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Wildcats to Compete in the NCAA Championships

By Shereen Rayan

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The Arizona Wildcats Track and Field team will compete in the NCAA Championships which take place on June 10-13 in Eugene, Oregon.

This last week the Wildcats travelled to the NCAA West Preliminaries in Austin, Texas on for a three-day meet for the Western Preliminaries hosted by The University of Texas at Mike A. Myers Stadium. Their goal? Qualify for the Championships which will take place in a couple of weeks at the University of Oregon.

The Western Preliminaries meet included a lightning storm which delayed the meet for two-and-a-half hours.

The highlight of the meet for the Wildcats was when our 4×4 team broke a previous record of 3:05.81, which was set on June 5, 1981.  The 4×400 team included Pete Lauderdale II, Blake Eichler, Bryce Houston and Miles Parish who broke the school record with a time of 3:04.51, that’s one minute and thirty seconds better!

On top of breaking the school network, they also finished in sixth place and qualified for the National Championships in Eugene and are also the first 4×400 Arizona team to earn a spot in the Championships since 1981.

Their Head Track and Field Coach Fred Harvey explained his perspective as follows:

"“It’s been a long time coming,” Harvey said. “They’ve been running consistently all year-long in the 3:07, 3:06 area. We definitely knew that they had the potential to run faster and break the school record. Today, 3:04 in that first heat was just awesome. Every guy went out there and put it on the line. They competed like we talked about all week-long. They broke the school record and now they are going to the NCAA Championships with one of the top times.”"

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The 400 event is the specialty of sprinter Miles Parish (6’6″) who made the 2014 All-Pac-12  for the 400m) and is also a 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships Gold Medalist in the 4×400 meter relay. According to ArizonaWildcats.com, Parish’s “mom Lawanda, ran for USC’s track and field team and competed in the 200 meters, 400 meters, 4×100 meter relay and 4×400 meter relay.”

If you are a team, “you play for the name on the front of your shirt, and not for the name on the back of your shirt” as recently stated by Tommy Lasorda former Dodgers Manager in a promo for a Dodgers TV show. That couldn’t be more true than it is in track relay races as you must trust each team member to run his best meet and hand of the baton off perfectly from one runner to another and that is not an easy feat.

Along with the Men’s 4X400 team, seven other Wildcats earned a spot in the Championships (8 total):

  1. Senior Elvin Kibet (10K)
  2. Sophomore Aleah Hurst (long jump)
  3. Junior Nnenya Hailey (women’s 400-meter hurdles)
  4. Sophomore Gerhard de Beer (discus)
  5. Sophomore Aaron Castle (men’s shot put)
  6. Sophomore Collins Kibet (men’s 800-meter run)
  7. Sophomore Pau Tonnesen (decathlon)
  8. Senior Phil Lauderdale II, Junior Blake Eichler, Sophomores Bryce Houston and Miles Parish (men’s 4X400)

As for the final thoughts of Coach Harvey?

"“We fought hard, we did some really good things,” head coach Fred Harvey said. “I’m really excited for us as a group going to Eugene. It’ll be exciting up there in Duck country.”"

Beardown Cats! Good Luck in Oregon, we’ll be cheering you on!

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