May 28, 2010
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Iowa City, IA — Day two of the NCAA Preliminaries in Austin, TX, is in the books, and with that two more Hawkeyes are heading to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, OR starting June 9. Friday’s action brings Iowa’s total NCAA qualifiers to four student-athletes.
Junior Steven Willey, the Big Ten Champion in the 400 meters, earned an 11th seed in today’s 400-meter semifinals with a collegiate-best 45.78, which advances him to the NCAA Championships. His time ranks fourth all-time at Iowa. Iowa’s 400-meter hurdles Big Ten Champion, senior Ray Varner, will also advance to the NCAA Championships, placing 10th in today’s 400-meter hurdles semifinals at 50.42. All three of Iowa’s Big Ten Champions will be competing in the NCAA Championships, with freshman Matt Byers qualifying Thursday in the javelin (220-9, 67.28m).
Senior Rhonda-Kaye Trusty will move on to Saturday’s 200-meter semifinals, earning a 22nd seed today with a time of 24.05. Sophomore Erik Sowinski was knocked out of the top twelve in the 800-meter semifinals by less than three-tenths of a second, placing 14th with a collegiate-best 1:48.00. This time ranks third in the Iowa record books. Junior Karessa Farley also narrowly missed the cutoff for today’s 100-meter hurdle prelims, finishing 30th at 13.68, less than two-tenths of a second off the 24-seed cutoff.
The NCAA preliminaries will conclude Saturday with field events at 12 p.m. CT at running events at 6 p.m. A link to live results and the CBS Sports Live Stream can be found on the Track schedule page on www.hawkeyesports.com. All qualifiers from this weekend will move on to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, OR for four days of competition beginning Wednesday, June 9.