INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA has announced the qualifiers for the First Round of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, and five UC San Diego scholar-athletes have made the cut.
Representing the Triton women are
Tamara Aimufia (long jump),
Amari Jenkins (400m hurdles),
Sylvana Northrop (5,000m) and
Feyi Olukanni (shot put).
Miles Bennett (high jump) will compete from the men's team.
The First Round is divided into two regions, west and east. The Tritons will compete at the West First Round May 28-31 on the campus of Texas A&M. Qualification spots went to the top 48 west region athletes in each event, and the top 12 finishers will move on to the National Championships June 11-14 in Oregon.
Sophomore
Anthony Flowers also met the qualification time in the men's 200m, but he is unable to compete due to injury. His school-record time of 20.53 in The Big West Championships was the 19th-best mark in the west region this season.
The Tritons are postseason eligible for the first time since making the transition to Division I ahead of the 2020-21 athletic year.
Aimufia qualified in the long jump with a distance of 6.14m, which she set at home in the Triton Invitational. That mark is the second best in school history. A sophomore from Rancho Cucamonga, California, Aimufia is a cognitive science major.
Bennett qualified in the high jump with a height of 2.11m, which he set at Cal State Fullerton's Ben Brown Invitational. That mark is the third best in school history. A senior from Castro Valley, California, Bennett is a structural engineering major.
Jenkins qualified in the 400m hurdles with a time of 58.21, which she set at The Big West Championships. That mark is the second best in school history. A graduate student from Moreno Valley, California, Jenkins is earning a master's degree in public health.
Northrop qualified in the 5,000m with a time of 16:02.47, which she set at Azusa Pacific's Bryan Clay Invitational. That mark is also a school record. A senior from Cupertino, California, Northrop is a cognitive science major.
Olukanni qualified in the shot put with a distance of 15.30m, which she set at home in the Triton Invitational. That mark is the second best in school history. A junior from Clovis, California, Olukanni is a pharmacological chemistry major.
Aimufia, Jenkins and Olukanni earned All-Big West honors at last week's Big West Championships. Aimufia and Olukanni won individual championships in their events, while Jenkins finished on the podium in second.
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 39 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.
