STEPHENVILLE - Tarleton will send nine student-athletes to the last chance track and field meet at Abilene Christian tomorrow for one final chance to improve on their running times and throws to qualify for the national championships.

"This is a fun time of year," said Tarleton head coach Pat Ponder. "I've always said that if three to five percent of your team has qualified or has a chance to qualify then you're doing pretty well. The kids we have a chance to send to nationals are not just looking to go, but to earn points at the national level."

Ponder will send nine to the last chance meet tomorrow hoping to improve their scores or reach the NCAA automatic qualifier mark.

Jeff Smith, the sixth-ranked athlete in the 400m hurdles in the nation, is the only Tarleton athlete with a guaranteed trip to Colorado for the national competition.

The junior reached the NCAA mark of 51.28 in the 400m hurdles last weekend when he broke the Tarleton school record on his way to a second-place finish at the LSC Championships.

Because he has automatically qualified in the 400m hurdles, Smith will run the 200m dash at the last chance meet. He would need a 21.45 to provisionally qualify and a 20.87 to automatically qualify.

Nikki McNorton, the reigning Lone Star Conference women's high jump champion and 11th ranked high jumper in the nation, missed the NCAA automatic qualifying mark by one centimeter at the LSC Championship last weekend and will look for the auto mark of 1.75m meters tomorrow.

The junior jumper from Channelview has topped the provisional qualifying mark of 1.68m (5' 6'') in every track meet this season with her season-best jump of 1.74m (5' 9'') coming in Commerce Saturday.

Leslie Jordan, the 35th ranked shot putter in the nation, provisionally qualified for the shot put at the Cactus Cup in Kingsville with a throw of 13.56m (44' 6'').

The senior thrower made her second-best throw of the season last weekend to take second place in the LSC Championships with a throw of 13.31m (43' 8'').

Senior captain Hayden Eubanks, the 17th ranked discus thrower in the nation, provisionally qualified at the Texas Tech Open April 14 with a throw of 51.76m (169' 10'').

Eubanks finished second at the Texas Tech Open and ninth in the last two events with throw of over 150 feet. He needs a throw of 55.10m to automatically qualify.

Jamal Mays is the last Texan to reach his provisional qualifying time - a 10.54 mark in the preliminary run of the 100m dash at last weekend's LSC Championships.

Mays, the nation's 22nd ranked runner, has not finished lower than 11th in any track meet this season and claimed eighth overall in the 100m dash at the LSC Championships. 

Tarleton will send four more athletes to Abilene trying to hit that elusive provisional mark.

Lindsey Hinton has broken two Tarleton records this season, including her own previous mark in the 1500m in her second place finish at the LSC Championships last weekend.

Her time of 4:38.28 broke her school mark of 4:39.40 set the previous week at Baylor and will need to shave 2.28 seconds off her record-setting time to qualify at 4:36.00.

Only 42 runners in the nation have provisionally qualified in the 1500m this season.

Payton Shoush missed hitting her mark by 0.25 seconds in the LSC Championship finals of the 800m dash last weekend. She ran a 2:14.25 in the finals and will need to improve to a 2:14.00 to reach the NCAA mark.

Shoush has improved her time over each of her last three races dating back to the Baylor April 28 and was the third place runner in the conference at last weekend's meet.

Phillip Hayes, who finished 11th at the LSC Championships, will run the 200m dash at Abilene tomorrow in hopes of improving his 21.84 from last weekend.

The sophomore from Mineral Wells set a season-best mark in the 200m dash at 21.84 and will need to improve his time to 21.45 to reach the provisional qualifying mark.

Brian Cooper is coming off a 10th place finish at the LSC Championships with a time of 1:56.71 and will need to run a 1:52.55 to hit the provisional mark.

The 2012 National Championships will be in Pueblo, Colorado on May 24-26.