Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Adds Five More NCAA Championship Qualifiers
May 28, 2016 | Track and Field
Hannah Carson took first in the discus on Saturday with the No. 2 mark all-time at Texas Tech.
May 28, 2016
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The Texas Tech No. 10 men's and No. 19 women's track & field teams posted five more qualifiers to the NCAA Championships on Saturday, May 28, the final day of the NCAA West Preliminaries, bringing the two-day total to 14.
Big toss from Carson on her final attempt of 58.38m/191-6 gives her the win! pic.twitter.com/hZYQIIZ7vx
-- TTU Track & Field/XC (@TTU_TF_XC) May 28, 2016
The mark broke the facility record, is the No. 2 mark all-time at Texas Tech and is fifth in West Prelims history. She becomes the first Red Raider to ever qualify for the both the javelin and the discus in the same season.
Another Red Raider who will be a dual-event athlete at the NCAA Championships is Charles Brown after clinching a spot in the men's triple jump. His first attempt of the event moved him up to 14th at 14.99m/49-2.25, but his second jump propelled him up the rankings to the third spot in the competition. Brown unleashed a personal-best 16.05m/52-8 to shoot up the leaderboard, which would hold as the seventh-best overall to send him to the NCAA Championships in multiple events.
His distance was the eighth-best mark in school history and makes Brown the first Red Raider to ever advance in both the long & triple jump events in the same outdoor season and the only from the West region this season. Brown is also the only freshman in either region to qualify in the triple jump.
The men's 4x100 relay team clinched a berth into the big dance after sneaking in with the 12th-best time in the field. Running in heat two, the team of Andrew Hudson, Joseph Richards III, Kareem McBride and Nigel Bethel rounded the track to a time of 40.01 to finish fifth in the heat and take the last qualifying spot to Eugene.
They are the fifth relay team to make it to the NCAA Championships and first since 2012.
Chris Caldwell will make his first trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the men's 110-meter hurdles after recording the sixth-fastest time overall on Saturday. Caldwell charged down the track in heat one and was just edged out at the finish line to place second in the race at 13.74 seconds, earning an at-large berth the top non-automatic time.
Richards => Jones => Smith => Crisp = #NationalsBound after going 3:04.87 in the men's 4x400 relay! #WreckEmhttps://t.co/zx7Exhri1P
-- TTU Track & Field/XC (@TTU_TF_XC) May 28, 2016
The Red Raiders ended the meet on a bang, recording the sixth-fastest time in the men's 4x400-meter relay and second in the heat to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. Joseph Richards III led off the race and handed the stick to C.J. Jones, who took the strong leg and held on to lead at the curve and at the next exchange with the fastest 1-2 split at 1:31.86. JW Smith took the stick from there and held off a charge on the outside when he gave it to Vincent Crisp for the final lap. Crisp ran a strong leg and was just passed right before the finish line, clocking in at 3:04.87 to place second in the heat for the auto-qualifier.
The time was a season-best and marks back-to-back the Red Raiders have qualified a 4x400 relay to nationals and 10th overall outdoors.
All in all, Texas Tech will send 15 athletes to compete in 12 events, 10 individual events and two relays to the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The meet is a four-day extravaganza on June 8-11, with the men competing on days one & three and the women on days two and four at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Players Mentioned
