Hoosiers Add Two to NCAA Championship Contingent

Friday, May 27

Jacksonville, Fla.

TBA

Indiana University

NCAA East Regional

Sydney Clute will make back-to-back trips to the outdoor championships after clearing 4.25m.

Hoosiers Add Two to NCAA Championship Contingent

5/27/2016 8:56:00 PM | Track and Field

Clute and Kuhn are onto Eugene after top-flight performances

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The second day of the NCAA East Regionals yielded two additional NCAA Championship qualifiers for the Indiana track and field team. Daniel Kuhn (800m) and Sydney Clute (pole vault) finished at the top of their respective events to earn a trip to the 2016 NCAA Championships. They join women's hammer throwers Laura Schroeder and Nakel McClinton, who punched their NCAA tickets yesterday.

Kuhn will make his NCAA Outdoor debut at TrackTown USA following his first-place finish in the third heat of the men's 800m quarterfinals. The sophomore won both his opening round and quarterfinal heats in dramatic fashion, opening the throttle in the final 200 meters. In Friday's quarterfinal heat, Kuhn slingshot from fourth to first on the home stretch and took the win by .01 seconds.

Clute followed her Big Ten Championship with a flawless outing in the women's pole vault competition to advance to her second-consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championships. Starting at 3.95m and qualifying with a height of 4.25m, Clute hit all four vaults on her first attempt. Sophie Gutermuth earned a 15^th-place overall finish, clearing the penultimate height of 4.20m.

The Hoosiers fielded four distance runners in the final event of the day, the 3000m steeplechase. Jason Crist and Eric Claxton took the track for the third and final heat and emerged with a pair of top-10 finishes. Crist submitted a time of 8:54.87 for a 20^th-place overall finish, and Claxton finished in 8:57.50 to take 25^th in the region. In the women's steeplechase, Brianna Johnson finished the second heat in 10^th place with a time of 10:32.04.

Dyrek Chowning took the cage for the men's discus throw on Friday afternoon. The junior achieved a distance of 51.09m for a 37^th-place finish, six positions above his entry seed.

Up Next: Final Day of the NCAA East Regionals
Saturday, May 28, 2016 • Beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET

On the final day of East Regionals action, 12 athletes will aim to represent Indiana at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Track Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Among those competing is sophomore Brenna Calder, who set a new career best while posting the field's eighth-fastest time in Thursday's opening round. Indiana's Saturday schedule is as follows (regional seeds in parentheses):

5:30 p.m. – Men's High Jump Prelims – (34) Paul Galas
6:00 p.m. – Men's Shot Put Prelims – (7) Willie Morrison, (22) David Schall
6:30 p.m. – Women's 1500m Quarterfinal – (20) Brenna Calder
8:45 p.m. – Men's 5000m Semifinals – (16) Matt Schwartzer, (24) Jason Crist, (25) Mark Chandler, (27) Jeremy Coughler
9:45 p.m. – Men's 4x400 Relay Quarterfinals – (20) Diquis Manley, Zach Reitzug, Markevious Roach, Daniel Kuhn