COLLEGE STATION, Texas – UTSA track and field added another NCAA Championships qualifier for the second consecutive day at the NCAA West First Round. Senior transfer Rachela Pace delivered a career mark for the second straight meet, pulling down the UTSA record and breaking her own Maltese national record while punching her ticket to nationals – bringing UTSA’s qualification total to three individuals.
Pace (Dingli, Malta) will compete in the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, for the second consecutive year in the triple jump – appearing last year with Fresno State. In Saturday’s opening round at E.B. Cushing Stadium, Pace finished 10th overall after measuring a career-best 13.46m (44-2) on her third jump of the day. The new PR nudges her past Danielle Spence’s (12.42m) standard from the 2019 Conference USA Championships. In addition, Pace broke her previous national record in Malta (13.41m) from the 2025 American Athletic Conference Championships. Also appearing in the triple jump, senior Oreoluwa Adamson (London, England) finished 40th overall with a mark of 12.40m (40-8.25).
With the completion of the regional heptathlon competitions, the 24-athlete field for nationals was fully locked in, confirming redshirt freshman Mia Lien (Jakobsli, Norway) on her automatic qualification, ranking 11th in the nation with 5,741 points.
In the first running event of the day, freshman Selma Ims (Sandnes, Norway) just missed moving on in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing 16th overall with a time of 57.60 in her first career regional quarterfinal.
UTSA’s high jumpers, Lien and sophomore Edlin Laur (Tallinn, Estonia) finished 20th and 24th in the high jump, respectively, with Lien reaching 1.81m (5-11.25) and Laur going 1.76m (5-9.25).
Closing out the day and the meet, the 4x400-meter squad of Ims, Nayanna Dubarry-Gay (Romford, England senior), Fatoumata Kabo (Carpenedolo, Italy senior) and Ida Breigan (Frederikstad, Norway sophomore) cut close to reaching another qualification, as the quartet finished 14th with a combined time of 3:34.77, missing the qualification fringe by .46 seconds. Their combined time also ranks No. 2 in the all-time UTSA performances.
Pace and Lien will be joined in Eugene by Cysoing, France senior Hugo Menin, who punched his ticket in the 400m hurdles on Friday evening. The NCAA Outdoor Championships will be held at historic Hayward Field, June 11-14.
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