Courtesy of Colorado State Athletics
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Colorado State track & field will send five athletes to NCAA Outdoor Nationals in June as Klaire Kovatch and Catherine Garrison each punched their tickets to Eugene on the final day of the NCAA West Regional, Saturday.
Kovatch took the stage first and delivered a dominant performance in the discus. A strong first throw of 56.90 meters/186-feet-8 would have been enough to see her way through, but Kovatch went a step further and logged 58.39m/191-7 on her second attempt – an identical mark to the one that won her a gold medal at the Mountain West Championships.
Kovatch finished second in the field and will make her third trip to NCAA outdoor nationals.
Garrison was sensational in her run in the women’s steeplechase, clocking a time of 10:07.09 that had her sitting comfortably in third place after the conclusion of two heats. As the third heat crossed the line, Garrison remained within qualifying range and secured her first career trip to nationals.
Kovatch and Garrison complete a group of five Rams that will compete at nationals, joining Makayla Long (shot put), Kenny Carpenter (400) and Trenton Givens (110H). The NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will take place at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., from June 10-13. record.
The Ram’s time placed him in the 12th and final qualifying spot by 0.01 seconds, but his celebration was put on pause due to a protest over a fall during his heat. After deliberation, Givens’ time stood and the Ram senior punched his ticket to Eugene, Ore., for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
A similar story was told for Kenny Carpenter, who set the program record in the 400 (45.47) during Wednesday’s prelims to put him in the spotlight once again on Friday. Entering the week ranked 63rd nationally, Carpenter was given an outside chance to earn one of the top 12 spots in the West Region.
Those projections didn’t matter to Carpenter.
The Highlands Ranch native did not fully replicate Wednesday’s record time, but his 45.61 was quick enough on the day. Like Givens, Carpenter finished in the 12th and final spot, advancing to Eugene by a margin of 0.02 seconds. The track duo will join women’s thrower Makayla Long on the plane to Oregon after she qualified for nationals in shot put on Thursday.
Elsewhere on the day, Ndayiragije Shukurani competed in two events as he took the stage in both the high jump and triple jump. In his first event of the day, Shukurani made a good run at qualifying in the high jump but was just short in the end. The sophomore was one of six athletes to clear the first two bars without a hiccup, but trouble came at the 2.17 meter bar – which sat 0.01m above his PR and his CSU program record – and brought an end to his day.
In the triple jump, Shukurani notched a top mark of 15.43m/50-7.5, which resulted in a 23rd place finish. This concluded a sensational sophomore campaign in which he claimed three program records and won three conference gold medals across the indoor and outdoor seasons.
CSU had four athletes competing in the men’s discus competition, a group which was led by Daniel Baroumbaye. After scratching the first two attempts, the Grand Junction native delivered on his third and final throw with a mark of 54.10m/179-5, putting him well inside the top 12 after the first two flights. However, scores from the final two heats pushed Baroumbaye out of the qualifying range, bringing an end to a solid season for the sophomore.
The final day of the NCAA West Regional takes place on Saturday, as the women of Colorado State will have athletes competing in the discus and steeplechase competitions. The discus will start the day off at 12:00 p.m. MT.
