Four Wichita State track and field athletes qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships after performances at the NCAA West Preliminaries from Wednesday to Saturday.
In addition, senior Destiny Masters will compete in the heptathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Masters’ score of 5,715 points at the Bryan Clay Multis in April qualified for 15th overall in the country.
Heptathlon and decathlon athletes do not attend the preliminary rounds. Instead, the top 24 scores throughout the outdoor season qualify for the Outdoor Championships.
In the long jump at the NCAA West Preliminaries, sophomore Josh Parrish qualified for the Outdoor Championships with a season-best distance of 7.84 meters. He also qualified in the 110-meter hurdles after setting a time of 13.56.
Jason Parrish, the twin brother of Josh, kept the Parrish family streak going as he qualified for the 400-meter hurdles semifinals at the Outdoor Championships with a time of 49.80, good enough for eighth place out of the entire field at the NCAA West Preliminaries.
Sophomore Yared Kidane barely edged into the semifinals of the 800-meter. His time of 1:47.35 in the quarterfinals landed him in 12th place and the last qualifying spot for the Outdoor Championships. His time was just one-tenth of a second faster than the first competitor out.
The Shockers’ men’s 4×400-meter relay team — consisting of the Parrish twins, Kidane and senior Joakim Genereux — became the first WSU 4×400-meter relay team since 1975 to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Despite setting a program record time of 3:06.38, they initially sat in 13th place and missed the cut by one spot. However, after a review of the results, officials disqualified Cal Poly for taking multiple steps over the lane line to give WSU the last qualifying spot in the event.
The Shockers who qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships will travel to compete at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, from June 11 through June 14.
