BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Twenty-one WKU athletes will represent the Hilltopper and Lady Topper track and field teams at the NCAA East Preliminary Championships as a result of their qualifying marks in the 2015 outdoor campaign, the NCAA announced Thursday. The University of North Florida will host the championships for the second-straight year in Jacksonville, Fla. May 28-30.
Twelve Hilltoppers and nine Lady Toppers ranked Top 48 in the East Region in their respective events to qualify for the preliminary championships. The Top 12 finishers in each event will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore. on June 10-13.
Since taking the program reins in 2008, WKU head coach Erik Jenkins has now developed 138 regional qualifiers and qualified at least 15 athletes in six of his eight seasons as the man in charge. Forty WKU athletes have advanced to regional competition in the last two seasons alone, which marks the highest two-year total since 43 combined athletes qualified during the 2009-10 seasons.
Carrol Hardy, Chioma Agwunobi and Jenessa Jackson all individually qualified in multiple events for the Lady Toppers while Ventavius Sears and Travis Gerding both advanced in a pair of individual events for the Hilltoppers. Both the Hilltoppers and Lady Toppers qualified their 4x100-meter relays while the men's 4x400 also advanced.
For the second-straight season, Hardy qualified for the 100 and 200-meter dashes and will run a leg of the Lady Toppers' 4x100-meter relay that is seeded 18th. The sophomore sprinter won the 100-meter dash at last week's C-USA Outdoor Championships and finished runner-up in the 200 to teammate Agwunobi. Hardy is seeded 13th in the 200-meter dash at 23.28 seconds and 26th in the 100-meter dash at 11.48 seconds.
Agwunobi also qualified individually in both sprints and will run on the 4x100 with Hardy. The senior sprinter's No. 9 seeded in the 200-meter dash (23.21) is the highest seed of any Lady Topper in 2015 and she is also seeded 29th in the 100-meter dash at 11.50 seconds.
Jackson's career performances during the C-USA Outdoor Championships propelled her to her first regional appearance in the shot put and hammer throw. The sophomore thrower is seeded 45th in the hammer throw (56.31m) after winning the C-USA title last weekend and is seeded 43rd in the shot put after finishing runner-up at conference with a toss of 14.95 meters.
Sears will represent the Hilltoppers in four postseason events for the second-straight year after qualifying individually in the 200-meter dash and long jump, along with running legs on WKU's highly-seeded relays. The versatile sophomore is seeded 15th in the 200 (20.74) and 37th in the long jump (7.44m).
The Hilltoppers' 4x100-meter relay consisting of Ja'Karyus Redwine, Emmanuel Dasor, Corey Parks and Sears heads to regional action seeded fifth at 39.47 seconds. Redwine, Dasor and Sears also make up three legs of WKU's 4x400-meter relay, which is seeded ninth in the east preliminary field at 3:05.95.
Sprinters Prince Charles Iworah, Grant Swinton and Michael Songore have all been pivotal pieces to WKU's relays this season as well and will be in the mix for next week's postseason races.
Redwine and Dasor were both individual qualifiers, with Redwine entering regionals seeded 45th in the 100-meter dash at 10.53 seconds and Dasor heading in seeded 13th in the 200-meter dash at 20.68 seconds. Dasor was the Conference USA 200 and 400-meter dash champion last week.
Representing the Hilltoppers in the field events will be WKU seniors Travis Gerding and Cyrus Johnson, along with junior Tomas Guerra and rookie Nick Demaline. Gerding qualified in both the shot put and hammer throw while Johnson advances in the triple jump for the third time in his career. Guerra is the highest seeded individual for the Hilltoppers as he enters regional competition seeded fourth in the javelin throw at 74.63 meters. Demaline joins Gerding as an individual shot put qualifier.
Rounding out the Hilltopper qualifiers is sophomore Endalow Takele, who won the 10,000-meter race and placed second in the 5,000 at last week's C-USA Championships. Takele becomes WKU's third 10,000-meter regional qualifier in the past five seasons and enters prelims seeded 48th at 29:50.54.
Senior Karleigh Parker set a school record in the pole vault at 4.21 meters during the regular season and that mark has her seeded 10th at next week's preliminary championships. Rookie teammate Ria Moellers, who won the C-USA pole vault title last week, is seeded 20th at 4.15 meters. This will be Parker's second regional appearance in the pole vault and the first time in school history that WKU has sent multiple pole vaulters to the regional meet.
Lady Topper sophomore Klara Michalska advances to regional competition for the first time in her career and will be seeded 29th in the triple jump at 12.74 meters. Senior teammate Jatavia Wright joins Michalska in the triple jump competition and comes in with a seed of 46th at 12.51 meters. Wright will also join Hardy, Agwunobi and sophomore Peli Alzola on the Lady Toppers' 4x100-meter relay.
The NCAA East Preliminary Championships will begin on May 28 in Jacksonville, Fla. For more information on WKU Track and Field, follow the programs on Twitter at @WKUTrackField.
WKU NCAA East Preliminary Qualifiers Under Erik Jenkins
18 in 2008
21 in 2009
22 in 2010
10 in 2011
12 in 2012
15 in 2013
19 in 2014
21 in 2015
