Women’s Accepted Athletes | Men’s Accepted Athletes
INDIANAPOLIS — The University of New Mexico track & field team qualified 10 individuals to the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Preliminary Championships competition, the national selection committee announced Thursday.
The Lobos will send five men and five women to the NCAA West Preliminary championships at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas, next week with the goal of placing in the top 12 of their respective events.
A top-12 finish at the preliminary rounds — which are split between the West region in Austin and the East region in Lexington, Kentucky — advances a competitor to next month’s NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.
Qualification to the preliminary championships competition is based on the descending-order list for the season, segregated by east and west sites. For each individual event contested at each of the prelim competitions, the top 48 declared student-athletes will be accepted.
On the men’s side, five Lobos will compete in Texas, including the NCAA’s top seed in the 1,500-meter run.
Josh Kerr, the two-time Mountain West champion in the event, is the No. 1 seed in the 1500 and enters with a seed time of 3 minutes, 35.99 seconds. That time ranks sixth in NCAA history.
Additionally, the New Mexico men have qualified Graham Thomas in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (25th seed, time of 8:54.29) and Emil Danielsson in the 1500 (43rd, 3:46.08). In the field events, Sam Trigg advanced in the triple jump (11th, 52 feet, 10 ¾ inches) and Tanner Battikha qualified in the long jump (34th, 24-9 ¾).
For the women, Alice Wright and Jannell Hadnot will both be making repeat appearances at the West Prelims.
Wright is the No. 2 seed in the women’s 10,000-meter run, coming into the competition with a seed time of 32:29.28 that doubles as the UNM record. This is her third-straight NCAA regional appearance.
Hadnot, the No. 10 seed in the triple jump, owns a seed mark of 43-5 as she makes her fourth appearance at the West Prelims. She won the triple jump at the meet last season.
Rounding out the women’s qualifiers are Natasha Bernal in the 3000 steeplechase (20th, 10:15.90), Sophie Eckel in the 5000 (26th, 16:08.09) and Kieran Casey in the 1500 (41st, 4:25.23).
The 10 total qualifiers also continues a trend of large groups advancing to the preliminary competition. Since the NCAA reconfigured its preliminary rounds into two regions in 2010, New Mexico has qualified at least 10 athletes every season.
Every year since 2010, New Mexico has advanced at least four athletes from the NCAA West Preliminary round to the NCAA Championships. Last season, 10 Lobos made the NCAA finals.
The three-day preliminary round starts May 25 and runs through May 27.
Fans can follow the Lobos on Twitter (@lobo_track) and Instagram (@lobo_xc_tf) for information and updates on the team!