The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA West Preliminaries
No. 1 Women's Track and Field sends 16 entries to NCAA Championships
05.27.2023 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Rhasidat Adeleke breaks 400-meter program record.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The No. 1 women's Texas track and field program sent 16 entries to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday night on the final day of the West Preliminaries.
The top-ranked Longhorns qualified for 14 track events and two field events for the NCAA meet.
Chrystal Herpin qualified for the discus from Flight 1, throwing a season-best mark of 54.29m (178-1). Herpin was the fourth thrower to advance to the Championships after Patrick Piperi and Marilyn Nwora advanced in the shot put and Jeremiah Nubbe qualified in the discus.
The women's 4x100-meter relay continued to speed past the competition, running the third-fastest time in Texas history at 42.15. Julien Alfred, Ezinne Abba, Rhasidat Adeleke and Kevona Davis' time was only behind their previous two collegiate records set at the Big 12 Championships (41.89) and the Texas Relays (42.0).
Sophomore Ackelia Smith needed only two jumps this weekend in order to qualify for two events. On Saturday, Smith's jump of 13.96m (45-9.75) was good for a season best and a second-place finish in the triple jump to advance to the Championships. She's now qualified for both the long jump and triple jump.
Four Longhorns qualified for both the 100-meter and the 200-meter. Alfred led the 100m competition winning with a collegiate-leading and facility record time of 10.83, the fourth-fastest time ever in the NCAA. She's now run three of the five fastest wind-legal 100m times in NCAA history. She later qualified for the 200m with her time of 22.45.
Ezinne Abba also qualified for both running 10.98 in the 100m, moving up to No. 5 on the All-Time UT performer list for a personal best. She later went on to finish the 200m in 22.64.
Lanae Tava-Thomas ran a personal-best time of 11.06 in the 100m, helping the Longhorns take the top-three fastest times of the day. Thomas later ran the fastest 200m qualifying time at 22.12 (2.2+).
Davis was the final Longhorn to complete the double running the 100 in 11.06 and a season-best in the 200m at 22.33.
Adeleke broke the 400-meter program record with her personal best time of 49.54. The 11-time All-American broke Courtney Okolo's seven-year former collegiate record time of 49.71 on her way to qualifying for the NCAAs. Adeleke now has two of the top-five fastest times in UT history and becomes the second-fastest 400m runner in collegiate history. Kennedy Simon also qualified for the 400m with her time of 51.17.
Both Valery Tobias and Brooke Jaworski advanced in the 800m after both finished in the top-five of the quarter finals round. Tobias cruised to a second-place finish in Heat 1 with a time of 2:03.15, while Jaworski set a personal-best time of 2:03.57 to advance with another second-place finish in Heat 2.
The Longhorns qualified for its final event after Simon, Rachel Helbling, Dejanea Oakley and Adeleke ran the third-fastest time of the night at 3:27.58.
The NCAA Championships will be held in Austin on June 6-10.
Players Mentioned
