UNI track & field qualifies 12 athletes for NCAA Preliminary Meet

UNI track & field qualifies 12 athletes for NCAA Preliminary Meet

5/18/2023 8:36:00 PM | Track and Field

NCAA Men's West Region Qualifiers NCAA Women's West Region Qualifiers

Panthers set to compete in nine events in Sacramento with a chance to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships next month.

INDIANAPOLIS --- The NCAA on Thursday announced the qualifiers for the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field First Round Regional meets, with twelve UNI track and field athletes getting the opportunity to compete. UNI will participate in the West Region meet, May 24-27 at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, California.

To qualify for this meet, athletes must rank within the top-48 in their respective region for individual events and the top-24 for relays. The top-12 place winners in each event will qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships to be held June 7-10 at Mike A. Meyers Stadium in Austin, Texas. The heptathlon and decathlon are not contested at the regional competitions, as the nation's top-24 performers will automatically qualify.

Sprinter Isaiah Trousil qualified in three events, including the men's 100 and 200-meter dashes, as well as the 4x100-meter relay. Trousil, who won the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) outdoor titles in both the 100 and 200 meters, is tied for the fifth fastest time in the region at 10.07 seconds in the 100 meters, and tied for 14th in the 200 meters (20.52).

Trousil will run the third leg of the men's 4x100-meter relay alongside Tinashe Chigudu, Luke Meyers and Deonte Dean with the 20th-best time in the region. The Panther quartet set a school-record time of 39.62 seconds in the finals of the MVC Championships last week in Normal, Illinois.

Makenna Wilson is set to compete in multiple throwing events in Sacramento, recording the eighth-best mark in the women's hammer throw in the West Region at 66.69 meters. Mari Shavers also qualified for the NCAA First Round as the 11-seed in the hammer throw with a toss of 64.55 meters. Wilson will also compete in the women's shot put as the 24-seed, along with teammate Katie Fare, the 14-seed, who holds the second-longest throw in program history of 17.09 meters.

In the mid-distance races, both Drake Hanson and Chase Knoche qualified in the men's 800-meter run. Hanson, the MVC's indoor 800-meter champion this past February, qualifies with a season-best time of 1:48.19 as the 24-seed, while Knoche comes in 33rd in seeding with a 1:48.69.

MVC hurdle champion Jack Sumners will get the opportunity to compete for a trip to Austin as the 35-seed in the men's 110-meter hurdles. Sumners, who cracked UNI's top-five all-time performances in school history this year, enters with a time of 13.87 seconds.

The Panthers will have two male athletes competing in field events, including MVC pole vault champion Brendan Safley, who won the conference title with a 5.15-meter vault as the 40-seed. Carter Morton will make his NCAA West Region debut next week as he competes in the high jump as the 42-seed, after clearing 2.11 meters last month at the Drake Relays.

UNI's 2023 NCAA First Round – West Region Qualifiers (Event/Seed/Result)

Isaiah Trousil