19 Flames Heading to Jacksonville for NCAA Preliminary Round
5/22/2023 8:53:48 AM | Track and Field
Live Video - Wednesday (ESPN+)
A group of 19 Liberty track & field athletes is heading to Visit Jax Track at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., for the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet. The four-day event, which will determine the qualifiers to the 2023 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, is set for Wednesday through Saturday.
At both the Jacksonville and Sacramento, Calif., venues, 48 athletes will compete in each individual event and 24 teams will race in each relay. The top 12 finishers in each event at each of the two sites will punch their tickets to the 2023 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, to be contested June 7-10 at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas.
North Florida is hosting the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet for the seventh time in the meet’s 13-year history. Liberty is quite familiar with the facility, having swept the ASUN Conference men’s and women’s team titles there, May 11-13.
The meet will get started Wednesday at 10 a.m. with the men’s hammer. Men’s events will be contested on Wednesday and Friday, with women’s events scheduled for Thursday and Saturday.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Live video streaming coverage of each day’s running events will be available on ESPN+.
Live results, including lap-by-lap splits and in-progress field event updates, will be provided by Flash Results.
Weather Report
There is a chance of thunderstorms throughout the meet, with high temperatures slowly climbing from the mid-70s on Wednesday to the low-80s on Saturday.
NCAA Preliminary Round Event Capsules (Organized Chronologically)
Men’s Hammer
Event Schedule: First Round – Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Liberty Competitor: John Hicks (Jr., Romney, W.Va.)
Entry Mark/Seed: 212-11 (64.91m)/No. 24
Outlook: Hicks will get the Flames’ week in Jacksonville started by throwing the hammer at the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet for the third year in a row. The ASUN runner-up will try to become the first Liberty men’s hammer thrower to reach the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships since Jon Hart in 2008. Hart (222-4) is the only Flame ever to throw the hammer farther than Hicks (216-4 personal best from 2022). Hicks will be joined in Jacksonville by younger brother Christian, who will compete in the discus on Friday. They will be Liberty’s first sibling duo to compete at the same NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet since 2013 (Aaron and Chris Johnson).
Road to Austin: All 48 athletes in Jacksonville will take three throws, with the top 12 finishers advancing to Austin. Last year, 12th place measured 221-8.
Men’s Javelin
Event Schedule: First Round – Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.
Liberty Competitors: Ethan Mylin (So., Lancaster, Pa.) and Ben Shughart (So., Shippensburg, Pa.)
Entry Marks/Seeds: Mylin – 215-2 (65.59m)/No. 37, Shughart – 214-9 (65.46m)/No. 39
Outlook: A pair of Liberty sophomores who have made significant improvement this season will throw the javelin on Wednesday afternoon. Mylin, who entered the year with a personal best of 198-10, reached a meet-record 215-2 on his sixth and final attempt to win the ASUN title and qualify for the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet. ASUN runner-up Shughart, whose top mark as a freshman measured 167-10, had already punched his ticket to Jacksonville with a 214-9 effort at the Virginia Challenge on April 21. This will be the first time Liberty has sent multiple javelin throwers to the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet since 2018 (Samuel Arter and Denzel Pratt).
Road to Austin: All 48 javelin throwers in Jacksonville will receive three attempts, with the top 12 finishers advancing to Austin. Last year, 12th place measured 221-0.
Men’s Shot Put
Event Schedule: First Round – Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Kevin Nedrick (R-Sr., Montego Bay, Jamaica)
Entry Mark/Seed: 61-11 (18.87m)/No. 15
Outlook: Discus All-American Nedrick has stamped himself as a contender to reach Austin in the shot put this season. He is the event’s No. 15 seed in Jacksonville thanks to an outdoor personal-best mark of 61-11 which netted an ASUN third-place finish. Nedrick also reached 63-5 during the 2023 indoor season. The only Liberty Flame with a better outdoor shot put mark in program history, current volunteer assistant Kyle Mitchell (64-9.75), was a national qualifier in 2021. Four of the top 21 men’s shot putters in the East Region hail from the ASUN Conference.
Road to Austin: All 48 shot putters in Jacksonville will take three throws, with the top 12 finishers advancing to Austin. Last year, 12th place measured 61-10.25.
Men’s 110 Hurdles
Event Schedule: First Round – Wednesday at 6 p.m.; Quarterfinals – Friday at 6:15 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Prosper Ekporere (So., Warri, Nigeria)
Entry Mark/Seed: 13.83/No. 34
Outlook: First-year Flame Ekporere clocked 13.83 at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 15, joining program record holder Jovaine Atkinson (13.77) as the only Flames ever to reach the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round in the men’s 110 hurdles. The ASUN runner-up will try to become Liberty’s first-ever NCAA Division I national qualifier in this event. Ekporere owns a personal best of 13.71 from 2022 in his home nation of Nigeria.
Road to Austin: The top three finishers in each of Wednesday’s first-round heats and the next six fastest time qualifiers will move on to Friday’s quarterfinal round. On Friday, the top three finishers in each heat and the next three fastest qualifiers will advance to Austin. In 2022, it took 13.83 to reach the quarterfinals and 13.70 to move on to the national meet.
Men’s 400 Hurdles
Event Schedule: First Round – Wednesday at 8:20 p.m.; Quarterfinals – Friday at 7:25 p.m.
Liberty Competitors: Rayan Holmes (R-Sr., Clarendon, Jamaica) and Felix Lawrence (Jr., Portsmouth, Dominica)
Entry Marks/Seeds: Holmes – 50.27/No. 13, Lawrence – 51.83/No. 47
Outlook: A Liberty men’s 400-meter hurdler has qualified to 10 of the last 12 NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meets, but this will mark the first time multiple Flames have made it in the same year. ASUN champion Rayan Holmes will make his NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round debut, while runner-up Felix Lawrence competes at this meet for the third year in a row. Holmes, who blazed to a personal-best 50.27 in the ASUN prelims, has broken a pair of long-standing records this season. The Liberty record of 50.52 had been held by Mike Reed since 1995, the same year he was the most recent Flame to reach the NCAA national meet in this event. Holmes also took down the ASUN all-time standard of 50.86 set by FIU’s Rod Davis (the ASUN’s only NCAA national qualifier in this event in conference history) in 1998. Liberty has never had a men’s 400 hurdler advance to the quarterfinal round at this meet.
Road to Austin: The top three finishers in each of Wednesday’s first-round heats and the next six fastest time qualifiers will move on to Friday’s quarterfinal round. On Friday, the top three finishers in each heat and the next three fastest qualifiers will advance to Austin. Last season, it took 51.57 to reach the quarterfinals and 50.96 to advance to the national meet.
Men’s 200
Event Schedule: First Round – Wednesday at 8:45 p.m.; Quarterfinals – Friday at 7:50 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Donald McClinton (R-Sr., Hinesville, Ga.)
Entry Mark/Seed: 20.58 – No. 27
Outlook: The only returning member of Liberty’s All-American men’s 4 x 100 relay squad from 2022, McClinton will try to make it to Austin individually this time around. He has already enjoyed a memorable month of May, getting engaged at the Liberty Twilight Qualifier on May 3 and racing to an ASUN 200 title in a season-best 20.58 on May 13. McClinton will now try to become the first Flame ever to reach the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the men’s 200 and just the second ASUN runner to do so (Troy’s Louis Harris in 2005).
Road to Austin: The top three finishers in each of Wednesday’s first-round heats and the next six fastest time qualifiers will move on to Friday’s quarterfinal round. On Friday, the top three finishers in each heat and the next three fastest qualifiers will advance to Austin. Last season, it took 20.78 to reach the quarterfinal round and 20.71 to qualify for the national meet.
Men’s 10K
Event Schedule: Semifinal – Wednesday at 9:10 p.m.
Liberty Competitors: Caleb Olson (Jr., Richland, Wash.) and Tristian Merchant (So., Anchorage, Alaska)
Entry Marks/Seeds: Olson – 29:11.84/No. 36, Merchant – 29:26.15/No. 48
Outlook: Tristian Merchant will contest the second track 10K of his life Wednesday night after making a memorable debut in the 25-lapper. The first-year Flame won the ASUN title in a meet-record 29:26.15 on May 11, grabbing the 48th and final berth into this meet. Olson, who just missed qualifying for this meet in 2022, punched his ticket with a personal-best 29:11.84 clocking on March 31 at Stanford. Only once has Liberty entered multiple men’s 10K runners at this meet. Sam Chelanga and Josh Edmonds competed in the inaugural NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet in 2010, with Chelanga going on to claim the NCAA national title.
Road to Austin: All 48 10K runners will compete in one heat, with the first 12 finishers advancing to Austin. Last season, it took 28:45.92 to make the top 12.
Women’s Hammer
Event Schedule: First Round – Thursday at 10 a.m.
Liberty Competitor: Paola Bueno (Fr., Nayarit, Mexico)
Entry Mark/Seed: 199-1 (60.70m)/No. 28
Outlook: Bueno has made steady progress in the hammer as a freshman, reaching a Liberty freshman-record 199-1 to take second place in the ASUN final. She will likely need something more in the ballpark of her lifetime best (207-2) if she hopes to advance to Austin. That mark was achieved at last year’s World U20 Championships in Colombia, where Bueno claimed the silver medal for Mexico. Liberty has been proficient in the women’s hammer in the last decade plus, sending a trio of women’s hammer throwers to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships (Melinda Bendik – 2012, Jocelyn Williams – 2015 and Dasiana Larson – 2018). Bueno and fellow World U20 Championships competitor Kali Terza (Kennesaw State) will try to give the ASUN Conference its first-ever NCAA national qualifiers in this event.
Road to Austin: All 48 athletes in Jacksonville will take three throws, with the top 12 finishers advancing to Austin. Last year, 12th place measured 211-11.
Women’s Javelin
Event Schedule: First Round – Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Kali Grayson (Jr., Long Branch, N.J.)
Entry Mark/Seed: 150-9 (45.96m)/No. 44
Outlook: Grayson qualified for the 2021 NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet but did not get to throw the javelin due to injury. The ASUN’s fourth-place finisher will get to compete Thursday afternoon, thanks to her season-best mark of 150-9 from the April 1 Virginia Quadrangular. No women’s javelin thrower in Liberty or ASUN Conference history has ever reached the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Road to Austin: All 48 javelin throwers in Jacksonville will receive three attempts, with the top 12 finishers advancing to Austin. Last year, 12th place measured 164-5.
Women’s Pole Vault
Event Schedule: First Round – Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Taylen Langin (Sr., Meridian, Idaho)
Entry Mark/Seed: 13-9.25 (4.20m)/No. 13
Outlook: Langin will pole vault at the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet for the fourth and final time (also 2019, 2021 and 2022). She is the third Lady Flame ever to make four appearances at this meet, joining throws Mychelle Cumings (2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016) and Naomi Mojica (2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022). Langin has enjoyed her best season to date, clearing an ASUN all-time record 13-9.25 at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 15 and winning her third consecutive ASUN title. She has gone 13-3.75 or higher at each of her last four competitions and will try to become the Lady Flames’ first national qualifier in this event since program record holder Andrea Wildrick (14-3.25) in 2002. No ASUN women’s pole vaulter has ever advanced to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Road to Austin: After opening at a height of 12-6.75, the pole vault competition will continue until all entrants have attempted at least one height and there are 12 or fewer athletes remaining. At that point, the competition will be halted and the top 12 will move on to Austin, using a jump-off to determine the final qualifiers if necessary. Last season, a 14-1.75 clearance was necessary to guarantee national qualification.
Women’s 100
Event Schedule: First Round – Thursday at 7 p.m.; Quarterfinals – Saturday at 6:35 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Isis Brooks (R-Sr., Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Entry Mark/Seed: 11.38/No. 33
Outlook: Last season, Brooks became the first Lady Flame ever to reach the women’s 100 quarterfinal round at the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet. This year, she is back after successfully defending her ASUN title in the event. No Lady Flame has ever reached the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships for the women’s 100, and it has been a quarter century since FIU’s Tayna Lawrence became the only ASUN sprinter ever to do so. This is Brooks’ third time competing in the 100 at this meet overall, also including an appearance in 2019 while representing Hampton.
Road to Austin: The top three finishers in each of Thursday’s first-round heats and the next six fastest time qualifiers will move on to Saturday’s quarterfinal round. On Saturday, the top three finishers in each heat and the next three fastest qualifiers will advance to Austin. Last season, it took 11.47 to reach the quarterfinal round and 11.34 to qualify for the national meet.
Women’s 200
Event Schedule: First Round – Thursday at 8:45 p.m.; Quarterfinals – Saturday at 7:50 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Isis Brooks (R-Sr., Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Entry Mark/Seed: 23.09/No. 22
Outlook: Heading into the ASUN Championship, Abigail Flower had owned Liberty’s women’s 200 record of 23.48 for 10 years. Brooks then lowered it to 23.25 in the prelims and then 23.09 (into a 1.4 m/s headwind) while winning the final. As a result, Brooks has put herself into the conversation to become the first Lady Flame to reach the NCAA national meet in the women’s 200 and the first ASUN runner to get there since Belmont’s Lynette Rives in 2009.
Road to Austin: The top three finishers in each of Thursday’s first-round heats and the next six fastest time qualifiers will move on to Saturday’s quarterfinal round. On Saturday, the top three finishers in each heat and the next three fastest qualifiers will advance to Austin. Last season, it took 23.35 to reach the quarterfinal round and 23.01 to qualify for the national meet.
Women’s 10K
Event Schedule: Semifinal – Thursday at 9:10 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Adelyn Ackley-Fairley (Jr., Mears, Mich.)
Entry Mark/Seed: 34:02.76/No. 35
Outlook: A year ago, Ackley-Fairley fell during the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round women’s 10K and ended up missing the national meet by two places and nine seconds. She will get another shot at it Thursday night after a season where she ran 34:02.76 at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 13 and won Liberty’s first ASUN women’s 10K title. Ackley-Fairley owns the Liberty record (33:49.00), set during the 2022 Virginia Challenge in her 10K debut. The ASUN record (33:43.36) belongs to North Florida’s Eden Meyer, the only conference runner ever to reach the NCAA meet (2017 and 2018). Carol Jefferson (2007) is the only Lady Flame ever to do so.
Road to Austin: All 48 10K runners will compete in one heat, with the first 12 finishers advancing to Austin. Last season, it took 34:36.11 to make the top 12.
Men’s Discus
Event Schedule: First Round – Friday at 1 p.m.
Liberty Competitors: Kevin Nedrick (R-Sr., Montego Bay, Jamaica), Desmond Coleman (R-Fr., Charlotte, N.C.) and Christian Hicks (R-Fr., Romney, W.Va.)
Entry Marks/Seeds: Nedrick – 194-5 (59.27m)/No. 8, Coleman – 194-3 (59.20m) and Hicks – 176-4 (53.75m)/No. 48
Outlook: For the second year in a row, Liberty will send three men’s discus throwers to the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet. However, All-American Kevin Nedrick is the only returnee from the 2022 squad. Nedrick, who earned All-America honors with an 11th-place national finish in this event a year ago, is the Flames’ top seed in any event in Jacksonville at No. 8 (ASUN-record 194-5). Redshirt freshman Coleman is closely behind as the No. 10 seed, thanks to his Liberty freshman record mark of 194-3. Nedrick and Coleman placed 2-3 in the ASUN final behind Kennesaw State’s Anthony Harrison, the East Region’s No. 9 seed. They are the top three men’s discus throwers in ASUN Conference history. Hicks rounds out the Flames’ entrants, after unleashing a personal-best mark of 176-4 at the ASUN Championship to nab the 48th and final spot on the entry list for Jacksonville. Liberty and Memphis are the only two schools with multiple freshman qualifiers in this event. Nedrick is the only ASUN men’s discus thrower ever to reach the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Road to Austin: All 48 athletes in Jacksonville will take three throws, with the top 12 finishers advancing to Austin. Last year, 12th place measured 183-1.
Men’s 5K
Event Schedule: Semifinals – Friday at 8:10 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Tristian Merchant (So., Anchorage, Alaska)
Entry Mark/Seed: 13:57.34/No. 44
Outlook: Merchant was the Flames’ most unlikely NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round qualifier, as he was the No. 59 seed in the 5K and the No. 55 seed in the 10K prior to scratches. But he got into both events and will be just the third Flame ever to run the 10K/5K double at this meet, joining All-Americans Sam Chelanga (2010 and 2011) and Azaria Kirwa (2017 and 2019). In all four of those instances, Chelanga and Kirwa successfully qualified to the NCAA national meet in the 5K. The ASUN’s fourth-place finisher, Merchant ran three 5K times within 0.77 seconds of one another this season, topped by his personal-best 13:57.34 effort at the Wake Forest Invitational on April 21.
Road to Austin: There will be two 5K heats contested Friday evening. The top five finishers in each heat and the next two fastest time qualifiers will move on to Austin. In 2022, a time of 13:44.42 was necessary for national qualification.
Women’s Discus
Event Schedule: First Round – Saturday at 1 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Annika Hantho (Jr., Mannington, N.J.)
Entry Mark/Seed: 165-6 (50.44m)/No. 46
Outlook: Hantho will make her NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round debut thanks to a personal-best 165-6 effort at the Liberty Twilight Qualifier on May 3. Despite finishing just fifth in the ASUN final, Hantho was the lone ASUN women’s discus thrower to earn a return trip to Jacksonville. Hantho’s former teammate Chelsea Igberaese (2019 and 2021) is the only ASUN women’s discus thrower ever to make it to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Road to Austin: All 48 athletes in Jacksonville will take three throws, with the top 12 finishers advancing to Austin. Last year, 12th place measured 172-9.
Women’s Steeplechase
Event Schedule: Quarterfinals – Saturday at 5:40 p.m.
Liberty Competitor: Calli Doan (R-Jr., Apex, N.C.)
Entry Mark/Seed: 9:57.15/No. 13
Outlook: Both of Doan’s steeplechase races this season have been impressive, including a school-record 9:57.15 effort at the Stanford Invitational on March 31 and a 16-second victory (10:12.31) in the ASUN final. She has also posted personal bests in the 1,500 (4:15.34 at Bryan Clay Invitational on April 15) and 5K (ASUN-record 15:51.38 at the Wake Forest Invitational on April 21). The only previous time she raced the steeplechase at this meet (2021), Doan fell twice. This time, she enters as the No. 13 seed and hopes to become Liberty’s first women’s steeplechase runner to qualify for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The ASUN, which boasts three total entrants (also Jacksonville’s Hayleigh Haid and EKU’s Anouk Van Gils), will try to send a steeplechase representative to the NCAA national meet for the second year in a row (EKU’s Laura Taborda in 2022).
Road to Austin: Saturday will feature three heats of the steeplechase. The top three finishers in each heat and the next three fastest time qualifiers will punch their tickets to Austin. Last season, a time of 10:03.16 was necessary for national qualification.
Featured in Main Photo: Ethan Mylin (left) and Ben Shughart (right)