Track and field finishes NCAA West Prelims with 24 NCAA Championship bids
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The NCAA West Preliminary yielded 24 bids to NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the Texas track and field team, as the Longhorns claimed 15 on the meet's final day at E.B. Cushing Stadium.
Texas will bring a total of 24 athletes to Eugene, Oregon for the national meet June 9-12. The Longhorns' two combined event qualifiers, Kristine Blazevica and Leo Neugebauer, notched their bids at the Big 12 Championships.
The meet opened Wednesday with the field events. O'Brien Wasome and Steffin McCarter were the first Texas athletes to clinch their spots in Eugene, both earning bids in the long jump. McCarter was second overall with a leap of 8.03 meters, while Wasome placed 11th, just under the cut line, by jumping 7.68 meters. Wasome also will compete in the triple jump; the 2018 Indoor national champion placed fourth in the event at the West Preliminary meet at 16.41 meters.
Shot putter Tripp Piperi also fared well, finishing second in a competitive field to earn his third invitation to the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a throw of 20.23 meters, a season-best for the senior, who won the national championship in the event in 2019.
Tara Davis, despite battling a hamstring injury, placed second in the women's long jump with a leap of 6.86 meters, just 0.9 meters behind Texas A&M's Tyra Gittens.
Jonathan Jones headlined Saturday's running events by taking fourth in the men's 400 meters, crossing the line in 45.45, 0.88 seconds after Texas A&M's Bryce Deadmon, who won the event. Johnson's time was the 12th-fastest time in program history.
Texas' Crayton Carrozza and Yusuf Bizimana, took third and first, respectively, in the first heat of the men's 800. In the final, Carrozza finished fourth in the event, in 1:47.56, .57 behind the event's winner, Festus Legat of Iowa State. Bizimana finished 29th in the event, in 1:50.54. His 1:49.03 in the preliminary heat earned him a ticket to Eugene.
Micaiah Harris dashed his way to a second-place finish in the men's 200 with a wind-legal time of 20.20, sealing his spot at the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive season.
Three Longhorns qualified Saturday in in the women's 200. In heat one, Kevona Davis crossed the line first, pulling out the victory on the final 20 meters of the race in a time of 22.87 seconds. Her teammate, Rhasidat Adeleke came in third in the heat with a time of 23.03 seconds. Kynnedy Flannel posted the fastest time of the three, distancing herself from the rest of the field by the 100-meter mark and clocking a time of 22.67 seconds.
UT's Stacey Ann Williams turned in a blistering time of 50.34 seconds to finish second in the women's 400. It was a personal best for the junior, who also moved up to No. 4 on Texas' all-time performance list in the event.
Additionally, Texas qualified four relays for the national meet, including the women's 4-by-100 and 4-by-400.
The women's 4-by-100 was one of the closest relays of the meet, as the top five finishers were separated by less than a second. Texas, which ran in the second heat, battled Oregon for the entirety of the race. The Longhorns fell behind early on Chanel Brissett's opening leg, but made up some ground with Davis and Adeleke on the second and third legs before Flannel took the lead on the final straightaway before Oregon's Danyel White surged on the final few meters. Texas finished in 43.01, seven hundredths of a second slower than the Ducks' winning time of 42.94.
In the 4-by-400, the Texas foursome of Serenity Douglas, Kennedy Simon, Brooke Jaworski and Williams claimed their spot in Eugene by crossing the line in 3:29.49
