Junior triple jumper Amanda Ouedraogo jumped her way to the NCAA Championship Meet after winning the women’s triple jump title Saturday at the Texas Tech Open in Lubbock.
Ouedraogo jumped 12.48 meters, hitting the automatic qualifying mark necessary to compete at Nationals.
“Amanda is an athlete that has a great combination of skills and drive to succeed,” head coach Roosevelt Lofton said. “She performed at a high level this weekend, and we are all proud of her.”
Ouedraogo is Abilene Christian’s second automatic NCAA qualifier, joining senior thrower Nick Jones, who qualified in the shot put in December at the Air Force Blue Silver Open.
“This year’s team has loads of talent,” Jones said. “Amanda is a rare talent and a great asset to our team. I am very proud of her for her automatically qualifying.”
Junior sprinter Jordan Geary provisionally qualified for nationals in the 400-meter run with a time of 48.39 seconds, a personal best.
Dennis Bain, junior hurdler, provisionally qualified in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.18 seconds.
Freshman Lexus Williams also provisionally qualified in the women’s 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.78 seconds at the meet.
“The underlying goal for all of the meets early in the season like the Texas Tech Open is to have as many athletes as possible for our team either automatically or provisionally qualify for nationals,” Lofton said. “We made some strides this weekend at that.”
The women’s 4×400 meter relay team comprised of Karla Hope, Cassie rooks, Shennae Steele and Ayesha Rumble posted a time of 3:54.61, a provisional qualifying time.
The men’s 4×400 meter relay team saw similar results as the women, provisionally qualifying as well with a time of 3:18.38 in Lubbock. The team is made up of Paris Robertson, Jordan Geary, Osei Alleyne Forte and Banjo Jaiyesimi. In the final leg, Geary, the anchor, lost the lead for a short time before gaining ground and overcoming the opposition.
Both Geary and Robertson posted personal records in the 200-meter run of 21.80 and 21.92 seconds.
Long jumper Levance Williams finished second with a leap of 7.48 meters, a slim 2.75 inches away from automatically qualifying for nationals.
“I felt like I did pretty well for the first meet,” Williams said. “Our men’s team will be solid this year and I am excited for what’s to come. These first few meets are so important for us because we don’t really have that many opportunities to qualify. It’s important we take them all seriously and compete to the best of our ability.”
The women’s distance medley team finished in second place, running the race in 12:27.06, ten seconds off the provisional mark. That time is also 21 seconds faster than any time it posted last year.
The men’s distance medley team’s time of 10:16.83 in Lubbock is a 45 second improvement from its best time last year and was good for third place at the meet.
The track and field team will continue its season this weekend in two different locations. The multi-event athletes will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., while everyone else will head to Albuquerque, N.M. for the New Mexico Invitational.
