LOGAN, Utah – Utah State track & field will be represented by 22 student-athletes at the 2026 NCAA West First Rounds in Fayetteville, Arkansas, from Wednesday to Saturday, May 27-30.

Utah State will be sending 16 men and six women to the prelims. The Aggies' 22 qualifying athletes for the preliminary round are tied for the most in program history with the 2018 squad.
 
Athletes who ranked among the top 48 in the East or West regions in their respective event earned berths to the NCAA First Rounds.
 
Individual athletes and relay teams who finish in the top-12 at both the East and West First Rounds will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which are being held June 10-13, in Eugene, Oregon.
 
Three men were invited to compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Graduate Logan Garnica, the MW silver medalist and USU record holder in the event, ranks third in the West region with a time of 8:29.92, which he ran at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Juniors Garrett Woodhouse and Michael Amitava Maiorano will join Garnica in the men's field at the prelims, with the pair having posted personal-best seed times of 8:40.33 and 8:47.15 at the Bryan Clay Invitational and BYU Robison Invitational, respectively.
 
Three men's pole vaulters qualified for the prelims for the second-straight season. Senior Logan Hammer, a four-time All-American and seven-time conference champion, leads the trio with a clearance of 5.60 meters (18-4.5), which he set at the Beach Invitational, that ranks fifth in the region. Senior Javin Richards, the MW silver medalist in the decathlon, advanced with a height of 5.30 meters (17-4.5), which he cleared at the Stanford Invitational. Senior Marshall Rasmussen qualified with his personal-best mark of 5.23 meters (17-1.75) from the Pacific Coast Invitational.
 
Junior Walker Deede, fresh off a gold-medal javelin performance at the MW championships, earned his third career qualification to the prelims through his performance at the Aggie Invitational, where his personal-best throw of 74.90 meters (245-9) slotted him second in Utah State and MW history and sixth in the West region. Junior Kace Jones, who won silver at the MW championships, earned his first career berth to the NCAA prelims with a throw of 63.61 meters (208-8) at the UVU Collegiate Invitational.
 
Junior Landon Bott, the two-time champion of the men's 800 meters at the MW Championships, qualified for the NCAA West First Rounds with his time of 1:45.83, which he set at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Bott, who is seeded 10th in the West region, broke the MW record and ranks second in Aggie history with his performance.
 
Sophomore Ayodele Ojo, Jr. and freshman David Konan earned their trip to Arkansas in the men's 100 meters. Ojo is seeded 11th in the region following his silver-medal run of 10.09 in the final at the MW championships, which broke the Utah State record and ranked fifth all-time in MW history. Konan, one of only seven freshmen in the field, posted his altitude-adjusted qualifying time of 10.21 at the UVU Collegiate Invitational.
 
Senior Valerie Clark punched her prelim ticket at the Aggie Invitational when she broke the Utah State record in the women's javelin with a throw of 53.60 meters (175-10), which ranks 14th regionally. Clark returns to the NCAA prelims for the first time since 2023.
 
The Utah State men's 4x100-meter relay team, who won USU's first gold at the MW championships since 2014, earned a bid to the prelims for the second-straight season. The Aggies' season-best time of 39.48 was posted by Richards, sophomore Mathew Hall, Konan and Ojo at the Pacific Coast Invitational. Sophomore Daniel Chase, who led off the Aggies' gold-medal relay, and sophomore Diego Aguirre-Stewart will also travel to Fayetteville as alternates for the Aggies' 17th-seeded relay team.
 
Junior Shelby Jensen, a reigning first-team All-American and Utah State record holder in the event, qualified for the prelims with a time of 10.11.00 from her run at the Payton Jordan Invitational, seeding her 21st in the field.
 
Sophomore Shay Jones, who won bronze in the women's 400 meters and 4x400-meter relay at the conference championships, qualified for the NCAA West First Rounds as the 23rd-ranked runner in the field with a seed time of 52.23, which she set at the Beach Invitational.
 
Senior Sarah Ellis will compete in the 5,000 meters for the second-straight year. Ellis qualified for the prelims with a time of 15:50.07 at the Bryan Clay Invitational, a performance that broke the Utah State record in the event.
 
Sophomore Taite Priestley, a three-time MW bronze-medal winner, cleared a height of 2.12 meters (6-11.5) at the Beach Invitational to earn his second-straight prelim berth in the high jump.
 
Junior Claire Petersen earned her first career berth to the prelims in the 100-meter hurdles with her qualifying time of 13.44, which she set in her bronze-medal performance at the MW championships.
 
Freshman Karina Cooper earned her place in the prelims with her career-best clearance of 4.13 meters (13-6.5) in the women's pole vault at the MW championships, which was good for fourth place. Cooper, one of seven freshmen in the prelim field, is the first women's pole vaulter to qualify for the NCAA prelims since 2022.
 
Junior Joshua McKee punched his ticket to the prelims in the 10,000 meters with his qualifying run of 28:50.58 at the Stanford Invitational.
 
Hall earned an individual prelims berth in the 200 meters, claiming his place with an altitude-adjusted time of 20.66 at the BYU Robison Invitational.
 
The NCAA West First Rounds will be available for streaming through ESPN+.
 
Fans can follow the Utah State track and field programs on X at USUTF_XC, on Facebook at USUTrack and on Instagram at USUTF_XC. Aggies fans can also follow the Utah State athletic program on X at USUAthletics or on Facebook at Utah State University Athletics.

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