Area sends 24 to NCAAs
Seems there’s a welcome mat at the back door, too, when it comes to qualifying for the NCAA Track and Field Championships.
Six more area athletes – including four from Washington State and Eastern Washington’s Stephanie Ulmer – were accepted during the at-large selection process Tuesday, following last weekend’s regional meets.
That pushes the number to 24 athletes with Inland Northwest connections who will compete June 7-10 in Sacramento, Calif., including the largest WSU contingent since 1991.
The top five finishers in individual events and top three teams in relays from regional competition automatically qualified for nationals. To fill out the fields – generally 27 or 28 athletes in each event – the NCAA used season-best lists in descending order, with the proviso that any at-large selection had to be one of the top 12 finishers in regional competition who had declared themselves for the national meet.
The declaration part was crucial for Ulmer. She was 13th in the West Regional javelin competition, but one of the place-winners ahead of her did not declare for nationals – and her season best of 165 feet, 8 inches ranked third among at-large throwers.
Another at-large selection was Mt. Spokane graduate Cameron Schwehr of Kansas, who was 10th in the Midwest Regional 1,500, but posted a time of 3 minutes, 43.64 seconds earlier in the season.
WSU’s group grew to 14 Tuesday with the acceptance of McKinnon Hanson (women’s high jump), Jon Jeffreys of Spokane (men’s javelin), Matt Lamb (men’s discus) and Haley Paul (women’s 5,000 meters) as at-large picks.
They’ll be joined by two Cougars who did not have to compete in regionals – heptathletes Diana and Julie Pickler. Multievents competition and the 10,000 are not staged at regionals but are cast by the national descending order lists.
Cougars who qualified through the regional process include John Cassleman (400 hurdles), Tamara Diles (pole vault), James McSwain (100), Brandi Probasco-Canda (400), Jaycee Robertson (100) and Justin Woods (200). The Cougars men’s 4x100 relay team will include McSwain, Robertson, Woods and either Brian Woods or Martin Boston.
Ulmer will be joined by EWU teammate Alex Moon, who placed fifth in the regional 400 hurdles.
Idaho’s three representatives are Bevin Kennelly (women’s steeplechase), Dee Olson (women’s 1,500) and Russ Winger, who qualified in both the shot put and discus.
Four other Spokane athletes have qualified for the meet – Oregon’s Rebekah Noble (Rogers) in the 800 and Britney Henry (Lewis and Clark) in the hammer, and Brigham Young’s Chelsea McKell (Mt. Spokane) in the 10,000 and David Pendergrass (Central Valley) in the high jump.