MWC Track and Field National Qualifiers

And then there was one meet left. This week the top 24 athletes in each track and field event will compete in Austin Texas, at the NCAA Nationals. Two weeks ago 133 athletes from the Mountain West competed in the West Preliminary Championships with the top 12 qualifiers moving on to Austin. Here is a look at who is competing for All-American status and championships, with first-team All-America status for first through eighth; second team for ninth-16th; and honorable mention for 17th-24th.

New Mexico (ranked 3rd in nation)

Weini Kelati holds the school record as well as the Mountain West

Championships record in the 10,000-meter after running 32:09.10 at the

MW Championships and enters with the second-best time this season. She

also earns the distinction after being ranked first nationally in the

5000 at 15:23.46. Kelati is also coming off of being named the USTFCCCA

Mountain Region Women’s Track Athlete of the Year.

Adva Cohen has the third-fastest time this season in the steeplechase at

9:44.41 that she ran two weeks ago at the NCAA West Preliminary.

Charlotte Prouse enters the steeplechase having finished runner-up in 2018 following a time of 9:45.45 and will be making her third appearance at the championship, second as a Lobo.

Ednah Kurgat will make her second NCAA outdoor championship appearance, however this time in the 10,000-meter, which she holds the third-best time this season with 32:14. 27.

Boise State (ranked 17th in the country)

If Allie Ostrander wins a national title in the either the steeplechase or the 5,000-meter, she would become the first athlete in Boise State history to win three NCAA national championships. If Ostrander to win the steeplechase, she would become the first woman to win three-consecutive national titles in the steeplechase, and the first woman to win three national titles in the steeplechase since Colorado’s Jenny Barringer (2006, 2008-2009). She would also become only the 15th athlete on the women’s side to win three-straight national titles in an event in NCAA history. She was also named the West Region Women’s Track Athlete of the Year.

Alexis Fuller posted the fifth-fastest time in the region in the 1,500-meter with a time of 4:11.18 to beat her own school record. She qualified in the 1,500-meter for the second-straight year.

Kristie Schoffield ran a personal best 2:02.65 in the 800 meters to punch her ticket to Austin. Her time is a personal best by over a second, is only 27-hundreths of a second off of the school record, and the second-fastest time of the entire field.

Colorado State

Three-time first-team All-American Shadae Lawrence, who also was the 2017 NCAA discus champion, has the top throw in the nation this year at 213-5. The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Standard is 208 ft. 4 inches.

Kelcey Bedard earned second-team All-American honors in the hammer throw in 2018. Her throw of 178-5 is the sixth-best in her flight.

Hunter Powell qualified in the decathlon. Wednesday he will compete in 100 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400. While Thursday his event list is 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1,500.

Destinee Rocker had the 14^th best overall 100 meter hurdle time out of qualifying from the NCAA Preliminaries meets.

Tarynn Sieg threw the shot put a personal best, school record, and Mountain West record 57-2.75 to qualify. It was the top throw at the NCAA West Preliminaries, the third-best in the qualifying meets this season.

Freshman Adam Dawson threw the discus 181-1 to earn his NCAA bid, entering with the 23rd best qualifying mark.

4x100 relay Marybeth Sant, Lauren Gale, Jessica Ozoude, Destinee Rocker are ranked 20th overall.

San Diego State

Bonnie Draxler qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships after finishing eighth in the pole vault, clearing 14-02.00, which tied for the best height. This will be her fourth career appearance at the NCAA Championships (2nd outdoor). She was the national runner-up three months ago at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

The 4x400m relay team of Sakura Roberson, Lisa-Anne Barrow, Jalyn Harris and Nyjari McNeil qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a time of 3:33.48, the second-best time in school history.

Utah State

Sindri Gudmundsson qualified in the javelin with a punched his ticket by placing first with a throw of 73.68 meters (241-8) is ranked 12th nationally. It was his second throw of the season after needing just one throw to win the Mountain West Championship. Gudmundsson is attempting to become the school’s first three-time first-team All-American in one event since former U.S. Olympian James Parker in 2001 (hammer).

Cierra Simmons-Mecham who placed eighth in the steeplechase to earn first-team All-America honors at the 2018 Outdoor Finals, finished in the 9:59.22 at the West Prelims to secure her second-straight automatic bid to nationals.

Air Force

The same pair that ran for Air Force at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March will represent the Falcons in the NCAA Outdoor Championships

Jaci Smith posted an Academy-record 5000-meter time of 15:38.44 to secure her spot into the finals will be making her second-straight trip to the final site of the Outdoor meet, having captured First-Team All-American status in the 10,000-meter run last year.

Michael Rhoads, claimed his ticket to Austin in the 800-meter run after clocking a time of 1:48.09 to finish third in his heat of the regional final.

Wyoming

Jerayah Davis will compete in the 100-meter dash, long jump and 4x100m relay and is the first Cowgirl ever to qualify for three events at a national championship. In the 100m dash, Davis finished third in her heat with a time of 11.35 to earn the automatic qualifier to the national championships. Her long jump of 20 feet, 5.75 inches placed her sixth.

Ja’la Henderson will run on that same relay team and compete in the triple jump. She leaped 43-6 on her last jump at the Prelim, and finished in third place after entering the meet as the 18th-seeded jumper.

Jordan Edmonds and Shayla Howell make up the rest of the second-fastest 4x100m relay team in school history.

Also track & field coach Quincy Howe was named the Mountain Region Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

UNLV

Avi’Tal Wilson-Perteete punched her ticket for Austin, Texas, in the 800m after winning her heat in a time of 2:03.64.

Jasmyne Graham won her 100m hurdles heat in a time of 13.15 to qualify for Austin.

Nevada

Nicola Ader will be the first ever from Nevada to compete in three events at the national meet; Ader qualified in the high jump, long jump and heptathlon. Ader can become just the second two-time All-American in school history, and first to accomplish the feat in the same year. Ader qualified in the high jump with a jump of 5’ 10.75” (1.81 meter). The mark tied her personal record and landed her in a tie for 16th in the nation. Later Ader qualified in the long jump with a mark of 20’ 5.75” (6.24 m). Ader put up a qualifying mark in the heptathlon as well. Her score of 5,590 is good for third all-time at Nevada, and puts her at 18th in the nation.

Fresno State

Jestena Mattson, sits 14th overall in the heptathlon with 5,635 points. She is the only athlete in program history to win more than one conference championship in the combined events in program history.