Three Advance to NCAA Championships

EUGENE, Ore. -- On the second day of the NCAA West Preliminary, three BYU women’s track and field athletes qualified for the NCAA National Championships.

"We had some really great performances today," head coach Patrick Shane said. "Three of our runners advanced to Nationals and we have a chance to advance a few more athletes Saturday."

Junior Lacey Bleazard came away with the top Cougar performance on day two with an eighth place finish in the 800 meter run in 2:05.08. With the time Bleazard qualifies for the National Championships for the third consecutive season.

Also qualifying for the National Championships in the 800 meters was junior Katie Palmer. Palmer finished 15th overall in 2:07.06 but managed to qualify from outside the top-12 by finishing third in her heat.

One of the most impressive performances on day two came from senior Porshe Giddings, who qualified for the National Championships in the 100 meters with an 11th place finish in 11.66. Giddings entered the race ranked 18th overall.

"Porshe has been remarkable at this meet," Shane said. "She came in ranked very low but was ready to compete and it paid off."

BYU had three runners competing in the 100-meter hurdles but all missed the cut to move on. Fatima Makakala finished 40th in 14.17 while Mindy Sagers and Alyssa Christensen finished 45th and 46th, respectively.

The Cougars also had two competitors in the pole vault, Christen Botteron and Kelli Ehardt. Both athletes were unable to qualify for the next round of competition.

In the final event of the day junior Katy Andrews finished 17th in the 3000-meter steeplechase. Her time of 10:18.56 was less than four seconds slower than the final National qualifier.

Competition will continue at the NCAA West Preliminary on Saturday at 11:00 am MT. BYU will have athletes competing in the 4x100m relay at 2:00 pm, 1500m at 2:30 pm, 5000m at 4:05 pm and the 4x400m relay at 5:25 pm.

To view live results CLICK HERE.