Amber Kaufman, fresh off an honorable mention All-America volleyball season, qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championship after a few days of track & field practice earlier this month. This weekend, the Hawai'i senior is in Albuquerque with her teammates for another high jump launch.

Kaufman cleared 6 feet, 1.5 inches (1.87 meters) at the season-opening UW Indoor Preview, winning the top flight and surpassing the NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 1.85 meters. She broke her own UH Indoor record (1.82) in the process. Kaufman was sixth at the NCAA Indoors last year, and tied for second at the NCAA Outdoors, after a fifth-place finish the year before.

Today, Kaufman is one of 17 Rainbow Wahine who will compete in the Lobo Challenge, a team scoring event. Hawai'i will be in the nonscoring New Mexico Invitational tomorrow.

Among those joining Kaufman this year are Madara Apine and Karen Guravska from Latvia. Apine, a triple jumper, transferred from Florida. She broke the UH record in her first competition with a jump of 39-7.25. Guravska transferred from Cerritos College (Calif.), where she earned All-America honors in pole vault and javelin.

Sophomore Emma MacCorquodale already has a personal best this season, going 51-4.25 in the Weight Throw at the UW Preview. Sophomore Brittany Feiteira, who won 100- and 400-meter state high school championships for Baldwin, and Ashlee Jimenez, last year's 400 state champion for Kamehameha, are among the UH runners.

Next weekend the Rainbow Wahine are home for the Dr. Donnis Thompson Memorial and their first major fundraiser. The inaugural Mānoa Mile will be next Saturday (Feb. 6) around lower campus. The fun run starts at 8 a.m. with different divisions and will conclude with a 400-meter "Rubba Slippa" race.

The cost is $15 for students, $20 for nonstudents and $5 for the "Rubba Slippa" race. There is also a Corporate division for teams of five. Packet pickup is next Friday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, or from 6:30 a.m. the day of the race. Participants can also register on those days.

For more information, call 956-2143 or e-mail TheManoaMile@gmail.com.

The team is attempting to raise a portion of its $25,000 goal. The Thompson meet will also feature "Elite Men's Mile" and "Elite Women's 5K" races Friday night. Runners from Hawai'i and the Mainland, including Punahou alum Eri Macdonald, are entered in what is seen as a sequel to the Waikīkī Mile of years past. The men are all capable of running sub-4-minute miles while the women broke 15 minutes in 5 kilometers.