NC State men’s and women’s track and field sent over 30 athletes to Bloomington, Indiana for the regional round of the NCAA Championships, and after four days of competition, 11 members of the Pack remained alive with top-12 finishes. They head to Eugene, Oregon next week.
After a top-five finish at the ACC Outdoor championships, the No. 17 women’s team kept its momentum going, with nine women posting marks good enough to send them to the next round. The team continued its dominance in the 5000m, as five of the team’s seven runners in the event scored top-10 finishes. Sophomore Katelyn Tuohy, senior Savannah Shaw and junior Sam Bush finished first, third and fifth, respectively, and Tuohy’s time of 15:27.14 set a new record for Robert C. Haugh Track & Field Complex, according to NC State Athletics.
Tuohy is on the watchlist for The Bowerman, the award given to the best track and field athlete in the country.
In the 1500m, redshirt senior Nevada Mareno and graduate student Anna Vess qualified for nationals with eighth and 12th place finishes, respectively. Mareno’s 4:13.49 marked a new personal best, and Bush just barely missed out on her second qualification of the day, finishing just .22 seconds behind Vess for 13th place.
In the 10000m, sophomore Gionna Quarzo and graduate student Allie Hays finished back-to-back, taking fifth and sixth, while senior Mariah Howlett came in 15th.
In the 400m, graduate student Jada Griffin’s time of 52.75 was good for 15th place, and while senior McKenzie Long set a new personal best in the first round of the 200m dash, she couldn’t replicate that in the final round and took 18th in the 200m dash at 23.27.
The lone jumper for the women’s team, graduate student Michelle Cobb’s 40-foot, 11.5-inch triple jump was good for 29th.
On the men’s side, two qualified for nationals, with more than a few others coming close to punching their tickets as well. In the men’s 110m hurdles, junior Joshua Brockman and senior Cameron Murray placed 8th and 12th respectively. A tenth of a second separated the two, with Brockman running a 13.60 to Murray’s 13.70, and both are personal bests.
In the 4x100m relay, junior Alexander Lang, Murray, senior Alan Alvarez and graduate student Von Douglas finished in 14th. Their time of 39.70 was just .07 seconds slower than Ohio State, which took 12th place.
In the 3000m steeplechase, sophomore Brett Gardner’s 8:43.81 was good for 14th. Gardner finished just over a second and a half behind the final qualifier.
And in the 5000m, redshirt senior Ian Shanklin and senior Nate Kawalec finished at 16th and 19th, respectively. Shanklin’s 13:48.38 was just under four seconds behind Ahmed Muhumed of Florida State, who took the final qualifying spot.
The final round of the NCAA Championships begins June 8 and ends June 11, with the women’s team looking to make it back-to-back years with an individual national champion in the 5000m.
