Current and former Coppin State athletes earn Olympic berths

BALTIMORE--Coppin State College sophomore Nickie Peters (St. Vincent, West Indies) has been named to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines national track team and will represent the islands in the 800 and 1500 in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

"This was my sole intention when I began running," said Peters, whose track career didn't start until 1998. "It's like a dream that's coming true."

The first Coppin athlete to make an Olympic team, Peters will compete in several meets with the team in Mexico before heading to Australia.

"I'm very happy for him," said Eagles coach Carl Hicks. "I know he will represent Coppin well. Even though we're losing him for part of the cross country season, I don't mind at all."

The 22-year-old Peters, also a member of the 1998 national team, earned a berth on the squad by virtue of recording the fastest times this year in two events among fellow countrymen. During Coppin's outdoor season, he turned in a school-record 3:52.07 in the 1500 and had a personal-best 1:49.89 in the 800.

Peters was voted as Coppin's 2000 Male Athlete of the Year as a freshman after capturing Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles in the mile indoors and the 800 outdoors. During the indoor championships, he scored 26 of Coppin's 51 points to help the Eagles to a third-place finish.

Peters was also a member of the 4x800 relay and distance medley relay squads which set school records indoors and outdoors. The 4x800 relay team placed second at the ICAAAA indoor championships.

While Peters is the first current Eagle to earn an Olympic berth, former Coppin All-American Ian Roberts will join him in Sydney as a member of the Guyana national track team.

Roberts, who was the first men's track All-American at Coppin, is Guyana's 800-meter national champion.

Roberts competed one season at Coppin before transferring to St. John's to earn his master's degree and run for the Red Storm.

Roberts had come to Coppin in 1996 after a year at St. Francis (N.Y.). Although never a member of the track team at St. Frances, he was not granted a release by the school to compete elsewhere and was required to sit out the 1996-97 season.

In 1998, competing for the first time as a member of an organized track team, he placed sixth in the half mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships and also set school indoor and outdoor records in the event which still stand. He graduated that spring after just three years in college and transferred to St. John's to work on his master's degree, which he completed this past May.

"I'm excited," said Roberts. "It's a great opportunity. I'm going to compete the rest of the year, see what happens and then make a decision on my career."

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