NCAA Track and Field Qualifiers Announced
5/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
West Preliminary Round Declared Athletes: Men | Women
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Nine members of the Stephen F. Austin track and field teams have qualified in eight different events for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, which will take place at the University of Texas in Austin from May 28-30.
Demi Payne (pole vault) and Stephanie White (400m hurdles) will represent the Ladyjacks, while Joshua Taylor (400m hurdles), My'Lik Kerley (400m), Charles Mathenge (10,000m), Jared Love (100m), Daven Murphree (pole vault) and the men's 4x400 meter relay team qualified for the Lumberjacks. A combination of Taylor, Kerley, Will Gibson Tedrick Hawkins, Johnathan Joe and Shawn Goff will make up the mile relay team next week.
The top 48 athletes in individual events along with the top 24 relay teams in the East and West Regions will fight for limited spots in the field at the NCAA Championships, held this year in Eugene, Oregon from June 10-13. Twelve individuals and relay teams will advance out of both the east and west preliminaries. The east regional meet location is in Jacksonville, Florida.
Payne enters the championship season not only as one of the favorites to advance out of regionals, but as a strong contender to bring an NCAA women's pole vault title back to SFA for the first time in history. Her qualifying mark of 15-5.5 (4.71m), set at the Southland Conference Outdoor Championships on May 8, is the second-best jump in collegiate history and the second highest mark in the world this season.
White secured her place in the preliminary rounds by breaking her own school record in the 400m hurdles on the final day of the SLC Championships. Her time of 59.00 seconds puts her 21st in the west region. White competed in the regional rounds last year in both the 100m and 400m hurdles.
Taylor begins his quest for a fourth career appearance in the NCAA Championships after competing in the national meet in 2011, 2013 and 2014. The senior owns the fifth-fastest 400m hurdles time in the west region, posting 50.03 seconds at the SLC Championships earlier in May. The time was good enough to break his own school record and propel him to the SLC title. Taylor was a First Team All-American in the event in 2014 while also taking Second Team All-America honors in the men's 4x400m.
Taylor was joined by Kerley, Gibson and Hawkins on the winning 4x400 relay team at the SLC meet on May 10 in Hammond, La. Their time of 3:07.82 positions the group in the 12th spot of 24 relay teams set to compete in the west region.
Like Taylor, Kerley will be competing outside of the relay as well next weekend. The freshman qualified with the 20th fastest regional time in the 400-meter dash, clocking in at 46.51 seconds at the SLC outdoor meet.
Love also performed well at the Southlands, using a PR time of 10.41 seconds to finish third in the 100-meter dash. He goes into Austin next week with the 31st best seed time, just fractions of a second behind the top 12 pack.
Murphree, who qualified in the west in 2014, and Mathenge used marks before the conference meet to punch their tickets to Austin next week. Murphree's top jump this year was measured at 17-0 (5.18m) and Mathenge's fastest 10k time is 29:34.18.
All information imperative to the regional rounds can be accessed through the Division I Outdoor Track and Field pages on NCAA.org and NCAA.com. The participant manuals, technical manual and schedule of events are all located on NCAA.org.
SFA's NCAA West Preliminary Round Qualifiers
Women
Demi Payne -- Pole Vault
Stephanie White -- 400m Hurdles
Men
Jared Love -- 100m
Joshua Taylor -- 400m Hurdles
My'Lik Kerley -- 400m
Charles Mathenge -- 10,000m
Daven Murphree -- Pole Vault
Joshua Taylor, My'Lik Kerley, Tedrick Hawkins, Will Gibson, Johnathan Joe -- 4x400m
-SFA-
