Blanca Fernandez to Represent Temple at 2015 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships

PHILADELPHIA - After a dominant indoor track season, junior Blanca Fernandez has been awarded a bid to compete in the mile at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Fernandez is the first Temple women's track and field athlete to qualify for the national meet in 28 years. The last to represent the Owls at the event was Felicia Hodges in 1987 for the high jump.

The national meet will be held March 13 and 14 at the Unversity of Arkansas' Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark. Fernandez will be competing in the semifinal mile race on Friday at 7:00 p.m. ET. Barring a qualifying finish in the semifinals, the final mile race will be held on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET.

"I think it's a really big deal," said assistant coach James Snyder. "It's something coach Forde has talked about ever since he's been here, which is trying to find athletes that are going to be able to compete at the conference level but also at the national level."

Fernandez is coming off of two first-place finishes at the American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships on Feb. 27-28. Fernandez set new meet records in both the mile with a time of 4:50.11 and 3,000m run, finishing in 9:22.77. After her standout performance she was named the Women's Most Outstanding Track Performer, the first for Temple track and field in The American.

For the upcoming NCAA Championships, Fernandez has earned the 15th spot out of 16 runners for the mile with her school-record time of 4:40.60 which she recorded at the Alex Wilson Invitational on Feb. 21. Fernandez is also the only female distance runner from The American to qualify for the national championships.

"The biggest thing is just getting on the line confidently and once you're there, everybody has a shot," said Snyder. "Blanca is aware of the situation because this isn't entirely new to her. This is a girl who has won national championships in her home country. She has as good of a chance to win as anybody this weekend."

Live results and a full championship schedule can be found with the links provided. ESPN3 will stream the meet live on March 13 and 14 starting at 7:00 p.m. ET. A tape delay of the championship will air March 23 starting at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

Blanca Fernandez to Represent Temple at 2015 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships

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Blanca Fernandez

Temple University Athletics