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Miners Standing Tall at NCAA West Preliminaries

By Adrian Mac
UTEP's track sprinters are off to a scorching start in Austin, TX at the NCAA West Preliminaries. via <a href="http://www.iaaf.org/mm/photo/competitions/competition/05/63/78/56378_full-prt.jpg">www.iaaf.org</a>
UTEP's track sprinters are off to a scorching start in Austin, TX at the NCAA West Preliminaries. via www.iaaf.org

Today was Day 1 of the NCAA West Preliminaries in Austin, TX.  This year, the NCAA has altered the format of the preliminary rounds for the NCAA Championship Meet.  Essentially, every school west of the Mississippi is competing in Austin, TX, and everyone else is competing in Greensboro, NC. The top 12 qualifiers in each preliminary will advance to the NCAA Championships.

"Our sprinters did exactly what we were supposed to do today," said head coach Bob Kitchens. "Now we're just waiting to see how our women javelin throwers finish off the day for us."

The Highlights

  • Senior Ronalds Arajs ran a blistering 10.4 in the 100m dash to automatically advance to the next round.
  • All-American Blessing Okagbare ran a scorching 11.26 in the 100m dash.  That was the fastest time of the day.
  • 400 meter run:  Curtis Kock advanced to the quarterfinals with a nice 46.63. Anderson Mutegi clocked in at 46.24 to qualify for the quarters as well.
  • Endurance Abinuwa also qualified in the 400 meter run (53.62)

If you want to watch the track championships, free online streaming is available via CBS College Sports here.

Go Miners!  More updates tomorrow.