Texas Tech Track & Field Primed for Preliminaries

Thursday, May 25

Austin, Texas

TBA

Texas Tech Athletics

NCAA West Preliminaries

Texas Tech Track & Field Primed for Preliminaries

May 24, 2017 | Track and Field

Live Results Watch Live Meet Central Heat Sheets NCAA West Prelim Notes

The Red Raiders head to Austin, Texas, for the three-day meet in hopes to qualify for nationals.

LUBBOCK, Texas – Tomorrow marks the start of the NCAA West Preliminaries in Austin, Texas, at the Mike A. Myers Stadium, where Texas Tech has 32 event entries with the opportunity to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championship in Eugene Oregon, on June 7-11.

This three-day meet will start with the women's pole vault and men's javelin tomorrow at 11 a.m. Tomorrow's first running event will be the 400-meter hurdles at 4:30 p.m.

Live results and a live stream will be available on all three days.

INDIVIDUAL EVENT ENTRIES:

MEN'S WOMEN'S

Werner Bouwer- Javelin

Trevin Chambers- 100m Dash
Steven Champlin- 400m Dash
Kyle Collins- 400m Dash
Vincent Crisp- 800m Run
Trey Culver- High Jump
Justin Hall- Long Jump
Hunter Hopkins- Javelin
Andrew Hudson- 200m Dash
Charles Jones- 800m Run
Benard Keter- 3,000m Steeplechase
Erin Lopez- Long Jump
Drew McMichael- Pole Vault
Divine Oduduru- 100m Dash, 200m Dash
Caleb Richmond- 400m Hurdles
Darien Tennon- 110m Hurdles, 400m Hurdles
Dorian Williams- 100m Hurdles

Zuliat Alli- Long Jump
Marika Brown- 400m Dash
Jocelyn Caro- 5,000m Run
Mackenzie Frank- 400m Hurdles
Kaylee Hinton- Long Jump, 100m Hurdles
Tiffani Johnson- 100m Dash, 200m Dash
Viershanie Latham- Long Jump, Triple Jump
Talajah Murrell- Long Jump
Crystal Onwukaife- Shot Put
Paetyn Revell- Triple Jump
Reece Timmons- Pole Vault
Zarriea Willis- High Jump

PRELIM LINEUP
The Red Raiders are heading into the NCAA West Preliminaries with a total of 32 event entries. Of those entires, 25 are within the top-25 and 14 in the top-10. Heading the high jump is Trey Culver in first place with his season-best height of 2.24m/7-4.25, which he secured at the Mike A. Myers Stadium. Joining Culver is Zarriea Willis in the women's high jump. Willis enters Austin in 10th place with a 1.82m/5-11.50 bar. Also sitting high up is Steven Champlin in the men's 400-meter dash. Champlin's 45.12 run from the Red Raider Shootout puts him in third heading into the meet. Close behind in fifth is Kyle Collins, who had a head-to-head run with Champlin, clocking a time of 45.17. Both times were lifetime bests. Drew McMichael had a breakout performance at the Big 12 Championship, where he cleared an all-time school record and lifetime-best 5.51m/18-1 bar for second place. This clearance puts him sixth in the pole vault going into the meet. Viershanie Latham will be participating in the long jump and triple jump. Latham currently sits in third-place in both events with her marks of 6.55m/21-6 and 13.76m/44-10.25. Justin Hall leads the long jump in fourth-place with his 8.01m/26-3.50 leap from the Horned Frog Invitational. Crystal Onwukaife will represent the women's throws in the shot put. Onwukaife is coming off of a personal-best throw of 15.44m/50-8 form the Big 12 Championship.

BIG 12 CHAMPIONS
The Texas Tech track & field program brought home five Big 12 Championship titles this past weekend in Lawrence, Kansas. The four athletes that claimed these five titles are: Kaylee Hinton, Trey Culver, Werner Bouwer and Benard Keter. Hinton's championship performance in the heptathlon not only allowed her to claim first-place, but also an all-time Texas Tech record 5,869 points. Bouwer made his Big 12 Championship debut in the javelin, launching a 69.69m/228-8 throw for his event win. Culver became a back-to-back champion for the second time this year, following the second indoor national title he claimed earlier in the year. A bar of 2.16m/7-1 gave Culver the first-place finish to defend the high jump title. Keter had two notable performances which both earned championship crowns. He ran an 8:49.90 3,000-meter steeplechase followed by a 14:11.75 5,000-meter race the next day. These two performances deemed Keter the Big 12 Track & Field Outstanding Performer of the Year.

PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
Benard Keter was titled the Outstanding Performer of the Year, as announced by the Big 12 Conference. This is the third conference honor claimed by Keter in the past two weeks, and the fourth during his 2016-17 track & field and cross country season. Keter had a strong showing at the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championship in Lawrence, Kansas, where he pushed to title himself a Big 12 Champion in both the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase and 5,000-meter run. The senior's 8:49.90 steeplechase run allowed him to defend his Champion title for the second year. His second title of the meet was achieved in his first-ever outdoor championship 5,000-meter appearance, where he paced a 14:11.75 race. Keter also claimed a Big 12 title back in October for his Cross Country Championship 8,000-meter run of 25:28.70 on the home course in Lubbock. The last Red Raider to earn Big 12 Male Outstanding Performer of the Year was track & field standout Kennedy Kithuka in 2014, who claimed Big 12 Champion honors in his 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter runs.

ON THE DOCKET
Those Red Raiders who claim top-12 marks at this weekend's NCAA West Preliminary competition will advance to the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on June 7-11.