Five UTEP track and field athletes punched their tickets for the NCAA Championships on the final day of competition at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Des Moines, Iowa, Saturday.
The Miners had two champions with
Alex van der Merwe and
Elias Koech taking golds.
Van der Merwe took the javelin with a season-best marking of 225-11 (68.87). Koech ran 1:47.99 to win the 800-meter run handily.
UTEP’s other automatic qualifiers included All-Americans
Patrick Mutai,
Fatimoh Muhammed and
Nelly Tchayem.
Mutai placed fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, running 8:52.32, Muhammed crossed in a lifetime best of 2:03.03 to take the silver in the women’s 800 and Tchayem tied for second in the triple jump with a leap of 42-9 1/2 (13.04).
UTEP also had six student-athletes and one relay remain in contention for at-large bids by finishing in the top 12.
The men’s 1,600-meter relay of
John Alipio,
Daniel Ward,
Dominic Kiprono Tanui and Koech posted a time of 3:07.34 to take seventh.
Ward was also seventh in the 200-meter dash, crossing in 21.40.
Oludamola Osayomi took seventh in the 100-meter dash (11.56),
Nina Schvedoff was eighth in the hammer (188-2/57.36),
Keisha Walkes was 11th in the discus (155-3/47.32),
Alina Joaca-Bine was 12th in the hammer (178-4/54.36) and
Kelly Young was 12th in the 1,500-meter run (4:34.50) to round off UTEP’s field.
UTEP took ninth out of 32 teams on the women’s side with 29 points and the men were 10th out of 36 teams with 30 points.
The Miners finished the weekend with a total of six NCAA automatic qualifier with
Erma Gene Evans winning the javelin on Friday. This group will join
Stephen Samoei and
Japheth Ng'ojoy, who will be entered in 10,000-meter run, at the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif., from June 6-9.
The rest of UTEP’s finishers, who did not place in the top five, will have to wait until next week to find if they have earned an at-large bids.
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