INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Sixteen WKU Track and Field student-athletes qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field East Preliminary Round to be held in Tampa, Fla., May 24-26, announced by the NCAA Thursday. The top 48 competitors in each individual event from both the east and west regions qualify for the preliminary competitions. All three days of action from the USF Track and Field stadium will be streamed by FloTrack.
Hurdler Jonathan Hayden qualified to compete in the 110-meter hurdles (ranked 44th) at the East Prelims while Denzel Villaman (ranked 20th) and Maor Seged (ranked 36th) will compete in the 400-meter hurdles from the University of South Florida.
Competing in the sprint events for the Hilltoppers will be Oliver Alexandre, Kymari Gates, Eli Minor and Julius Morris. Alexandre and Gates will run in the 400-meter event as they are ranked 21st and 13th in the region, respectively. Minor qualified for the 100-meter dash (ranked 26th) and Julius Morris will compete in the 200-meter after finishing the season ranked sixth in the region with a top mark of 20.32.
Two Hilltopper jumpers qualified for the East Prelims. Desmond Mobley is set to compete in both the long jump and high jump (ranked 48th) and is currently ranked seventh in the region in the former. Alec Tanksley also qualified to compete in the men's long jump after ranking 30th among competitors in the east.
Both of WKU's relay squads qualified and will travel six individuals, four of which will compete at the East Prelims along with two alternates. The 4x100-meter relay team will include a combination of Will Bush, Minor, Tanksley, Morris, Austin Hayes and Gates. Making up the 4x400-meter relay qualifiers are Alexandre, Minor, Villaman, Gates, Charles Shimukowa and David Saruni. WKU's 4x100-meter relay unit posted the seventh-best mark in the east region this season while the 4x400-meter relay squad notched the 10th-best mark in the east.
Lady Toppers qualifying for the prelims included Ariel Terrell, Juannae Lewis and Morgan McIntyre. Terrell will compete in the 400-meter hurdles after ranking 11th in the region.
Lewis is one of two WKU student-athletes, the other being Mobley, guaranteed to compete in two events at the preliminaries, hers being the 200 and 400-meter competitions. McIntyre is ranked 16th in the region in women's pole vault, good to qualify her for the preliminaries for the second-consecutive season. In total, eight WKU student-athletes are making a trip to the NCAA East Preliminary for at least the second time of their career.
The other region, NCAA West Preliminary, will be hosted by Sacramento State in Sacramento, Calif. The qualifiers out of these two regions will compete in the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships held June 6-9 in Eugene, Ore., from Hayward Field.
The complete list of qualifiers is available on the following website.
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