Antonio Ruiz Punches Ticket to Nationals in the Pole Vault
5/26/2017 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
SFA at NCAA West Regional Preliminaries
Mike A. Myers Stadium – Austin, Texas
Thursday Results | Friday Results
Photo Gallery
AUSTIN, Texas – The 2017 NCAA West Regionals were held from May 25 through May 27 at Mike A. Myers Stadium at The University of Texas at Austin. The Lumberjacks had 14 individuals and one relay qualify for a chance to continue their season through Nationals. For the running events, an athlete had to place within the top three of their heat in the first round or be the next six fastest times to advance to the quarterfinals. From there the competition then narrowed down from 24 runners to 12 runners who would get a shot at the NCAA Championships in Oregon. The field events took a pool of the top 48 athletes in the region and gave them three attempts to compete for the 12 spots that got to advance to Oregon.
Sophomore Antonio Ruiz easily claimed SFA's first ticket to the 2017 NCAA Championship in Eugene, Oregon after taking only three competition jumps to clear a height of 5.35m (17-6.5). The native from Tomball, Texas came into the NCAA West Regionals with a 5.27m (17-3.5) height that placed him second at the Southland Conference Championship. A week before that, Ruiz reached a new personal record of 5.52m (18-12.5) at the Tom Tellez Invitational, which gave him the fifth best height in the nation.
Ruiz came in at the 5.25m (17-2.75) height and sailed over with over half a foot to spare. Thirty-three minutes later, Ruiz took the deck for the next height. He fell short on the first attempt, but then regrouped to clear the second attempt, sealing his spot at Nationals.
Teammate senior Daven Murphree also sailed over his opening height of 5.15m (16-10.75). Murphree then could not successfully make the next height. He would finish in 18th, six spots away from the top 12 that advanced to Nationals.
Seven Lumberjacks ran on the first day of competition on Thursday. However, none would reach that elusive threshold to advance to Eugene, Oregon. Several SFA student-athletes were within mere inches or hundredths of a second from advancing. Six of the 12 men and women competing were sophomores or freshmen, including Imani Nave, Dominique Jackson, Khalil Lacey, Antonio Ruiz, Isaiah Pittman, and Trenton Bridges. The success of the youth in SFA's Track and Field program this year shows a very bright future for the program in the coming years.
Sophomore Dominique Jackson was the first Lumberjack to heat up the track. She turned out a 1:01.41 mark in the women's 400m hurdles to finish sixth in her heat and 34th overall. On the men's side, junior Kerry Gleason burned a 51.97 seconds hurdle run, .01 seconds behind the last qualifying time. His mark placed him 23rd in the Region.
For the men's 100m, senior Aaron Piper raced to clock a 10:31, .02 seconds away from advancing to the quarterfinals. His teammate freshman Khalil Lacey also did not make the quarterfinals.
Sophomore Isaiah Pittman, who won the Southland Conference long jump championship and came in at 16th in the region, leapt to a distance of 7.60m (24-11.25) to finish 18th. In the field events, the top 48 jumpers were whittled down to the 12 best to advance to Eugene. Pittman was a mere three inches away from advancing to the next round.
The duo of senior William Gibson and junior Tedrick Hawkins took the track to cap off the first day of competition for the Lumberjacks. Gibson had a 47.14 seconds mark that placed him sixth in his heat and 31st overall. Hawkins ran in three heats behind Gibson, with a 47.90 time to finish seventh in his heat and 39th overall.
Senior Aliyah Davis and freshman Imani Nave capped off the second day of competition with the women's 200m sprint. Davis clocked a 23.73 run to finish sixth in her heat, and 29th overall in the region. The senior topped off a terrific senior season at the NCAA West Regionals after breaking the 31 year old 200m record set by Linda Coleman in 1986. Not being outdone by the senior, the freshman Nave came behind Davis to record a 23:67 to steal the record from Davis and finish 28th overall.
The last event for the Lumberjacks will be the men's 4x400m relays team, who runs as the final event of the 2017 NCAA West Regional meet. The men take the track at 9:45 pm on Saturday, May 26. Fans can watch the race on live stream via TexasSports.com, and can also get up to date information on the SFA Track and Field Twitter page (@SFA_TFXC).
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