconds to close third overall, shattering his LIU mark by almost a second. Competing at the East Regionals a third straight year, Steele ran a solid 51.15 seconds the day before in the preliminaries.

The Northeast Conference and IC4A winner in this event is off to the national championships in Sacramento, Calif. He will compete in the opening round on June 9.

This marks the fourth straight year a Blackbird has advanced to the NCAA Championships. Assistant coach Richard James did so in the 400-meter dash in 2002 and 2003.

The men's 1,600-meter relay squad closed fourth in its heat final in 3:11.32, but was 12th overall and did not advance. The team was comprised of Steele, senior Antonio Thomas (Baltimore, Md.) and juniors Michael Hillian (Voorhees, N.J.) and Roshaun Aberdeen (Brentwood, N.Y.).