Wildcats add 14 more qualifiers

All four relays, 10 individuals qualify for nationals

ABILENE – The ACU men's and women's track and field teams picked up 10 more provisional qualifiers, one automatic qualifier and four provisionally qualifying relay teams Saturday at the Oliver Jackson Open Track and Field meet at Elmer Gray Stadium.

ACU's Jessica Hunt was a double winner for head coach Jon Murray in the 100 (11.75) and 200 (24.08), and ran on both winning relays (45.66 in the 400, 3:44.92 in the 1600). In the 200, she led her sister Brooklyn (24.17) across the finish line. ACU senior Katie Eckley won the women's pole vault as she and teammate Val Gorter each bettered provisional marks they posted last week at Baylor.  After opening at 12-3.25, Eckley won the women's pole vault at 12-9 then had the bar raised to 13-4.25.  But she missed three times at what would have been a NCAA Division II national record.

Gorter finished third in the vault at 12-3.25, bettering her previous provisional qualifying mark of 11-11.75.

In the men's triple jump, ACU’s Yevgen Pashchenko was the Wildcats' only new NCAA automatic qualifier. VHe jumped 51-5.75 to place third in an event won by teammate Ben Washington with a wind-aided leap of 52-7.50 . Both are former NCAA Division II national champions.  Washington posted a provisional qualifying mark of 49-1.75 in one of his preliminary-round jumps.

In addition to his 200 win, sophomore Marvin Bien-Aime ran the second 100 on ACU's sprint relay and brought the Wildcats back into contention after trailing early. Delt Cockrell ran third, Ricardo Johnson anchored, and Elton Garus-Oab started for the Wildcats, who ran 40.60 to win the event and provisionally qualify for the national meet, which will be May 26-28 at Elmer Gray Stadium.

Other winners and provisional qualifiers for ACU's men were Marvin Essor (46.55) in the 400 and distance ace Nicodemus Naimadu (3:49.05) in the 1,500.

The Hunt sisters ran on both winning relays for Murray's women. They were joined on baton duties by Shawna-Kaye Thompson and Allison Tate in the 400 and Keva Wilkins and Denise Morgan in the 1,600.

In the women's 3,000, Olha Kryv'yak led a 1-2-3 Wildcat sweep in 9:51.03. Other winners for the ACU women were Morgan (2:11.97) in the 800 and Eryka Morris (17-9.75) in the long jump.

ACU will be back in action this weekend at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin.