University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
NCAA West Prelim
Three More Gophers Earn NCAA Berths
5/26/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
AUSTIN, Texas - Day two of the NCAA West Prelim saw three more Golden Gophers punch their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship as Emerald Egwim, Taylor Wiebke, and Madeline Strandemo secured top-12 finishes in their respective events at Texas's Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas on Friday.
Egwim ran the seventh-fastest quarterfinal time in the 400-meter dash, taking third in her heat to secure an automatic berth to the NCAA Championship in 52.24 seconds. Egwim will make the third NCAA Championship appearance of her career after taking 13th in the 4x400m relay (3:35.90) at the 2015 NCAA outdoor meet and, most recently, earning Second Team All-American honors with a 16th-place finish in the 400m at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championship.
Wiebke secured her NCAA Championship debut appearance by tying for seventh in the high jump, clearing 1.79m (5-10.50) on her third attempt. She escaped a seven-way tie for 11th place as a jump-off was required to determine the final two qualifiers. Heta Tuuri also competed, tying for 32nd overall at 1.69m (5-06.50).
Strandemo rounded out Minnesota's day two-qualifiers with an automatic NCAA Championship berth following a runner-up finish in her heat of the 3,000-meter steeplechase. She finished fourth overall with a time of 10:10.68 and will make her NCAA Championship debut after placing 13th at the NCAA West Prelim and narrowly missing a spot in the NCAA final a year ago.
Agnes Esser led the Gophers in the discus, narrowly missing an NCAA Championship berth with a 13th-place finish a day after taking 14th in the hammer throw. Esser threw 53.11m (174-03) for her fourth-best mark of the season. Angie Guenther recorded a throw of 50.66m (166-02) to place 24th and Kiley Sabin finished 30th (49.65m, 162-10).
Other day two action at the NCAA West Prelim saw Emma Spagnola advance to Saturday's 100m hurdles quarterfinal, taking third in her heat to automatically move on in a time of 13.30 seconds. Kimberly Golding took fourth in her heat in 13.59 seconds and finished 30th overall.
Spagnola and Rachel Schow competed in the 400m hurdles quarterfinal round, coming in 24th and 25th respectively. Spagnola ran 1:00.19 and Schow finished in 1:00.35.
The NCAA West Prelim concludes Saturday with four more Gophers looking to punch their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship. Shanique Wright (triple jump), Kiley Sabin (shot put), Shay Nielsen (shot put), and Spagnola (100m hurdles) look to join Strandemo, Egwim, Wiebke, Temi Ogunrinde (hammer throw), and Angie Guenther (hammer throw) in representing the Maroon & Gold in Eugene, Ore.
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Players Mentioned
