PISCATAWAY, NJ -- Julie Culley (Lebanon, NJ) will travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas to compete in the 3000M run at the 2003 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. The championships, March 14-15, will take place at the Randall Tyson Track Center, hosted by the University of Arkansas.

The 540 student-athletes competing in the championships qualified in their respective events by reaching automatic and provisional standards established.
Culley qualified for the 3000-meter run on February 1 with a time of 9:17.15; she is ranked 12th on the list of qualifiers. This will be her second NCAA Championship this year as she also competed in the cross country race in the fall. She finished the NCAA Championship race in 32nd place out of 254 competing runners. With her finish of 20:30.09 on the 6,000-meter course, Culley was named an All-American.

Culley is the 5000 meter school record holder for outdoor track, an Academic All–American and was an NCAA qualifier for cross country in 2000 as well. At the 2000 NCAA’s she placed 85th with a time of 21:52.

Culley was a member of the distance medley team that finished the event in 11:37.65 for sixth place at the ECAC Championships, setting a new school record. On February 15, Culley captured first place in the mile on the final day of the Collegiate Invitational in New York City. Culley ran the event in a career-best 4:46.34, one second off the school record.

At the Metropolitan Indoor Championships, Culley won the 3000-meter event in 9:17.12, which qualified her for the NCAAs, set a school record and was at the time the second-fastest time in the country. Culley also anchored the distance medley team, which came in first in 11:48.71.