INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Track & Field and Cross Country Committee announced the participants for the 2019 NCAA Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championships preliminary competitions on Thursday, and Freshman, Matthew Brown and the Men's 4x100 meter Relay consisting of Brown, Senior,
Carlton Sims (Gary, Ind./Westside), Sophomore,
Olesson Cesalien (Orlando, Fla./Evans) and Junior,
Ricordo McKenzie (Montego Bay, Jamaica/Cornwall College) have qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Round.
The Cougars that advanced will compete in the NCAA West Preliminary Round, hosted by California State University, Sacramento, on May 23-25 in Sacramento, California. This will mark the first appearance for Chicago State at a NCAA Regional competition since 2000, and the first that have advanced to the NCAA post season competition during Director of Track & Field
Craig Collins' tenure.
Freshman
Matthew Brown is set to represent the Green & White in the 100 meters. Brown is in the midst of an impressive first season at Chicago State, having shattered the school record in the 100m dash in his collegiate debut before posting his qualifying mark of 10.35 last week at the WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Brown was named the WAC Men's Freshman of the Year after capturing the conference title in the event this past weekend at the outdoor league meet.
The Western Athletic Conference Men's 4x100m Relay Champions have been impressive throughout the season with school record breaking performances seemingly every contest. The quartet has lowered the school mark to 39.98 at altitude, which earned the Cougars their bid to the post season preliminaries out west.
"It's an exciting time for us. This is true representation that hard work pays off, and to see these athletes work so hard to achieve this goal because they put in the work and overcame obstacles means a lot for the future of our program", says Head Coach
Craig Collins.
CSU Cougar & NCAA track & field fans can watch live and on-demand coverage of the NCAA East and West Preliminary Rounds as FloTrack Pro subscribers. Coverage of the preliminary competitions will be available May 23-25 at www.FloTrack.com.
Qualifiers out of the two regions (East and West) will move on to compete in the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championships held June 5-8 at Texas in Austin, Texas.
