SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A trio of UTSA track and field student-athletes, including Andre Douglas, Patrick Prince and Danielle Spence competed on Saturday at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field West Preliminary Round at Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium.
Douglas, a sophomore out of Kingston, Jamaica finished 14th in the men's triple jump with a 15.49m (50-10) with the top 12 earning spots in the NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 5-8 in Austin, Texas. Prince and Spence also competed on Saturday but narrowly missed qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
A senior from Conroe, Texas, Prince earned a 14.01 in the men's 110m hurdles, good for a 17th-place finish. Prince advanced into the quarterfinals with a season-best 13:91 run. He is a two-time Conference USA Champion and a four-time NCAA postseason qualifier in the 110-meter hurdles. In 2018, Prince posted a 13.78 to finish eighth in the West Preliminary and earned All-America accolades at the NCAA Outdoor with a 20th place finish.
In the women's triple jump, Spence advanced to the NCAA West Preliminary for the second consecutive year. A sophomore out of Jamaica, she sported a program-record mark of 13.42m (44-0 ½) to earn silver at the Conference USA Outdoor. She won the C-USA Indoor crown and second-team All-America accolades at the NCAA Indoor in March in triple jump.
Saturday's action concluded the three-day event with eight Roadrunners participating. On Thursday, UTSA saw Vasha Sheriff (400 meters), Andrew Pirog (400m hurdles), Olivia Esemena (100 meters) and Orla Brothers (400m hurdles) compete. On Friday, senior Luca Chatham (800 meters) advanced to the NCAA Championships with a school-record performance in the NCA Quarterfinals.
In addition to Douglas in the triple jump and Chatham in the 800 meters, freshman Gary Hassbroek has punched his ticket to Austin in the decathlon. A native of Melbourne, Australia, he will enter the national championship meet with the 22nd-best mark in the field, as he looks to repeat as an All-American after earning second-team accolades in the heptathlon at the NCAA Indoor in March. The top 24 declared athletes qualify for the NCAA Outdoor decathlon, which was not contested at the West Preliminary.
UTSA Results
Men's Triple Jump
14. Andre Douglas: 15.49m (50-10)
Men's 110m Hurdles
17. Patrick Prince: 14:01
Women's Triple Jump
15. Danielle Spence: 12.77m
Explaining the NCAA Championships format
The East and West regions are comprised of all Division I institutions in 25 states apiece for each of the two regions.
Twelve performers from each preliminary site advance to the NCAA Championships – hosted at Texas' Mike A. Myers Stadium June 5-8 in Austin, Texas.
The East and West Preliminary Championship intended to have parallel schedules. California State University, Sacramento will host NCAA West Prelims the same days.
For each individual event contested at each of the preliminary sites, the top 48 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition. For each relay event, the top 24 declared relay teams were accepted into the competition.
For the heptathlon and decathlon, the top 24 declared student-athletes in each event based on their position on the national descending-order list were accepted into the Championships. Heptathlon and decathlon are not contested at preliminary championships sites.
But as it relates to the NCAA Championships, qualifying entries into the preliminary championships is less significant than the number of entries who make it through prelims and advance to Eugene for the NCAA Championships.
- UTSA -
