The Marquette men’s and women’s track and field teams officially concluded their season Saturday night at the NCAA West Preliminaries in Austin, Texas as four Golden Eagles failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Marquette javelin thrower John Krzyszkowski kicked off the competition. This was Krzyszkowski’s fourth time reaching the NCAA Prelims and despite his experience, he was never able to find a groove. The Mississauga, Ontario, native did not register an official throw. He faulted on all three of his attempts.
“It looked like he never really got comfortable out there,” head coach Bert Rogers told GoMarqutte.com. “He had been throwing so well and had such an awesome year. It just wasn’t his day and, unfortunately, it was on this day.”
Two other Golden Eagles competed Thursday. Jessica Parker had a stellar race in her first NCAA Regional appearance, finishing the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:07.77, her second fastest time ever. That was good enough to secure a top three finish and a spot in Friday’s quarterfinal round.
Unfortunately for Parker, she couldn’t maintain that hot streak on the second day of competition and ended up finishing with a time of 2:13.38, nearly six seconds slower. Parker finished seventh in her quarterfinal heat and 23rd out of 24 overall participants, a good distance off the cut for nationals.
There were two main factors that could have held Parker back in the second race. The first was the oppressive heat — It was near 95 degrees in Austin on Friday, roughly 15 degrees warmer than it was during Parker’s initial run. In addition to the weather, the entire field had to contend with running races in consecutive days, which Rogers says may have thrown Parker off her game.
“Her heat went out a little faster than she was expecting,” Rogers told GoMarquette. “She tried to stick to her own race and hope the field would come back, but just did not have enough left.”
The last competitor Thursday was Brittney Feivor in the 10,000-meter race. Feivor started strong and was in third place in the top group when she tripped and fell. As a result, she dropped all the way back to 40th place. Feivor kept running hard and worked her way back into the pack, eventually taking 16th place. She was only 23 seconds behind the 12th place finish she needed to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Despite the stumble, Feivor finished in a remarkable 35:24.85, the second fastest 10,000-meter time in Marquette history.
“She ran her heart out,” Rogers said. “Gutsy is the only way you can describe it. With the heat, several runners had to drop out of the race. Brittney didn’t seem phased. If she doesn’t get tripped up, maybe it ends a little bit differently, but overall, she ran a great race.”
Marquette’s last hope for getting an athlete into nationals was high jumper Daniel Armstrong, who stepped up to take his first jump Saturday night. He was hoping to follow in the footsteps of high jumper Wally Ellenson, who was the last Marquette athlete to qualify for the NCAA Championships in 2015. Armstrong started off well, clearing his first height of 2.00 meters, or 6 feet and 6.75 inches. However, Armstrong missed on all three of his attempts at the next height of 2.05 meters, or 6 feet and 8.75 inches. Despite not qualifying for the NCAA Championships, Armstrong’s season is not done yet. As a result of an earlier personal best, Armstrong qualified for the U.S. Track & Field Junior Championships in Sacramento, California June 22-25.
