WSU's Brock Eager advances to NCAA finals in hammer with a third place finish...
The redshirt junior from Renton, who was no worse than fourth during the course of the competition, threw 225-2 (68.64m) in the third and final round to earn one of the twelve spots from the West to advance to Eugene in two weeks.
He joins Cougar teammate Alissa Brooks-Johnson, who is already qualified in the heptathlon (the multi-events are not contested in either of the preliminary rounds in the NCAA championships, but are advanced to the national finals based on the top 24 marks in the country).
In one of the biggest surprises of the three-day meet so far, Spokane native Tanner Anderson, the Pac-12 runner up in the 10000 meters, and a second-team All-American in this event last year, failed to finish, dropping out just after the half-way mark.
Significant Washington affiliated athletes who advanced in Thursday’s qualifying included the Huskies’ Morganne Hill (58.65) and Hanna Tarleton (58.69), and the Cougars’ Stephanie Cho (58.90) and Brooks-Johnson (59.49) in the women’s 400 hurdles; Chandler Teigen (3:46.30) in the men’s 1500; Washington State’s Kaili Keefe (4:23.21) and Washington’s Allie Schadler (4:23.44) in the women’s 1500; Eastern Washington’s Jeremy VanAssche (10.37) and Wenatchee native Isaiah Brandt-Sims of Stanford (10.43) in the mens’ 100; and, Washington’s Connor Morello (1:50.60) in the men’s 800.
In the finals of the women’s 10000, Washington State's Vallery Korir was 15th, three spots short of making it to Eugene, running 33:16.89. Washington's Kaitlyn Neal was 17th in 33:21.20, and Eastern Washington's Kari Hamilton was 26th in 33:56.03.
Complete day 1 results of the NCAA West Preliminary round are available here.
Media partner Flotrack.org ($) is offering live streaming coverage of the meet.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Seattle Pacific’s Renick Meyer earned a seventh place finish in the women’s long jump on the first day of the NCAA Division II track & field championship Thursday at the Irwin Belk Complex.
After completing the first four events of the heptathlon, Meyer leaped 19-2 (5.84m) on her opening round, then had to sweat out two straight fouls and a foul in round three by Lewis’ Cierra Pulliam to get the ninth and final spot in the finals.
Meyer then had another foul in round 4, before leaping 19-9.75 (6.04m), which was good enough to get seventh place, and a scoring spot on the podium.
Earlier in the day, Meyer scored 2934 points to sit in ninth place in the heptathlon at the break.
Central Washington’s HarLee Ortega is sixth at the end of day 1 with 2966 points, while Seattle Pacific’s Scout Cai is 11th at 2876.
Central Washington’s Kodiak Landis used a trio of top-three finishes to put himself in contention for a national title in the decathlon, sitting in second place after five events with 3,819 points.
After opening with a third-place finish in the 100 meters, clocking 11.03 seconds, Landis tied for first in the second event of the day, the long jump, at 23 feet, 8.75 inches (7.23m). He closed the first day by winning the 400 meters in 47.78 seconds. Landis enters the final day of the decathlon 372 points behind Florian Obst of Texas A&M-Commerce, who leads with a score of 4,191 points.
In Thursday’s running events, Seattle Pacific’s Kate Lilly nabbed the final qualifying spot in Saturday’s 1500 meter run, as she ran 4:30.11.
The finals of the women’s pole vault saw both Central Washington’s Halle Irvine and Anna Paradee no height at the opening bar of 11-11.75 (3.65m).
In the only final running event involving a Washington athlete, Central’s Alexa Shindruk was 13th in the women’s 10000, running 35:58.86.
Complete day 1 results from the NCAA Division II track & field championships are available here.
NCAA.com is offering free, live streaming coverage of the Division II championship meet.
The Nike Prefontaine Classic gets underway Friday night in Eugene at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus with six events, highlighted by the men’s pole vault featuring former Olympic champion Renaud Lavillinie of France, the men’s Diamond League javelin, and the men’s two mile run.
2016 US Olympian and former Emerald Ridge HS standout Hassan Mead is entered in the men’s two mile, while Seattle Pacific alum McKayla Fricker is in the national section of the women's 800.
In the women's national 1500, Katie Mackey and Hannah Fields of the Brooks Beasts are entered, along with Washington alum Eleanor Fulton, and Camas' Alexa Efraimson.
Saturday afternoon, the meet resumes with 13 Diamond League events contested, starting with the women’s pole vault at 12:40 pm, featuring Pullman’s Katie Nageotte, who goes against world and Olympic champ Katerina Stefanidi, former Olympic champ Jenn Suhr, and reigning world indoor champ Sandi Morris.
Henry Wynne and Izaic Yorks of the Brooks Beasts are entered in the International mile.
Former Renton resident and Oregon alum Devon Allen returns to Hayward Field to run the 110 hurdles against a strong field that includes the last two Olympic champions in Aries Merritt (2012) and Omar McLeod (2016), along with former world champ Sergey Shubenkov (2015).
NBC Sports will provide live coverage of the Nike Prefontaine Classic Saturday beginning at 1 pm.
The start lists for the Nike Prefontaine Classic are available here.
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