The Rice men’s track and field team saw Jack Greaves and Ty Hampton advance to the NCAA Championships following the opening day of competition at the NCAA West Prelims in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on May 28.
Greaves secured his spot in the championship meet with a javelin throw of 72.28 meters on his final attempt, placing seventh overall. Hampton advanced with his opening throw of 71.64 meters. All qualifiers from the region surpassed 70 meters despite challenging weather conditions, with the final flight beginning after 11 p.m.
In other events, Edward Bocock finished his freshman season by placing 28th in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 51.29 seconds. Sultan Bakare concluded his season after qualifying for both the hammer throw and shot put; he finished 39th in the hammer throw with a mark of 58.66 meters but did not record a mark in the shot put.
Head Coach Jon Warren said, “What an unbelievable competition, an almost midnight javelin competition in the middle of a rainstorm. This was by far the best javelin competition in the history of the prelims. Our two guys approached it differently. Ty had a great first throw that we thought was safe, but it ended up getting close by the end. Jack decided to wait and advance on his final throw, but both advanced to Eugene out of this extremely impressive field.” Warren continued, “Edward finished a fantastic freshman year and ran better than I think even he expected this season. He has tremendous potential. Sultan finished a great season, qualifying in two events, which is really impressive. Both of them got great experience here.”
Rice’s participation at the prelim meet will conclude as Juan Marais and Andrew Murray compete on Friday.
