DII Indoor Track & Field Pre-Nationals Results (Day 1)
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Urban Knights had some of their best performances of their careers Friday inside the Virginia Beach Sports Center as Academy of Art began DII Indoor Track & Field Pre-Nationals.
Lisa Redlinger delivered another indoor 5000m ART U record,
Hudson Lockette moved up to second in program history in the event, and
Yacouba Gnacko improved upon his best indoor long jump to date all while many of their teammates qualified through various sprint event prelims.
Building off the her 5000m effort from exactly one week ago, Redlinger broke the Academy of Art record she set by nearly 10 seconds with a time of 17:00.88 across the finish line. Just five other competitors contested the event, but the Interaction & UI/UX Design major locked in on a top 26 mark in the country as a provisional qualifier for NCAA Division II Indoor Nationals, ending as the top finisher from a collegiate institution in the meet.
The men's 5000m also featured a career run for Lockette who turned in his fastest mark thus far in the event's indoor version at 15:07.77. He would finish fourth out of the 12 runners in action on Friday while moving up to second in ART U history in the process.
While excitement was happening on the track, memorable performances were taking place in the long jump pit where Gnacko soared to 23-2.5 (7.07m) for his best indoor mark to date as an Urban Knight. His breakout fifth attempt coincidentally placed him also fifth in program history, bringing him ever closer to the Indoor Nationals provisional standard. In the same event,
Mathieu Tshani had his best indoor long jump since joining Academy of Art at 23-1.25 (7.04m) on his sixth and final attempt. The tandem finished third and fifth respectively out of 34 jumpers when the day was done.
The preliminary round of the women's 60m dash saw four Urban Knights reach the semifinals all among the top 16 out of 46 sprinters.
Selena Arjona-Alcazar (7.61) led the way and was closely followed by
Britney Clark (7.65),
Darria Matthias (7.70q), and
Alicia Thomas (7.82). Less than two hours later, the pair of Clark (7.53) and Arjona-Alcazar (7.64) punched their respective tickets to the final as the fourth and seventh finishers out of 22 while Matthias just missed qualification by 0.01. Clark's best time of the day matched her personal record which had her inside the nation's top 15 coming into the week.
In the first of what will be three rounds of the men's 60m dash,
Robin Black was first of 62 competitors at 6.81 while
Duncan Agyemang nearly matched his personal record with a time of 6.87 and
Ajani Ince's 6.97 made it three Knights inside the top 16. The semis saw improvements by both Black (6.78) and Ince (6.92) with the former placing second of 20 to reach tomorrow's final.
Up against 25 others in the 60m hurdles prelims,
Crockett Schooler put himself inside the top eight, finishing seventh at 8.24 with a chance to compete in the event on Saturday.
A full day of action awaits the Urban Knights tomorrow as DII Indoor Track & Field Pre-Nationals concludes inside Virginia Beach Sports Center.
