HONOLULU - Hawai'i's Tasha Monroe became the first Rainbow Wahine to qualify for the NCAA Regionals during this weekend's Rainbow Relays at UH's Cooke Field.

It was one of the largest UH meets held in the history of the program, which included many high school programs and national power Texas.

Here is a listing of some of the notables that took place during the two-day event...

1. Two new Cooke Field records were set:

200m - 23.44 (1.4) Jerrika Chapple, Texas
*Old record was 23.60 by Gwen Loud in 1984

400m - 53.57 Sanya Richards, Texas
*Old record was 54.69 by Gwen Gardner in 1985
Sanya is the World Jr. record holder in the 400m &200m ... and last weekend at the NCAA Indoor Championships she won the 400m and placed second in the 200m.

2. One UH team member achieved a NCAA Regional standard:

Tasha Monroe - 5.95m (+0.0) in the Long Jump .... the standard is 5.93m

3. Other UH team members that almost made standards were:

*Kelly Young - 61.18s in the 400mH ..... the standard is 60.82s
Novelle Murray - 46.41m in the Discus .... the standard is 46.58m
*Kelsey Smith - 40.85m in the Javelin ..... the standard is 42.61m

* = Personal Best Performances

In addition to the above highlights there were several other seasonal bests and personal bests achieved by many others.

"Our outdoor season is off to a great start, and we are looking forward to some more NCAA qualifiying performances during our trip to Texas next week," head coach Carmyn James said.

UH will participate in the Bayou Classic at Rice University March 26-27 and the Texas Relays in Austin April 1-3.