SPOKANE, Wash. — Following the West track and field regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas this weekend, six local athletes have punched their tickets to Eugene for the NCAA championships.
For the first time ever, a Gonzaga female athlete will race in a national final in Eugene. The WCC runner of the year, Rosina Machu finished in third place in the 10,000 meter semifinal Thursday to qualify for the national final.
Machu finished with a time of 34:03.97 and will race in the national final in Eugene on June 6th at 8:08 PM.
Also for the first time ever, two Gonzaga athletes will compete at nationals as Wil Smith on the men's side qualified for the 5,000 meter national final.
Smith becomes just the third Gonzaga male athlete to ever run in a national final along with James Mwaura and Troy Fraley.
Smith qualified by finishing in third place in his semifinal race with a time of 13:46.57.
Washington State is sending four athletes to Eugene: decathlete Lee Walburn, shot putter Nana Gyedu and 100 meter hurdlers Maribel Caicedo and Micaela De Mello.
Walburn automatically qualified for the national final after posting the 14th best mark in the decathlon with 7,649 points. The top 24 marks all advanced to the finals.
Gyedu threw a school record 17.23 meters on Thursday to finish eighth in her first round heat and will head to Eugene after placing in the top 12 of her heat.
Caicedo set the top mark in the west regional with a blistering wind aided time of 12.38 seconds in the quarterfinals to easily win her heat and advance to the national semifinal in Eugene as the top qualifier.
Caicedo will also race in the Olympics later this year in Paris for Ecuador after running a 12.61 second 100 meter hurdles at the Pac-12 championships.
De Mello finished second in her quarterfinal heat with a wind aided time of 12.82 seconds to advance to Eugene as well.
The NCAA national championships begin in Eugene on June 5 and will run through the weekend.
