AMHERST, Mass. - After the first day of competition at the 2008 Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championships, UMass currently sits in fourth place for both teams with the women being tied with La Salle. Overall, Rhode Island is currently in first place for both the men and women. Senior Christina DeRosa (Sound Beach, N.Y.) and sophomore Andrew McCann (Fayetteville, N.Y.) had the top performances of day after both took first place in the 10K run. DeRosa set an Atlantic 10 record with a time of 35:40.68 and broke the A-10 record of 36:07.62 that she set last year. McCann also set an Atlantic 10 record with a time of 30:04.87 to qualify for the New England and IC4A Championships. McCann broke the record of 30:35.82 set by La Salle's Dan McGarth in 2005. In addition, McCann now holds the third fastest time at UMass and set a new facility record at the UMass Track and Field Complex.

In other women's events, senior Alisha Tatham (Brampton, Ontario) qualified for the 100 meter dash finals tomorrow after qualifying in the preliminaries with a fourth place finish in 12.24 seconds.

Sophomore Lisa Wilson (Holden, Mass.) took second place in the discus with a throw of 148 feet, 7 inches. Wilson also took sixth place in the hammer throw with a distance of 155 feet, 9 inches. In the pole vault competition, sophomore Molly Chapin (Northfield, Mass.) took third place with a height of 10 feet, 6 inches.

For the men, junior Jesse Regnier (Hampden, Mass.) placed fourth in the 3,000 meter steeplechase with a time of 9:05.60. Sophomore Tyler Cotto (Holliston, Mass.) qualified for the final 110 meter hurdles after placing sixth in the preliminaries with a time of 14.91 seconds. Senior Nathan Barksdale (Valparaiso, Indiana) qualified for the 100 meter dash finals after placing fifth in the preliminaries with a time of 11.21 seconds.

In field events, sophomore Brian Miller (Foxboro, Mass.) placed fourth in the high jump competition with a height of 6 feet, 2.25 inches. Freshman Kevin Spieler (Attleboro, Mass.) placed eighth in the discus with a throw of 135 feet to qualify for the New England Championships.

After the first day of the heptathlon, freshman Elaina Zizza (Stoneham, Mass.) is in ninth place overall, while freshman Jaclyn Imhoff (Milton, Mass.) is 11th overall out of 14 competitors. Imhoff took second place in the high jump section with a distance of 5 feet, 1 inch. Overall, Zizza has tallied 2,055 points and Imhoff has scored 2,018 points after the first day of competition.

For the men's decathlon, freshman Daniel Schwartz (Sudbury, Mass.) currently sits fifth overall, while freshman Chris Dzidek (Chicopee, Mass.) is right behind in sixth place. Dzidek placed third in the shot put competition with a throw of 34 feet, 11 inches. Dzidek also placed fourth in the high jump with a height of 5 feet, 8.50 inches. Schwartz placed second in the 400 meter dash with a time of 51.30 seconds. Overall, Schwartz has scored 2,856 points and Dzidek scored 2,799 points.

Tomorrow UMass will wrap up the Championships with the second day of competition set to begin at 8:45 A.M.