The second day of competition at the NCAA Championship in Des Moines, Iowa at Drake Stadium completed as three Big West representatives finished in the top of their flights for All-American honors.
The Big West heptathlon champion and record-breaking senior, Gaucho’s Barbara Nwaba finished her first round of competition at Finals. Performing in the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200 meter dash, Nwaba finished the first day of the two-day event in second place with 3,596 points.
Nwaba trails Brianne Theisen (3,803), a senior of Oregon, that has a 207-point advantage over Nwaba going into the final contests in the long jump, javelin throw and 800-meter flights on Friday. Close behind the Santa Barbara senior is third-place competitor, Dorcas Akinniyi (3,590) from Wisconsin, closing in with a six-point margin.
Two-time defending Big West men’s javelin champ, Long Beach State’s Ben Woodruff finished his career at Drake Stadium placing 19th in his event, while earning honorable mention All-American recognition.
Woodruff tossed 221-feet, 10 inches on his first attempt for his best throw of the day, but unable to advance with only the top nine performers moving on to the finals where they had three more attempts.
In the final race of the day on the Drake track, Davis’ Sara Sumpter ran in the women’s 10,000-meter race. Sumpter managed to finish 15th overall, earning All-American second-team honors clocking in at 33:49.57.
Sumpter was named Big West Women’s Track Athlete of the Year after her record-breaking performance at the conference finals. This is just the second time this season that the Aggie junior has broken in the 34-minute barrier.
The NCAA Championships will continue on Friday with eight Big West representatives in six events over the day. Nwaba will continue in the heptathlon to finish the last three events, Cal Poly’s Whitney Sisler and Long Beach State’s Katrina Graves-Johnson will compete in the women’s high jump. UC Riverside’s Caleb Stuart will look to reign in the men’s hammer throw, while teammate Ryan Swafford will look to place in the men’s triple jump.
The 800-meter finals will take place as 4:10 p.m. (PT) Friday, June 10 with Charles Jock of UC Irvine and Ryan Martin of Santa Barbara looking to continue with a dynamic finish.