2023 APU Franson Last Chance Results

AZUSA, Calif. – With only NCAA Division II Outdoor Nationals left on the horizon this season, Academy of Art track & field made its final push toward qualification to compete on the elite stage at the APU Franson Last Chance on Saturday. Significant moves up the nation's leaderboard came from Selena Arjona-Alcazar and Robin Black in their respective 200m dashes while Marie-Jeanne Ourega turned in her quickest 100m hurdles performance and other Urban Knights offered season-best efforts.

Saving one of her best 200m races for last this season, Arjona-Alcazar blazed to a 23.51, the fourth-fastest mark of her outdoor career, to move back into the nation's top 10. First among collegiate competitors in the 48-sprinter field, the Communications & Media Technologies major finished ahead of Philippines National Team member Danae Manibog-Gatewood as well as three of the competitors from this year's PacWest event final. In the last of the 100m dash, Arjona-Alcazar was also the top ART U finisher, taking fourth at 11.64 while Britney Clark was just behind her teammate in fifth at 11.66.

Black impressed in a 200m event that also saw him serve as the top collegiate finisher out of a total of 62 sprinters. He won his heat by more than 0.20 seconds, going 20.96 across the line to elevate to third in program history, behind only Hall of Famer Mobolade Ajomale and 12-time All-American Jordan Edwards and 26th in NCAA DII, marking the fourth individual event where he can be found in that place or higher (100m, 200m, 110mH, 400mH). In the end, only two non-collegiate competitors finished ahead of Black in Olympian as well as 10-time All-American Michael Ohioze and S.H.A.R.K.S Athletic Club professional athlete Daniel Stokes-Lopez.

Battling former U.S. Olympic Team Trials qualifier Danielle Beattie and Azusa Pacific's Jaylah Walker in the 100m hurdles final, Ourega delivered the fastest time of her career at 13.49. Taking third on the day, she moved up into the sixth position in the nation and fifth in Academy of Art history.

The women's 4x100m relay quartet of Clark, Darria Matthias, Erine Collard, and Alicia Thomas combined for the Urban Knights' third Outdoor Nationals provisional of the season, going 46.15 to best six other teams on the day and give ART U three marks inside the nation's top 40.

After a 14-jumper field was cut to eight with the men's high jump bar at 6-6.25 (1.99m), Daniel Cortes Gonzalez was one of the six to clear 6-8.25 (2.04m). Though he would pass the next height and ultimately could not clear 6-11.5 (2.12m), he ended the regular season as an Outdoor Nationals provisional qualifier, tying for top 45 in NCAA DII.

Lina Hanich stepped across the finish line in the 1500m with a new personal record by nearly four seconds. At 4:31.69 in the 21st spot of 82 runners on Saturday, she made her fifth time contesting the distance this season memorable as she entered the country's top 65 to become an Outdoor Nationals provisional qualifier in her second event this year.

Competing in a pair of hurdles events less than an hour and a half apart, Crockett Schooler began by taking fourth in the 110m hurdles final with a time of 14.24, marking his fifth Outdoor Nationals provisional in the event this season. He then turned in a 53.04 in the 400m hurdles, his fourth time better than the provisional standard this year, good for sixth of 20 competitors on the day.

In the final race of his collegiate career, Hudson Lockette posted the third-fastest 3000m steeplechase time in ART U history at 9:27.42.

For the Urban Knights who qualify, Outdoor Nationals will be up next, taking place May 25-27 in Pueblo, Colorado.