FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.— South Dakota senior Jacy Pulse punched a return ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 400-meter hurdles during Saturday evening’s NCAA West Preliminary competition held at John McDonnell Field.
Pulse took the third automatic qualifying spot in the third heat of the women’s 400-meter hurdle quarterfinals. She clocked 57.00 seconds, which was the ninth-best time in the quarterfinal race. The event will consist of a semifinal and then a final at the championship meet in two weeks. A native of Salem, South Dakota, Pulse returns to the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the second-straight season. She was a second-team All-American a year ago, setting a record for the fastest semifinal time (56.14 seconds) to not make the final in NCAA Championship history.
Pulse is one of five Coyotes to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in two weeks. She’s the only track athlete qualifying, joining three pole vaulters and one high jumper. Other qualifiers include senior Marshall Faurot (Scott City, Kansas), senior Eerik Haamer (Estonia), senior Gen Hirata (Fredericksburg, Virginia) and junior Joe Lynch (Sioux Falls, South Dakota).
The women’s 4×100-meter relay of senior Erin Kinney, Pulse, junior Averi Schmeichel and redshirt-junior Sara Reifenrath broke the quartet’s own school record from earlier this season with a time of 44.13 seconds. The group finished 16th in the NCAA West Preliminaries.
The women’s 4×400-meter relay was 18th in the field with a time of 3:35.31. The relay consisted of junior Anna Robinson, Reifenrath, senior Madison Jochum and Pulse. The quartet was just over two seconds off the final qualifying spot of 3:33.02. This marked the first time the Coyotes had qualified for the NCAA preliminary round in the 4×400 relay.
Reifenrath, a native of Hartington, Nebraska, broke her own school record time in the 400 meters for the second time in three days. Reifenrath finished 20th in the 400-meter quarterfinals after crossing the finish line in 52.55 seconds.
Kinney, a Sioux Falls native, finished 22nd in the quarterfinals of the 100 meters with a time of 11.34 seconds. She broke her own school record in the event in the first round of the NCAA West Preliminary on Thursday with a time of 11.22 seconds.
Junior Danii Anglin also competed in the women’s high jump competition.
South Dakota advances five individuals to the NCAA Championships held June 5-8 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.