The NC State track and field team advanced a total of six entries to the NCAA Championships this past weekend at the NCAA East Preliminary in Jacksonville, Florida. That totals seven Wolfpack athletes who will be participating in four different events at outdoor nationals in Eugene, Oregon.
Two members of the Wolfpack qualified for the NCAA Championships on the very first day of regional competition. Both redshirt senior Luis Vargas and redshirt junior Sam Parsons took top-12 finishes in the men’s 10,000-meter to grab their spots at NCAA outdoor nationals. Vargas finished fourth with a time of 30:03.74, and Parsons made a late push to take the 11th spot at 30:05.60. This will be the first NCAA Outdoor Championships appearance for both runners.
The men’s 4×100 meter relay team punched its ticket to Eugene in outstanding fashion, winning its heat with a PR of 39.24. The group, made up of mostly underclassmen, also dropped 20 seconds off its PR and came within .15 seconds of the school record. The relay consisted of freshman Nyheim Hines, sophomore Shannon Patterson, sophomore Quashawn Cunningham and senior Jonathan Addison.
“They’ve all showed me a lot of growth over the last year,” Addison said. “I knew they had the mentality to stay in there and actually compete well, so I actually felt really comfortable with them. I’m really confident; I really feel like we haven’t ran our best race yet.”
Along with the men’s 4×100 meter relay, Addison also qualified for the NCAA Championships in the men’s long jump. Addison sat in 16th place and out of the qualifying spots going into the final frame. On his third jump, on the last day of competition for the men’s long jump, Addison leaped to a mark of 26 feet, his best mark of the outdoor season and enough to take the top spot and advance. The senior track star beat out his closest opponent by 8 1/2 inches to take the win.
“I tried to make it not seem so big and tried not to get too nervous,” Addison said. “I was kind of sitting back and thinking, if I don’t somehow do this, my long jump career at NC State is over. I just kind of went for it, and luckily I made it out. It was a blessing, but it was also pretty nerve-wracking.”
Not long after the 4×100 meter relay team qualified, Alexis Perry hit her qualifying mark for the women’s 100-meter hurdles with a PR of 12.90. Perry finished second in her heat as she clinched the qualifying spot. The senior standout has dropped under 13 seconds three times this season and has improved her PR in each of the last three races. Perry headed into the postseason with a PR of 13.14 for the 100-meter hurdles but has impressively knocked .24 seconds off of that time in just the last two meets.
“I went into regionals with a much more relaxed attitude,” Perry said. “I just told myself whatever happens, happens. So that was a very, very big part of it. I tried to not make regionals more than it was.”
Perry was also able to seal an appearance in the NCAA Championships for the women’s long jump with a fifth-place finish in the event, jumping 20-8 1/2 to secure her bid. The Durham native did it in dominant fashion, earning her mark on just her first jump of the competition and obtaining a 15-spot improvement from last year. After just missing qualification last year, this is Perry’s first time advancing to outdoors in the long jump.
“That usually would not have happened to me,” Perry said. “It was very surprising to get it in on the first jump, just because that typically isn’t my jumping style.”
The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships will take place from June 8-11.
