After the first two days of the NCAA West Preliminaries, at the Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, California, the Oregon Ducks have punched 12 individual tickets for the NCAA Championships.
Oregon qualified eight athletes on Friday, with six from the women’s team and two from the men’s.
In the 400 meters, the Ducks will be the only program at the NCAA Championships with three runners in the race. Sophomores Makenzie Dunmore and Hannah Waller ran the second and third best times of the day, running 51.25 and 51.76 seconds respectively. Waller’s third-place finish was a personal best. Junior Briyahna Desrosiers will join the two, with her sixth-place qualifying mark of 52.06.
Two other Oregon women ran PRs to earn their tickets to the Championships.
In the women’s 100 meters, freshman Jasmin Reed finished fifth and ran a PR of 11.23. The record comes after Reed set a PR of 11.26 the day prior in the event’s prelims. Redshirt-senior Sabrina Southerland once again showed why she is the reigning NCAA Indoor 800-meter and Pac-12 Outdoor 800-meter champion. Southerland won the 800 meters with a PR of 2 minutes and 00.72 seconds, marking the top time in the nation this year.
Alongside Reed, junior Ariana Washington also qualified for the women’s 100-meter with her time of 11.30 seconds, finishing 10th.
On the men’s team, two sprinters will make their first-ever NCAA Championship appearances.
In the men’s 400 meters, junior Orwin Emilien ran a 46.34, finishing 13th and earning his Championship ticket. Redshirt junior Cravon Gillespie finished in fourth in the men’s 100 meters, qualifying with a time of 10.24. Gillespie, the Pac-12 100-meter Champion, ran a PR of 10.12 in Thursday’s prelims.
Oregon’s first qualifying athlete was freshman Keira McCarrell, with her fifth-place finish and 17-foot personal best in the women’s javelin on Thursday. It only took McCarrell two throws to reach the 171-1 (52.15m) mark, placing her fourth on Oregon’s all-time list.
Two Oregon long jumpers qualified for NCAA with first jumps; sophomore Rhesa Foster and senior Damarcus Simpson.
Foster’s first jump, a 20-4 ½ (6.21m), placed third in the women’s long jump — her second straight time qualifying for NCAAs in the long jump. Simpson, the two-time Pac-12 long jump champion, won the event for the men’s competition on his first, and only, jump of the day with a mark of 26-11 ¾ (8.22m).
In Thursday’s final race event, senior Alli Cash surged in the women’s 10,000 meters for a 27-second PR and a time of 33:02.89. Cash finished 12th in the race, earning a chance to test her new time at the Championships.
More Ducks will have the chance to qualify for NCAAs during Saturday’s finals of the 200-meters and the 100-meter and 110-meter hurdles. Eight ducks will be competing for the remaining spots, including Washington and Reed in the women’s 200-meters and Gillespie in the men’s.
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