TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Nine Indiana State track & field student-athletes have qualified for the 2017 NCAA East Region Preliminary Round Championships, which will be held this year at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., on May 25-27.
 
To qualify for this first-round of the NCAA Championships, student-athletes must have finished the season ranked within the top-48 of their individual events or as a member of a top-24 relay team on their respective regional qualifying list (East or West), which was released by the NCAA on Thursday. The top-12 athletes in the men's decathlon and women's heptathlon in the East and West automatically receive entry to the national meet.
 
From there, the top-12 finalists in each event at each regional meet advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships at the University of Oregon on June 7-10.
 
After scratches were applied Thursday morning, Indiana State ended up with nine total entries into the East Prelim meet: six men and three women.
 
On the men's side, senior hurdlers Marcus Neely (seventh, 13.62) and Daley Carter (12th, 13.78) lead the way for the Sycamores in the 110-meter hurdles. Both qualifying times are big career-bests ran at last week's MVC Outdoor Championships, where Neely captured the sixth-straight men's hurdles title outdoor for Indiana State – the longest such streak since Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) won nine in a row from 1937-48 (there were no contests from 1943-45 due to the Second World War).
 
This is the third trip to the NCAA East Regional for Neely and the second for Carter, who finished runner-up at a big career-best 13.78 to help ISU to its fifth straight season of at least two All-MVC finishers in the men's hurdles outdoors.
 
Two-time Second-Team All-American David Timlin is no stranger to the regional meet nor Eugene, and he is in excellent position to punch his third ticket out to the national meet in the 1500-meter. Timlin, who won his third MVC 1500 title last week, stands in 13th on the qualifying list at 3:42.93 – not far off his school-record 3:41.35 run at the NCAA Championships last year to finish 14th overall.
 
Junior Jaime Murtagh will be making a return trip to the regional meet after doing so last year, this season coming in at 27th on the qualifying list at a career-best 2.12m (6-11.50) – the same height he cleared to win the Irish national championships last summer. Murtagh recently finished as the MVC runner-up in the high jump for the second time in his career last week.
 
Junior Tristan Parmley had an excellent outing at the MVC Championships last week – leading the Sycamore men with 12.5 points scored – and was rewarded with a trip to Lexington in the 100-meter dash. Parmley's qualifying time of 10.29 (27th on the qualifying list) earned him an All-MVC finish in third place last week and was a new school record – breaking Tony Tate's 1993 time of 10.33.
 
Sophomore Akis Medrano – who finished All-MVC during the cross country season in seventh place and was a U.S. Junior Championships qualifier in the 10K last summer – made it into the regional meet after scratches in the 10K, sitting 43rd on the qualifying list at 29:50.99 (the fourth-best time in school history).
 
The Sycamore women, meanwhile, have three bonafide national qualifiers in Taylor Austin, Brooke Moore and Alethia Marrero.
 
Austin, the now two-time defending MVC steeplechase champion, enters the meet 18th in the East at a school-record steeple time of 10:13.42 run at Drake Relays back in April. Austin was also a regional qualifier in the steeple in 2016.
 
Sophomore Brooke Moore is looking to cap off a superb 2017 season – which included three individual school records in the indoor mile (4:43.04), indoor 3K (9:35.60) and outdoor 1500 (4:20.02) – with a trip out to Eugene. Moore was qualified for both the 800 and 1500, but will focus on the latter with her time of 4:20.02 – the 20th-best on the East qualifying list. Moore is coming off a week at the MVC Championships where she won the 1500 and nearly won the 800 after a late surge, settling for runner-up honors.
 
Senior All-American Alethia Marrero was also qualified in two events – the 400-meter hurdles and the 800-meter – but will focus on the 800 with her 22nd-ranked time of 2:06.33. Marrero is a veteran of both the regional meet and the national championships, with her most productive year being 2015, where she shattered the MVC record in the 800 at 2:02.67 to win the East Prelim and then went on to finish fifth in a historically fast 800 final at the NCAA Championships (where Oregon freshman Raevyn Rogers ran the fastest time by a freshman in NCAA history at 1:59.71 to win).
 
Marrero won the MVC 400-meter hurdles title last week and was named the Valley's Most Outstanding Women's Track Athlete of the meet.
 
Competition will begin next Thursday, May 25, with Brooke Moore kicking things off in the first round of the women's 1500-meter at 5:30 p.m. ET.
 
Men's Qualifiers:
7. Marcus Neely – 110-Meter Hurdles – 13.62
12. Daley Carter – 110-Meter Hurdles – 13.78
13. David Timlin – 1500-Meter – 3:42.93
27. Jaime Murtagh – High Jump – 2.12m (6-11.50)
27. Tristan Parmley – 100-Meter Dash – 10.29
43. Akis Medrano – 10,000-Meter – 29:50.99
 
Women's Qualifiers:
18. Taylor Austin – 3,000-Meter Steeplechase – 10:13.42
20. Brooke Moore – 1500-Meter – 4:20.02
22. Alethia Marrero – 800-Meter – 2:06.33
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Track and Field team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.