The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA West Preliminary Rounds
Weather halts Day One at NCAA Track & Field West Prelims
05.26.2016 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Action suspended due to lightning, rain
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Lightning and rain kept most of the action at bay on Thursday for the first day of action at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Before the lightning and rain came down from the skies above Rock Chalk Park, two events were able to get underway but were not completed. Competition was eventually suspended at 6:54 p.m. with a new adjusted meet schedule announced in the evening.
The men's hammer throw had just started its third and final flight of competition prior to the second weather delay that ceased all action for the night. The women's javelin was one throw into the third flight when action stopped as well.
Two Texas Longhorns did get their three throws in on Thursday.
Alan Zapalac performed well in his first NCAA action. The redshirt sophomore posted a mark of 60.15 meters (197-4) in the hammer throw, not too far off his PR. He stood in 10th place following his flight and with 16 more throwers had yet to compete in the final flight.
Shelby Poncik was in 24th place in the women's javelin following her flight with her toss of 43.73 meters (143-5). The javelin throwers had to fight a strong tailwind throughout the first two flights of competition, which is not ideal for the event as it pushes the tip of the javelin back down and can shorten throws drastically.
The inclement weather forced the cancellation of the men's pole vault earlier in the day prior to the decision to halt the day's action completely. Both the men's and women's pole vault competitions as well as both high jumps will be held at KU's indoor track facility, the Anschutz Complex, on Friday.
Both the men's and women's long jump competitions and the women's hammer throw were cancelled as a result of the weather on Thursday along with all the running preliminaries on the schedule for the day.
The meet schedule for the meet has changed with the first rounds of running events being eliminated and going straight to quarterfinals. Friday's action will feature the postponed events from Thursday and begin at 8 a.m. with the women's 10,000 meters from Rock Chalk Park. Field events start at 9 a.m. The new schedule compacts the meet into two days and could have an impact on strategy for running events with new qualification standards to advance to the NCAA Championships than prior to the start of the meet.
The NCAA West Preliminary Rounds puts the top 48 athletes in each event against each other with the top 12 finishers advancing to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in June.
Fans can keep up with the action at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds with live results online provided by FlashResults.com. A link will be provided at TexasSports, KUathletics.com and NCAA.com. Updates on the Longhorns will also be available on the team's official Twitter account @UTexasTrack. The NCAA also will be tweeting from its official track and field account @NCAATrackField. Fans are encouraged to follow and interact with the meet by using the official hashtag #NCAATF throughout the three days of competition.
Host Kansas will also provide a livestream of the meet. Fans can watch online at kuathletics.com/watch.
Players Mentioned
