Gomez, Ausman Punch Tickets To West Prelims
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State junior Kinsey Gomez and freshman Melissa Ausman qualified to compete at the NCAA Division I West Preliminary Track and Field Championships, the NCAA announced Thursday. The meet will be held from May 29-31 at the University of Arkansas’ John McDonnell Field.
Gomez, competing in the 10K, will be making her second trip to the West Preliminary Championships. Her school-record time of 34:37.80 at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. on April 17 is seeded 38th in the west.
As a sophomore last season, Gomez moved into second on Oregon State's all-time list in the 5K at Mt. SAC, cutting 14 seconds off her previous best to finish 10th in the event's ‘A’ section with a time of 16:24.17. That effort qualified her for the 2013 West Preliminary Championships in Austin, Texas, in which she finished 19th in her heat and 42nd overall in the 5K (17:17.54).
She is in the top four at OSU all-time in the 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m.
Ausman will be making her first postseason trip in her inaugural season at OSU. She earned her berth thanks to a school-record discus mark of 168’ from the OSU High Performance Meet on May 2, which was nearly 13 feet better than Beth Nygren’s 155’ 2” set in Corvallis on May 7, 1988 – the previous Oregon State record. It is seeded 42nd in the west, eighth in the nation among freshmen, fifth among U20 collegians and meets the qualifying standard for IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene this summer.
The freshman will be Oregon State’s first female thrower at an NCAA meet since 1987, when Connie Peterka was a finalist in the javelin and came in 10th with a mark of 154’ 2.75”. On the men’s side, John Thomas finished ninth in the hammer at the NCAA Championships in 1988 (205’ 10”).
For the fifth straight season, the country has been split into two regions - East and West - with the top 48 athletes (24 relays) in each region qualifying for the Preliminary Round. The East Preliminary is being held in Fayetteville, Ark., with the East Preliminary taking place at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla. The top 12 finishers in each event at the regional rounds will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., June 11-14.
