LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas track and field team punched seven more tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with their stellar performances at the NCAA West Region Preliminaries.
These athletes will join Alexander Jung (decathlon), Tayton Klein (decathlon), Patrick Larrison (shotput) and Clayton Simms (pole vault) in Austin from June 7-10.
Rylee Anderson qualified in the women’s high jump to kick things off for the women. The five-time Big 12 Champion cleared 1.82m to secure her spot at the final outdoor championship of her well-decorated collegiate career.
Lona Latema was the other Kansas woman to qualify, running a blazing fast 3000m steeplechase to take third in her heat and ninth overall. Latema’s time of 9:51.76 pushed her through to her first-ever track and field national championship, making for quite the memorable weekend.
Also appearing in their first national championship meets will be A.J. Green, Cameron Wilmington, Dimitrios Pavlidis and Chandler Gibbens.
Green ran a new personal best time of 1:47.34 in the men’s 800m final, which was good for eighth place overall. He will be joined by men’s distance counterpart Chandler Gibbens, who qualified in a loaded men’s 5k field.
Gibbens, the back-to-back Big 12 Champion this year (5k, 10k), ran a 13:40.31 to clinch the final ticket to nationals in the event, finishing 12th overall.
Pavlidis also held on to his 12th place position in the men’s discus throw, punching his ticket to Austin with a 56.86m best throw on the day.
Wilmington will be running the 400m hurdles in Austin after posting a swift new PR of 50.26. The junior one-upped his preliminary round personal best of 50.86 in doing so, finishing eighth overall in the finals.
Michael Joseph is the final Jayhawk who will compete in Texas, placing second overall in the men’s 400m with his 45.23 performance. The junior currently holds both the Kansas and the St. Lucia National record in the 400m for his 44.77 he ran in the preliminary round of Big 12’s.
For the most updated information regarding this year’s Outdoor Track & Field National Championships, be sure to check back in at this link.
