NCAA Championships Info
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – American Athletic Conference outdoor track and field teams closed out NCAA regional action with 12 more qualifying entry marks recorded at the East and West Preliminary meets on Saturday. In total, 27 individuals and four relays representing eight of the 12 American teams punched tickets to the 2019 NCAA Championships held June 5-8 in Austin, Texas, at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
The American set a conference record with 40 athletes punching tickets to Austin for the NCAA Championships. In 2018 and 2014, 36 student-athletes advanced to the national meet.
The University of North Florida in Jacksonville hosted the East Preliminary and California State University at Sacramento hosted the West Preliminary. The top 12 individuals and top 12 relays in each event advanced to the national meet.
Houston increased its NCAA Championships berths to 10 and two relays after the men’s and women’s teams combined for six more qualifying entries on Saturday. Having already punched a ticket to the NCAA Championships in the 400-meter hurdles, Amere Lattin qualified in a second event, earning a bid in the 110-meter hurdles field. The senior matched his season-best of 13.56 seconds in the quarterfinals of the event.
All-America senior sprinters Mario Burke and Kahmari Montgomery both ran top-12 times in the 200-meter dash to join Lattin in qualifying for multiple events. Montgomery will also compete in the 400m, while Burke will additionally be featured in the 100m field. In the final event of the weekend, the Houston men's team closed out the 4x400-meter relay in fourth-place overall and first-place in its heat at 3:03.32 to advance to the NCAA Championships. Obi Igbokwe ran a 45.03 anchor leg to propel the Cougars to their first-place finish.
On the women’s side three American teams qualified for the 4x100-meter relay. Houston’s Naomi Taylor, Essance Sample, Samiyah Samuels and Ashley Seymour combined for a season-best 43.93 seconds in the 4x100-meter relay to book a trip to the NCAA Championships. Taylor also punched a ticket in the 100-meter hurdles with her time of 13.23 seconds to place second in her heat.
Two women relay squads advanced out of the East. UCF’s 4x100m quartet of Loren Gallmon, Ciara Holback, Beyonce Defreitas and Shaniya Williams clocked a season-best time of 43.72 seconds for an eighth overall finish. Cincinnati followed in ninth place to earn a 4x100m bid. Freshman Caisja Chandler earned a berth in the 200m dash while also joining Haisha Bisiolu, Faith Banks and Tiona Lattimore in pacing the relay squad to the national championships in the 4x100m.
Cincinnati All-America thrower Annette Echikunwoke, who qualified in the hammer throw Thursday, grabbed her second ticket to the NCAA finals this week as she advanced in the shot put. She has now reached the national meet in both the hammer and shot put twice.
Memphis’ men’s 4x100-meter relay squad set a school record on the way to securing a trip to Austin. The squad of Calvin Austin III, Andrew Bishop, Davon DeMoss and Imri Persiado will be running the 4x100m at the national meet for the first time in Tigers’ history. With the addition of the quartet, Memphis is up to nine individual qualifiers at the NCAA Championships, which ties the program’s record.
SMU senior Nicole Iloanya qualified for the NCAA Championships in the triple jump. Iloanya tied her career-long with a jump of 12.96 meters in her first attempt. Her mark was good for third after the first round of jumps of the top two flights. For the second year in a row, SMU will send two athletes to the Championships, as Chelsea Francis qualified in the 100-meter dash on Friday.