They say good things come in threes and this weekend three Lions punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas set for June 5-8. For Erinn Stenman-Fahey, Keira Christie-Galloway and Lauren Gale it’s safe to say they are willing to put in a little extra work at school before breaking for the summer.
All the numbers seemed to add up for the fourth year accounting major Erinn Stenman-Fahey in the women’ s 800 metre quarterfinal as she was third across the line in section. While the clock in Sacramento State University’s Hornet Stadium read 2:05.78, it was the Q beside Stenman-Fahey’s time that was more important. A year prior she had found herself just six spots short of nationals on the same track.
Unlike Thursday’s heats, Stenman-Fahey had to fight her way back into a qualification spot (top 3) as she sat seventh at the bell.
“Something the coach and I talked about was that 150 mark. When you commit, you gotta go for the line. So that’s what I did,” said the Iowa State Cyclone after the race. “Almost got a tumble at the end there, but I was able to hold on and get third.”
After a strong run in the heats, Cyclone teammate Keira Christie-Galloway was able to secure her ticket to Austin in Saturday night’s quarter final of the 100 metre hurdles. The Glebe Collegiate grad narrowly missed the auto qualifying position, finishing fourth in her section, but was able to advance on the strength of her 13.18 second clocking.
The final athlete to secure a spot in Austin was Colorado State freshman, Lauren Gale. After falling short in her individual bid in the 400 metres on Thursday, Gale returned to action Saturday night running the backstretch on the Rams’ 4×100 metre relay team. Gale and her teammates managed to get the stick around the track in 44.36 seconds, the eighth fastest time of the evening, to secure their spot.
Gale also ran on the Colorado State’s record setting 4×400 relay team which placed 20th.
Also at the West Prelim, Shona McCulloch ran the second fastest time of her life in the 3000 metre steeplechase, 10:24.58, to finish 33rd overall.
On the East coast, Tommy Nedow hurled the two kilogram platter out to 51.42 metres to finish 34th in the discus. The mark was just shy of his personal best 51.85 metres from earlier this season.
