Mota Qualifies for Paris 2024, 10 Punch Tickets to NCAA Outdoor Championships
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – At the 2024 Outdoor West Preliminary Meet, Yoveinny Mota qualified for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, as well as being one of 11 Jayhawks who punched their ticket to the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Mota, the standout sprinter who transferred from Arkansas, ran a new school record time of 12.67 in the 100m hurdles during the preliminary round, taking second and moving onto Saturday’s finals. This time was also the Olympic standard, solidifying Mota’s spot at the 2024 Paris games representing her home country of Venezuela.
On Saturday, Mota ran another school record of 12.66 in the finals, officially punching her ticket to Eugene and making her the second female qualifier for the Jayhawks on the weekend. Mota joined freshman phenom Mason Meinershagen, who qualified in the pole vault after clearing 4.20m and taking fifth place overall.
Lona Latema would be the next to join the travel party to Eugene, as she ran a 10:10.21 in the 3,000m steeplechase to get third in her heat. This will be Latema’s second-consecutive trip to Outdoor Nationals, wrapping up her Jayhawk career on the big stage.
Aaliyah Moore was the final female to qualify, as she ran a new school record of 2:02.50 in the women’s 800m finals. The captain out of Guyana will be making her first-collegiate postseason appearance in Eugene.
Chandler Gibbens was the standout Jayhawk on the men’s side, qualifying for Nationals in both the 10,000m (4th, 28:33.36) and the 5,000m (2nd, 13:45.69). The fifth-year out of Columbia, Missouri will be looking to end his extremely decorated collegiate career on a high note in Eugene.
Tayton Klein established himself as a two-event qualifier as well, having already pushed through to Nationals with his No. 18 decathlon mark. The sophomore out of Andover, Kansas finished 10th in a stacked men’s long jump field to secure himself a spot on the runway in Eugene.
Other men’s qualifiers include both Outdoor Big 12 Champions in Dimitrios Pavlidis and Devin Loudermilk. Pavlidis threw a second-place mark of 60.69 to qualify in the men’s discus, while Loudermilk cleared a best bar of 2.20m, finishing fourth overall in the men’s high jump.
Clayton Simms also punched his ticket to Eugene, which marks the sixth-consecutive NCAA Nationals appearance for the junior, as he’s qualified for all three indoor and outdoor meets so far. Simms ended the night in a three-way tie for third place, clearing 5.42m to qualify.
These Jayhawks will all join teammate Alexander Jung (No. 13 in the decathlon) in Oregon from June 5-8. This will be the second-consecutive season that Kansas has sent two decathletes to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
