Nine Jackrabbits qualify for NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships West Preliminary

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SACREMENTO, Calif. – Nine Jackrabbits qualified for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships West Preliminary, to be held May 24-26 at Hornet Stadium.

There are 48 individuals in each event in both the West Preliminary and East Preliminary, which is May 24-26 in Tampa, Fla. The top-12 finishers in each event at both preliminaries qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Final, which is June 6-9 in Eugene, Ore.

Junior Rachel King is South Dakota State’s top-seeded entrant as she sits eighth in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, having posted a school-record time of 10 minutes, 1.14 seconds at the Stanford Invite in late March. She won the Summit League title in the event in 10:21.41 last week.

Junior Krista Steele is 32nd in the 800 in 2:07.55, a time she achieved at the Bryan Clay Invitational in mid-April in Azusa, Calif. She took the conference crown in the 800 with a 2:09.59 clocking.

Junior Kasie Vollmer qualified 43rd in the discus. She won the Summit League title with a mark of 169 feet, 9 inches.

On the men’s side, sophomore Bryant Courter and junior Kyle Burdick both qualified in a pair of events.

Courter is 13th in the triple jump (school-record 51-11 1/4) and 30th in the long jump (25-0). He swept the Summit League titles in the events. His wind-aided mark of 26-1 1/2 in the long jump at the conference meet would be tied for the sixth best in the West Preliminary field and would also be a school record.

Burdick is 28th in the 1,500 (3:44.78 at the Bryan Clay) and 47th in the 5,000 (14:05.14 at the Stanford Invite). He won the Summit League 1,500 meters title in 3:48.55 but did not compete in the 5K.

Freshman Trent Francom’s school-record mark of 17-2 3/4 in the pole vault at the Drake Relays in late April is the 25th-best mark in the preliminary. Senior Colton Bender is 27th in the hammer throw, posting a school-record mark of 206-9 at the Drake Relays.

Freshman Daniel Clarke posted a time of 10.43 seconds – the best in SDSU history – in the 100-meter prelims at the Summit League meet as he’s ranked 40th in the event at the West Preliminary.

Rounding out SDSU’s qualifiers is senior Mason Leiseth. The former football player is 47th in the shot put at 58-0 1/4, a school-record mark he achieved at the conference meet.

The regional lists are still subject to change, with Monday being the final day for schools to declare medical scratches.

 

Photo from www.gojacks.com.