UND Track Qualifies Ten for West Prelims

Athletes who rank in the top 48 regionally in their respective events qualify for the NCAA West Prelims as well as the top 24 relay times. The top 12 finishers in each event at the preliminary round will then advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., on June 10-13.

Seven women and two men will represent North Dakota at the meet—each earning a bid apiece while Jadyn Keeler leads with two entries in the 5000-meter and 10,000-meter runs.

The recently-award Summit League Women’s Track MVP of the Championship dominated the track in a pair of meets during the month of April out in California where each of her two qualifying times were clocked. Her time of 15:26.98 in the 5000-meter run came during the Bryan Clay Invitational, which placed her 13th overall against an elite field of athletes. That result helped Keeler rank 10th overall in the west region and 14th in the nation for the event. And yet, she found further national success in the 10,000-meter run. As a member of the No. 5 squad in the nation for the event, Keeler ran a time of 31:56.03 at the elite Stanford Invitational, placing fourth overall. Her clocking broke her own previous school record by more than 10 seconds and placed her fourth in the west region and sixth in the nation.

Keeler will be joined in the 10,000-meter run national semifinals by two teammates: Shewaye Johnson and Naja Weiler. North Dakota’s nationally-ranked event squad is further backed by Johnson’s PR clocking of 33:44.70—which sits 41st in the west region—from the Stanford Invitational earlier this season. Weiler also earned a bid to the regional meet after her personal-best performance at the Stanford Invitational resulted in a time of 33:51.36 that sits 48th in the region.

Two Fighting Hawks will compete in the 3000-meter steeplechase, with Frida Giersdorff and Louis-Lys Fanucchi set to compete. Out at the Stanford Invitational, Giersdorff crossed the finish line in a time of 10:06.17 to take seventh place overall. At the time, it broke her own school record by more than 12 seconds. Though that record has since been broken, the junior still sits 13th in the region and 41st in the nation.

On the men’s half of the event, Fanucchi won the 3000-meter steeplechase at the Stanford Invitational behind his PR time of 8:42.15, which marked a new personal best. The April clocking sits 24th in the region and 42nd in the nation to give the Frenchman—who recently collected Summit League Men’s Track MVP of the Championship honors—his first career bid to the NCAA West Prelims.

Four Fighting Hawks qualified for the regional meet in field events with a pair of women’s athletes set for the hammer throw in the form of Cailey Moton and Julia Matthews. At the Cobb Open earlier this month, Moton won the event with her personal-best throw of 194-5 (59.27m) that now sits fifth in school history. She holds the 40th spot in the region and is closely followed by Matthews, who sits 43rd. Her mark of 191-2 (58.27m) also came from the Cobb Open and resulted in a runner-up finish, personal best and sixth-best throw in school history.

Shane Zierden earned his bid to the regional meet after a record-breaking performance at the conference championships. He broke his own long jump school record with a leap of 25-2 (7.67m) to claim the top spot on the podium and the gold medal while ranking 29th in the region.

The final qualifier for North Dakota comes in the women’s high jump. Anya Williams broke the North Dakota school record in the event with her bar of 5-9 1/4 (1.76m) to take second place at the Gary Wilson Invitational. Her mark gives her the No. 43 spot in the west region heading into the NCAA West Prelims.