Alyssa Snyder
Photo by: Kelly Gorham
Snyder Punches Ticket to Eugene to Highlight Opening Day of NCAA West Prelims
5/25/2017 9:48:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Alyssa Snyder advances to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Amanda Jaynes qualifies for the 400 hurdle quarterfinals and Christie Schiel narrowly misses out on a Friday race in the 800-meter run
AUSTIN, Texas – Montana State's Alyssa Snyder became the first Bobcat to advance to the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships since 2015, and the first MSU women's runner to ever qualify in the 10,000-meter run, as a total of eight MSU athletes completed the first day of the NCAA West Preliminary Round Thursday at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
Snyder finished the 10,000 with a time of 34 minutes, 42.95 seconds. That mark put her across the finish line in eighth place, putting her under the 12th place threshold for automatic qualification to the NCAA Championships from June 7-10 at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
"Alyssa's hard work over the past years paid off again today with another spectacular performance," Montana State distance and assistant coach Lyle Weese said. "She faced unfamiliar heat and humidity, but was still able to battle her way to the NCAA finals in Eugene."
Coming off winning the Big Sky Outdoor titles in both the 5,000 and 10,000, Snyder moved up to as high as fifth place during the latter portion of Thursday's race before settling in at eighth. The school-record holder's time in Austin was the second fastest of her career, which would also place her fourth on the MSU all-time top 10 list if not for her program top mark.
Heather Demorest and Paige Squire were MSU's last NCAA qualifiers on the women's side as both advanced to Eugene in 2015.
"It was awesome," Montana State head coach Dale Kennedy said of Snyder's race. "She started out with about a six-lap boxing match in the middle of the pack. Traffic control was really difficult. She demonstrated some real patience until it could open up so she could get into the top 15. She ran there up to about four miles, then just kept moving up and got to fifth with about 300 meters to go. She wound up eighth and she's earned her ticket to Eugene and it's real exciting we have one going for sure."
Junior Amanda Jaynes advanced to the quarterfinal round Friday by taking 27th overall in the first round of the 400 hurdles. She finished fifth in her heat, but due to technical difficulties, her official mark wasn't registered in the timing system. After video and photo review, the NCAA Meet staff concluded they would advance three additional athletes to the quarterfinals beyond the previously established 24 qualifiers.
Jaynes's time of 1:00.36 was just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Oregon's Khadejah Jackson for the final spot to advance to Friday's race. Jaynes also finished just one-hundredth of a second behind Minnesota's Rachel Schow in their heat.
"We know Amanda can run way better than she ran today," Kennedy said. "If she can get back to a low time in the 58's she'll make it into the top 12. She has another opportunity to move on and try to make it. She'll be in lane one or lane nine, but she's got a lane so it's not impossible."
Senior Christie Schiel narrowly missed qualifying for the 800 quarterfinals at the NCAA West regionals.
Schiel finished fourth in the fifth heat of with a time of 2:09.46. With the top three advancing from each heat, plus the next six best times qualifying for Friday's races, Schiel held the fourth best mark heading into the final heat.
Six runners had times that topped Schiel's, putting her one spot out of advancing to the quarterfinals by just two-tenths of a second and placing her 20th overall. The Cheyenne, Wyo., native ended her career as MSU's school record holder in both the indoor and outdoor 800.
"It's gut wrenching," Kennedy said. "She ran faster than several automatic qualifiers and that happens a lot in this situation when they're running for the first three places. She beat five automatic qualifiers and ran faster than they did. It's heartbreaking and hard to watch."
Five other Bobcats completed action at the NCAA West Preliminary Round Thursday.
Senior Casey Teska made her third and final appearance at the regional by taking 45th in the pole vault by clearing 12-05.50.
Senior Jacqueline Verlanic moved up three slots from her seed mark and finished in 33rd in the hammer throw with a toss of 185-11 (56.58m).
Sophomore Alex Lewis and freshman Carley VonHeeder both placed 40th in their respective events. Lewis jumped eight spots from his seed mark in the long jump with a leap of 23-09.50 (7.25m) while VonHeeder completed the javelin with a throw of 134-08 (41.04m).
Junior Calvin Root rounded out MSU's contingent by taking 43rd in the hammer throw (181-10).
Montana State is scheduled to have two athletes compete Friday. Junior Kyle Douglass makes his debut at the West regional in the men's shot put at 2:30 p.m. MDT. Jaynes will open the 400 hurdles quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Links to a live stream and live results from Austin are available on the MSU track and field schedule pages at msubobcats.com.
Snyder finished the 10,000 with a time of 34 minutes, 42.95 seconds. That mark put her across the finish line in eighth place, putting her under the 12th place threshold for automatic qualification to the NCAA Championships from June 7-10 at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
"Alyssa's hard work over the past years paid off again today with another spectacular performance," Montana State distance and assistant coach Lyle Weese said. "She faced unfamiliar heat and humidity, but was still able to battle her way to the NCAA finals in Eugene."
Coming off winning the Big Sky Outdoor titles in both the 5,000 and 10,000, Snyder moved up to as high as fifth place during the latter portion of Thursday's race before settling in at eighth. The school-record holder's time in Austin was the second fastest of her career, which would also place her fourth on the MSU all-time top 10 list if not for her program top mark.
Heather Demorest and Paige Squire were MSU's last NCAA qualifiers on the women's side as both advanced to Eugene in 2015.
"It was awesome," Montana State head coach Dale Kennedy said of Snyder's race. "She started out with about a six-lap boxing match in the middle of the pack. Traffic control was really difficult. She demonstrated some real patience until it could open up so she could get into the top 15. She ran there up to about four miles, then just kept moving up and got to fifth with about 300 meters to go. She wound up eighth and she's earned her ticket to Eugene and it's real exciting we have one going for sure."
Junior Amanda Jaynes advanced to the quarterfinal round Friday by taking 27th overall in the first round of the 400 hurdles. She finished fifth in her heat, but due to technical difficulties, her official mark wasn't registered in the timing system. After video and photo review, the NCAA Meet staff concluded they would advance three additional athletes to the quarterfinals beyond the previously established 24 qualifiers.
Jaynes's time of 1:00.36 was just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Oregon's Khadejah Jackson for the final spot to advance to Friday's race. Jaynes also finished just one-hundredth of a second behind Minnesota's Rachel Schow in their heat.
"We know Amanda can run way better than she ran today," Kennedy said. "If she can get back to a low time in the 58's she'll make it into the top 12. She has another opportunity to move on and try to make it. She'll be in lane one or lane nine, but she's got a lane so it's not impossible."
Senior Christie Schiel narrowly missed qualifying for the 800 quarterfinals at the NCAA West regionals.
Schiel finished fourth in the fifth heat of with a time of 2:09.46. With the top three advancing from each heat, plus the next six best times qualifying for Friday's races, Schiel held the fourth best mark heading into the final heat.
Six runners had times that topped Schiel's, putting her one spot out of advancing to the quarterfinals by just two-tenths of a second and placing her 20th overall. The Cheyenne, Wyo., native ended her career as MSU's school record holder in both the indoor and outdoor 800.
"It's gut wrenching," Kennedy said. "She ran faster than several automatic qualifiers and that happens a lot in this situation when they're running for the first three places. She beat five automatic qualifiers and ran faster than they did. It's heartbreaking and hard to watch."
Five other Bobcats completed action at the NCAA West Preliminary Round Thursday.
Senior Casey Teska made her third and final appearance at the regional by taking 45th in the pole vault by clearing 12-05.50.
Senior Jacqueline Verlanic moved up three slots from her seed mark and finished in 33rd in the hammer throw with a toss of 185-11 (56.58m).
Sophomore Alex Lewis and freshman Carley VonHeeder both placed 40th in their respective events. Lewis jumped eight spots from his seed mark in the long jump with a leap of 23-09.50 (7.25m) while VonHeeder completed the javelin with a throw of 134-08 (41.04m).
Junior Calvin Root rounded out MSU's contingent by taking 43rd in the hammer throw (181-10).
Montana State is scheduled to have two athletes compete Friday. Junior Kyle Douglass makes his debut at the West regional in the men's shot put at 2:30 p.m. MDT. Jaynes will open the 400 hurdles quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Links to a live stream and live results from Austin are available on the MSU track and field schedule pages at msubobcats.com.
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