LOGAN, Utah – Utah State track & field will be represented by 19 student-athletes at the NCAA West Preliminaries in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Wednesday through Saturday, May 22-25. This is the most berths for Utah State since the team sent a school-record 22 student-athletes in 2018. 
 
Athletes who ranked among the top 48 in the East or West Regions in their respective event earned berths to the NCAA Preliminary Championships.
 
Athletes with the top-12 times/marks and the 12 best relay teams at both the East and West Preliminary Championships will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Finals, which are being held June 5-8, in Eugene, Oregon.
 
The Aggies will be sending nine women and 10 men to the prelims. On the women's side, junior Maddie Edwards will compete in the 400-meter hurdles after winning the MW title and setting a school record at last week's conference championships with a time of 57.22. She was the first outdoor champion for the Aggie women since Brenn Flint in the shot put in 2019.
 
Senior Abbey Bryant qualified in the 100-meter hurdles, placing third at last week's MW Championships with a time of 13.41 to earn bronze for the second year in a row. She posted a personal-best time of 13.36in the prelims of the MW Championships. In the 800 meters, senior Mattie Geddes earned a spot as she broke her own school record and took fourth at the MW Outdoor Championships with a time of 2:06.45. 
 
In the 10,000 meters, junior Emma Thornley will represent the Aggies after earning bronze at the MW Championship with a time of 34:17.99. She won her heat at the Stanford Invitational earlier this season with a time of 33:34.62. Senior Djamilliah Paepke-Chile qualified in the javelin with a throw of 48.07 meters (157-8) at the Aggie Invitational. 
 
Seven Aggie runners earned berths to compete in the steeplechase, including four women and three men. Freshman Shelby Jensen (10:20.74), senior Abby Jensen (10:23.62) and senior Bailey Brinkerhoff-Todd (10:27.14) placed sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively at last week's MW Championships to qualify. Junior Sammi Lee earned her spot with a career-best time of 10:38.13 earlier this year at the Stanford Invitational. 
 
On the men's side, sophomore Logan Garnica (8:47.80), junior Max Wehrli (8:49.20) and senior Mark Crandall (8:53.45) each qualified, placing fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively, at the MW Championships. 
 
Other men's qualifiers for the Aggies include freshman Landon Bott, who took second at the MW Championships in the 800 meters with a time of 1:49.52. Junior Camren Todd also qualified in the 10,000 meters, placing eighth at the Stanford Invitational with a time of 28:43.08.
 
In the field, senior Gavin Beierle will compete in both the shot put and the discus. He set a personal-best mark of 17.92 meters (58-9.5) to place third in the shot put at the MW Championships, then earned a second bronze medal in the discus with a PR mark of 54.36 meters (178-4). Freshman Joseph Turner will also compete in the discus after placing second at the MW Championships with a personal record throw of 55.39 meters (181-8). 
 
Utah State triple jump record holder junior Godwin Charles bested his own school record of 15.88 meters (52-1.25) to win the MW title and qualify for the NCAA prelims. 
 
Another school record holder and conference champion, sophomore Logan Hammer, will compete in the pole vault after setting a MW record at last week's conference championship with a mark of 5.62 meters (18-5.25), tied for the seventh-best vault in the nation this season. 
 
And freshman Walker Deede qualified in the javelin as he placed second at the MW Championships with a throw of 66.36 meters (217-8), which ranks eighth all-time in school history.
 
The NCAA West Preliminary Championships will be available for streaming through ESPN+.
 
Fans can follow the Utah State track & field programs at twitter.com/USUTF_XC, on Facebook at USUTrack and on Instagram at instagram.com/USUTF_XC. Aggies fans can also follow the Utah State athletic program at twitter.com/USUAthletics or on Facebook at Utah State University Athletics.
 
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