Veltman 9th in NCAA Track

UC Irvine’s Marieke Veltman finished ninth in the heptathlon at the NCAA track and field championships Thursday at Austin, Tex.

Veltman, a junior, finished with 5,353 points, the second-best total of her career.

Ana Kaljurand of Brigham Young, who will be the only woman on the Estonian Olympic track and field team, won the 14-woman event with 6,142 points, the second-highest score in meet history.

Only 1988 Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee of UCLA, who compiled 6,365 points in 1983, has scored more points than Kaljurand in the NCAA Division I championships.

Veltman became the second Irvine athlete to earn All-American status at the meet, joining Traci Goodrich, who finished fifth in the 10,000 meters Wednesday.

Veltman, who set an Irvine school record in the long jump this season with a mark of 21 feet 1/2 inch, will compete in the NCAA long jump finals tonight.

Veltman was in 10th place in the heptathlon after the first four events. On the second day of competition Thursday, she finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 20- 1/4. She was 12th in the javelin and fourth in the 100 meters.