AUSTIN, Texas — One day in, one Lobo advancing.
University of New Mexico track & field athlete Alice Wright punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships Thursday night as she won the women’s 10,000-meter run at the 2017 NCAA West Preliminary Round.
Wright, who will move on to next month’s NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, was just one UNM athlete to enjoy success on the opening day of the three-day meet at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.
Along with Wright, both Josh Kerr and Emil Danielsson advanced to the next round of the men’s 1500 at the West Prelims via their performances Thursday.
The top 48 athletes and top 24 relay teams in the NCAA West Region qualify to the West Prelims, where the top 12 finishers in each event advance on to the NCAA Championships.
But Wright was the headliner of the opening day of the West Prelims, as she qualified to her third-straight NCAA Championships in the 10K.
Wright took control of the 25-lap race about eight laps in, moving to the front of a six-runner lead pack. As the pack dwindled during the middle stage of the race, the redshirt junior held strong, eventually holding off a trio of competitors to win the event.
Her time of 34 minutes, 6.78 seconds easily secured the requisite top-12 finish needed to advance to the NCAA finals. It’s the first time in three tries Wright won the event at this meet, following a pair of runner-up showings in 2015 and 2016.
She is the first New Mexico athlete to make the NCAA Championships in the same event in three straight years since Katie Coronado (javelin, 2007-09).
Also on Thursday, Kerr and Danielsson both moved on to the next round of the men’s 1500.
Kerr, the region’s top seed in the event, won his heat in 3:51.70, easily securing the requisite top-five finish to advance to the next round.
Although a far cry from his seed time of 3:35.99 that ranks sixth in NCAA history, Kerr managed the first phase of NCAAs with aplomb, sitting early in his race before kicking his way to a comfortable win. His time finished eighth overall in the first round.
Additionally, Danielsson claimed his spot in the quarterfinals of the metric mile, clocking a 14th-place time of 3:52.57 to grab the final of four at-large berths determined off time.
It’s the first time since 2014 that multiple men advanced on to the quarterfinal round of the 1500 at the NCAAs, with the semifinals and finals in Eugene.
Elsewhere, two other Lobos competed on Thursday, but were unable to advance. Junior Kieran Casey placed 27th overall in the first round of the women’s 1500 with a time of 4:32.63, while freshman Tanner Battikha finished 41st in the men’s long jump with a mark of 23 feet, 8 ¼ inches.
New Mexico will have just two athletes in action on Friday with both Graham Thomas and Natasha Bernal competing in the men’s and women’s 3000-meter steeplechase, respectively. Bernal will run first at 7:20 p.m. MT, followed by Thomas at 8 p.m. MT.
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