N.C. State gave one of its best performances of the year Friday, boasting five first-place finishes at its annual Wolfpack Last Chance Qualifier, aptly named for being the last chance the athletes have to qualify for the upcoming NCAA Regional competitions.
“We should have a number of individuals that have the regionals and the ability to advance,” head coach Rollie Geiger said.
From the time that the 17-team event began, it was clear that the Pack meant business. State made its presence known early by clench ing two gold medals in men’s and women’s long jump. Sophomores Jonathan Addison and Alexis Perry each blasted their competition out of the water with marks of 24’02.50” and 20’09.25,” respectively. As of Tuesday, Addison is ranked 35th and Perry fifth in the nation.
Addison also led the Pack in the men’s 100-meter dash with a fifth-place time of 10.60. Freshmen sprinters Paisley Simmons (11.86) and J’den Williams (12.26) clenched third place and fifth place in the women’s 100-meter, respectively.
Perry returned to the track later to dominate the 100-meter hurdles, taking first place with a time of 13.32.
Another N.C. State first-place fin ish came from senior jumper Eliza beth Shuman. The Timonium, Md. native cleared her competition with a 5’07.25’’ jump. In the women’s 800-meter, redshirt senior Ryanna Henderson ran a personal best time of 2:08.82 to grab second place.
Redshirt senior Matt Sonnenfeldt rightfully clenched first place in the men’s 5,000-meter with a time of 14:05.84. Sonnenfeldt beat out the other runners by a large 32-second gap.
Also in the distance events, red shirt senior Erin Mercer placed second in the women’s 1,500-meter with a personal best time of 4:24.03. Redshirt sophomore Olivia Enright also boasted a personal best time with a third-place 10:55.71 finish in the women’s 3,000-meter steeple chase, beating her old time by nearly two minutes.
On the field, senior Nathaniel Williams easily took first in men’s discus with a whopping throw of 179’00.’’ The Wolfpack narrowly missed sweeping the women’s dis cus with redshirt sophomore Sequoia Watkins in second (157’11’’), redshirt sophomore Nicole Chavis in third (153’8’’), and redshirt fresh man Alyssa Dunn in fifth (134’5’’).
Freshman jumper Ama ra Bell closed out the field events for the day in the women’s triple jump. Bell leapt 37’04.00” feet to earn second place.
With the NCAA region als approaching at the end of the month, State has some time to prepare for the three-day event.
“We’re probably going to turn down the caliber of our training now and rest more than we usually do to get ready for Regionals,” Perry said. “I’ve been antici pating it [Regionals] for a long time now.”
Coming into the regional competition, a few notable Wolfpack athletes will be a force to contend with. Red shirt senior Treminisha Tay lor is currently ranked third in the nation in women’s shot put, sophomore Joanna Thompson 16th in the wom en’s 10,000-meter and Shu man 18th in women’s high jump. In addition, redshirt senior Andrew Colley holds a promising 12th place rank ing in the men’s 1,500-meter, as well as the 21st spot in the 5,000-meter and 40th in the 10,000-meter.
Redshirt sophomore thrower Sequoia Watkins, who recently broke Taylor’s school record in women’s discus, is ranked 15th in the event. Taylor herself is close behind in the 20th spot.
