The NCAA Championships season will kick off for the NC State track and field team this week, as select members of the Pack will travel to Jacksonville, Florida to compete in the NCAA East Preliminary Round.
The regional meet will kick off Thursday and conclude Saturday at Hodges Stadium at the University of North Florida. For NC State, 21 members of the team have qualified for individual events at the meet, with four of them selected for multiple events.
On the men’s side of competition, junior Cravont Charleston and freshman Jamar Davis will lead the way for the Pack, with both selected for two events. Charleston will be the Pack’s only competitor in the men’s 100-meter run, where he is seeded 16th with a time of 10.17.
Charleston will also compete in the 200-meter run, where his time of 20.81 is 28th-fastest in the field. Senior Quashawn Cunningham, seeded 38th, and senior Shannon Patterson, seeded 42nd, will also compete in the 200m.
Davis will lead the Pack’s field contingent in the men’s competition, as he will compete in the triple jump and long jump. Davis has the 25th-best distance in the field in both events, with 7.61 meters in the long jump and 15.54 meters in the triple jump. Sophomore Von Douglas will join Davis in the long jump, where he is seeded 42nd.
The Wolfpack will have three student athletes competing in the men’s 5,000-meter run, tied with the men’s 200-meter run for the most individual qualifications. Redshirt freshman Ian Shanklin leads the Pack, seeded 13th with an entry time of 13:55.13. Redshirt senior Patrick Sheehan and redshirt junior Ben Barrett come in behind Shanklin, seeded 30th and 45th, respectively.
NC State will have two more men competing in distance events, with juniors Gavin Gaynor, selected for the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and JP Flavin, selected for the 10,000-meter run. Gaynor has the 29th-fastest entry time in the steeplechase with a time of 8:56.64, while Flavin’s time of 28:58.98 in the 10,000m is 14th best.
The Pack’s final male competitor will be redshirt sophomore Tyson Fortenberry, who enters with the 46th-longest distance in the disc throw at 52.05 meters.
On the women’s side of competition, senior Gabriele Cunningham and redshirt freshman Nevada Mareno will both compete in two events. Cunningham is the Pack’s strongest sprinter and will run in the 100-meter run and 100-meter hurdles. Cunningham is seeded 12th in the 100m hurdles, with a time of 13.13, and 21st in the 100m, with a time of 11.38.
Mareno is a longer-distance runner for the Pack, and was selected for the 1,500-meter run and the 5,000-meter run. In the 1,500m, Mareno is seeded 13th, with an entry time of 4:17.45. In the 5,000m, Mareno is the Pack’s second-fastest runner, seeded 26th. Redshirt Sophomore Dominique Clairmonte will enter that event with the 12th-fastest time at 16:04.68.
Freshman McKenzie Long, senior Nell Crosby and redshirt freshman Julia Zachgo will be the Wolfpack women’s other three runners. Long is seeded 39th in the 200-meter run, while Crosby and Zachgo both qualified for the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Crosby is seeded sixth in the steeplechase, the highest for any Pack competitor in any event.
In the field, senior Janel Pate, sophomore Michelle Cobb, senior Javonne Antoine and redshirt senior Lauren Evans will compete for the Pack women. Evans is seeded eighth in the shot put with an entry mark of 16.96 meters.
Cobb and Antoine will both compete in the triple jump, with Cobb seeded 16th and Antoine at 42nd. Pate rounds out the Pack in the long jump, where she enters with the 16th-best mark.
The Wolfpack’s competitors will be looking to book a trip to the NCAA Championships, which will take place in Austin, Texas in the first week of June.
