VERMILLION, S.D.— South Dakota track and field has qualified 21 entries to the NCAA West Preliminary held in Fayetteville, Arkansas, starting next Wednesday. A total of 17 individuals and two relays account for the 21 entries.
This marks the seventh-straight meet the Coyotes have qualified 19 or more entries to the NCAA West Preliminary.
Highlighting the Coyotes’ entries are 10 in the sprints and hurdles including both women’s relays. USD also qualified six athletes in the pole vault, with four men and two women. This is the seventh-straight year with the Coyotes advancing at least six vaulters to the NCAA West Preliminary.
Senior Jacy Pulse is coming off a second-team All-America performance at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 400-meter hurdles. She enters this year’s meet with the sixth-best mark in the field at 56.17 seconds, a time she put up to win the Mt. SAC Relays. Pulse broke the Summit League Championships meet record in both the preliminary and the final last weekend.
With a pair of All-American vaulters redshirting this outdoor season, the Coyote women’s pole vault squad advanced just two to the NCAA West Preliminary meet. Fifth-year senior Gen Hirata, a four-time All-American in her own right, enters with the ninth-best height in the NCAA West women’s pole vault. She’s cleared a season-best of 14-3 ¼ (4.35m) this spring. She’s making her third career appearance at the preliminary round. Senior Jaidyn Garrett joins her with the 33rd-best height in the field at 13-8 ½ (4.18m). This marks Garrett’s fourth trip to the NCAA preliminary meet.
South Dakota’s men’s pole vault squad, which ranks No. 3 in the nation, advanced the second-most qualifiers to the NCAA Preliminary round with four. Fifth-year senior Marshall Faurot, who earned All-America honors indoors, enters with the 13th best mark in the NCAA West this spring at 17-8 ½ (5.40m). Faurot is making his fourth career appearance at the preliminary meet. Senior Eerik Haamer will make his fourth appearance at the NCAA West Preliminary, entering with the 30th-best mark at 17-3 (5.26m). Redshirt-junior Tre Young enters in the 36th position at 17-1 (5.21m). He’s making his third appearance at the West. Junior Spencer Buley will make his debut at the NCAA West Preliminary this season, qualifying with the 44th-best mark at 17-0 (5.18m).
Junior Joe Lynch enters with the 15th-best height in the men’s high jump field at 7-0 ½ (2.15m). A transfer from Dakota State, Lynch makes his second career appearance in two seasons with the Coyotes.
This marks the second-straight year for senior Erin Kinney to qualify in both the open 100 meters and 200 meters. Kinney has the 22nd-fastest seed time in the 100 meters at 11.31 seconds and the 33rd-best time in the 200 meters at 23.42 seconds.
Redshirt-junior Sara Reifenrath will focus on the open 400 meters at this year’s preliminaries. This marks her third trip to the NCAA West and her second time racing the 400 meters. She last did the 200-400 double as a freshman in 2021.
Junior Averi Schmeichel’s school record time of 13.30 seconds from the Summit League Championships moved her to 28th in the field for the 100-meter hurdles at the NCAA West. She also snuck into the 400-meter hurdles with the 48th-best mark at 59.10 seconds.
South Dakota also advanced both the women’s 4×100-meter and 4×400-meter relays. The women’s 4×400-meter relay of junior Anna Robinson, Reifenrath, senior Madison Jochum and Pulse enter with the 12th-best time in the field at 3:33.15. This is USD’s first time reaching the preliminary round in the women’s 4×400 relay. The women’s 4×100-meter relay of Kinney, Pulse, Schmeichel and Reifenrath are 22nd in the field at 44.39 seconds. This marks the third-straight year that the Coyotes have qualified in the 4×100-meter relay.
Fifth-year senior Meredith Clark will focus on the shot put. She enters the meet with the 25th best mark at 53-8 ¾ (16.38m). Clark became the first Coyote athlete to participate in three open events at the NCAA West Preliminaries a year ago. This marks her second time throwing the shot put at the meet.
The duo of sophomore Bennett Schwenn and freshman Carsen Staehr will make their NCAA West debuts next weekend. Schwenn has the 26th-best mark in the long jump with a leap of 25-3 ¼ (7.70m). Staehr enters the field with the 36th-best mark in the triple jump at 50-6 ¾ (15.41m).
Junior Danii Anglin returns for her third trip to the NCAA West Preliminary in the high jump. She has the 31st-best height this season at 5-10 (1.78m).
With a pair of Summit League Championship titles between them last weekend, sophomore Mikael Grace and freshman Jaden Guthmiller both snuck into the preliminary meet with their new personal record times. Grace owns the 45th-best time in the 110-meter hurdles at 13.90 seconds, while Guthmiller has the 48th-best time in the 100 meters at 10.31 seconds.
The NCAA West Preliminaries are scheduled for May 22-25 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.