Red Raiders Poised for NCAA Championships

Wednesday, June 5

Austin, Texas

Texas Tech Athletics

NCAA Outdoor Championships

Red Raiders Poised for NCAA Championships

June 04, 2019 | Track and Field

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Top-ranked Red Raiders primed for national meet after strong West Preliminary.

By: Jeremy O'Brien

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech will travel to a national title meet Monday as the top-ranked team in the land for the second time this year. The Red Raider men will head to Austin after a program-record nine weeks as number one in the country.

"I told the kids that I'm not going to go in and give some big 'rah-rah' speech about winning a national championship," Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Wes Kittley said. "I want them to go in and be confident about the work that they've done and the fabulous workouts and practices they've been having. I want them to remember those things. If they do that and go in and do their jobs, we'll be fine."

The Red Raiders are coming away from an NCAA West Preliminary at which the men qualified 18 for the national meet, to be held in Austin from June 5-8. The regional qualifications bring Tech's total to a nation-leading 19 factoring in decathlete Axel Hubert.

The men picked up a combined eight qualifications on the track alone, with five coming from Divine Oduduru and Andrew Hudson, who both qualified in the 100m, 200m and 4x100 relay. Norman Grimes Jr. picked up a qualification in the 400m hurdles, and Jonah Koech and Vincent Crisp earned lanes in the 800m.

Crisp, a senior who has raced at every national meet of his collegiate career, spoke on the determination of the men's side.

"No matter how many points you're expected to win by, nobody is ever going to hand it to you," he said. "When this senior class came in, we were happy to even be ranked 14^th, and now we're ranked number one and going in with a chance to win it. However, we've been ranked number one going in three times now and haven't won it, so we're hungry. We've seen each other develop, and we're ready to compete at the biggest level now."

Odaine Lewis and Charles Brown led the jumps crew, grabbing spots in both the long jump and triple jump. Justin Hall joined the duo with his first long jump appearance at nationals since his freshman year. Jake Benninghoff will high jump after securing his NCAA Championships debut in a six-man jump-off for the last two remaining spots. Pole vaulters Brandon Bray and Drew McMichael also emerged victorious from a jump-off to make the trip to Austin.

Bray touched on the importance of experience to the men, whose travel roster is half seniors.

"The nationals meet is a different atmosphere," he said. "There are more people and more distractions, and that's even more so being in a big city like Austin. You've got to keep your mind right starting even a week or two in advance so we can go down there and compete at that high of a level."

On the throws side, school record holders Duke Kicinski and Werner Bouwer will compete in the discus and javelin, respectively.

The women earned five individual bids in addition to the 4x100 relay. Alaysha Johnson put together a fantastic meet, qualifying for both the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles.

Johnson, who decided to round out her eligibility at Tech after time at Oregon, has reinvented herself to once again become a double hurdler after only running in the 100m hurdles since her freshman season. Johnson expressed a desire to also run in the quarter-hurdles, and assistant coach Calvin Robinson agreed. Three months later, the Houston native will be entering the national meet as a qualifier in both events after running program top-10 times in each race during the season.

"I think the strongest athletes are 400m hurdlers," Johnson said. "I'm so happy to be a part of that group. I am already doing stuff since my transfer here that I never thought I could do, and I have this big team behind me. I got here in February and just wanted to be thrown on the track. I've come a long way."

Tech's other three bids came in the field. Chinne Okoronkwo, who swept the indoor and outdoor Big 12 Championships in the pole vault, will vault at the national meet for the first time in her outdoor career. High jump will include defending indoor national champion Zarriea Willis. The throws will include Seasons Usual, who made her first national meet after throwing an exciting 188'-2" (57.35m) – the fifth-farthest throw in program history.

The NCAA Outdoor Championships will take place June 5-8 at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin. Semifinals for all races will take place Wednesday (men) and Thursday (women). The men's championship day is Friday, and the women's championship day is Saturday. Events will be streamed via ESPN. A full list of streams is available here.