Rebels put two into 400 finals

Friday, May 31, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. --- UNLV women's head coach Karen Dennis has one simple goal at this week's NCAA Division I track and field championships at Bernie Moore Stadium.

"We want to bring some hardware home," Dennis said. "The top eight finishers in each event earn All-American status and get a nice plaque. We want to bring some of those home."

The Rebels took a big step in that direction on Thursday night.

Juniors Michele Davis and Nickeisha Charles qualified for Saturday's championship final in the 400-meters and the Rebel 1,600-meter relay squad also was one of nine teams to advance to Saturday's final.

"Tonight was definitely a lot better than (Wednesday) night," Dennis said referring to Davis narrowly missing the final in the 200 meters. "Everything that could go well did."

Charles, who has competed in the shadow of two-time All-American Davis for most of the season, won her heat in the 400 in a career best 52.33, nipping UCLA freshman standout Monique Henderson (52.36) in the process.

Davis finished second in the next heat with a career best time of 52.37. That was the eighth-fastest time of the day. The four heat winners along with the next five fastest times advanced to the finals.

Davis and Charles then came back to help lead the Rebel 1,600-meter relay team to a fifth- place finish in its heat with a time of 3:33.21. That was the eighth-fastest time of the day and good enough to move UNLV into Saturday's final in that event as well.

Junior Chantel Yates and sophomore Christine Spence joined Charles and anchor Davis on the 1,600-meter relay squad. Dennis said she clocked Charles and Davis with sizzling 51.8 splits during the race.

The women's 400-meter final will take place on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (PST) while the 1,600-meter relay final is scheduled to go off at 7:35 p.m.