NCAA Outdoor Championship Home
Women's qualifying list
Men's qualifying list
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The University of South Alabama men's and women's track and field teams will be sending 10 student-athletes to the NCAA East Region Preliminaries with Thursday's announcement of postseason selections by the NCAA.
Ten Jaguars - which includes six men and four women - qualified for the meet in Lexington, Ky., May 25-27. Each event qualified 48 individuals, with the top 12 finishers advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship in Eugene, Ore., June 7-10.
Senior Kaitlyn Beans will be marking her fourth appearance at the regional level to represent the Jaguars in the women's triple jump. The Montgomery, Ala., native was named second-team All-American after finishing 13th in the nation at the 2016 NCAA Championship as well as being named honorable mention All-American each of the previous two seasons. She's currently ranked 16th in the region after her 13.10-meter jump at the Sun Belt Championships earned her the league title for the event.
Senior Zach Blahnik will return for a third time for the men's hammer throw. Blahnik's personal-best throw of 65.92m at the Sun Belt Conference Championship puts him 25th in the region. Barbara Rivera will also be making her third consecutive trip the the NCAA East Region Preliminaries after winning the SBC title in the jaelin last weekend for the third-straight year with a school record throw of 50.39m.
Sean Collins will be able to compete in the men's pole vault at the outdoor regional level for the first time in his career. The now sophomore's postseason hopes ended early last spring when he suffered a season-ending injury after winning the Sun Belt tile as a freshman. Collins is currently ranked fifth in the region and eighth in the country after clearing a season-best 5.43m at the Sun Belt Conference meet to win the event last weekend. Two other pole vaulters will also be competing at the meet as well, Niel Gilomee will advance for a second-consecutive year while Megan James is making her first postseason appearance at the regional.
Taylor Dames (women's high jump) and Lezyon Leguarde (men's triple jump) qualified for the first time in their careers for the preliminaries. Dames ranks 30th in the region with a height of 1.74m and Leguarde ranks tied for 47th with a mark of 15.36m. Andrew Allen will compete in the men's javelin, coming into the weekend with a personal-best throw of 62.92m.
Arius Gilstrap is the lone Jaguar track student-athlete to advance this year in the 400-meter hurdles. The Atlanta, Ga., native stands 47th in the region with a time of 52.42 seconds this spring in the event.
Krisztina Szabo also qualified for the women's triple jump, but will be unable to compete due to injury.
This is the third-consecutive year the Jaguars will have 10 or more athletes qualify for the NCAA East Region Preliminaries. Last spring South Alabama qualified a program-record 16 athletes after sending 12 in 2015, the first time in school history the program sent more than 10 student-athletes.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with USAJaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at Twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
Join the Finish Line Club, the track and field and cross country specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Finish Line Club go directly to support the South Alabama track and field/cross country programs. For more information on how you can join visit: jaguarathleticfund.com/finishlineclub
—USA—
