Marquette Track & Field: Wally Ellenson Qualifies For NCAA National Outdoor Meet

On Thursday, Marquette high jumper Wally Ellenson advanced to the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.  The junior transfer cleared the bar on all four of his jumps at the West Preliminary meet in Austin, Texas. No winner was determined as all that was needed was to narrow the field to 12 jumpers to advance to the finals in Eugene, Oregon, from June 10th through June 13th.

In Ellenson's case, he cleared each height on the very first attempt to finish tied for first place amongst the 12 jumpers that advanced.  Only Arizona State's Bryan McBride was able to match Ellenson without a miss.  Competition ended at 2.20 meters, which is 0.08 meters short of the indoor school record that Ellenson set earlier this school year.

Four other Golden Eagles competed in Austin over the weekend, but none advanced to the finals in Oregon.  Senior Kat Koeck fouled on her first and third throws in the hammer throw, but hit 178-7 on her second throw to end up in 43rd place, well short of the top 12 needed to advance.  Koeck ends her career holding the MU school record at 200 feet, 6 inches.

Freshman Cassy Goodrich was the third competitor on Thursday.  She qualified for entry to the 400 meter prelims, but finished seventh in her heat with a time of 54.85.  That left her a little more than six-tenths of a second short of a time needed advance to the quarterfinals, but it was the second best time of her still young collegiate career.

On Friday, Marquette was represented by senior Will Koeck.  He had a fantastic showing in the hammer throw, setting a brand new school record with his final throw.  Koeck had already broken the school record twice in his career at Marquette, including the throw that won him the Big East Outdoor title three weeks ago.  He tacked on 15 inches on his third throw in Austin, launching the hammer 205 feet, 6 inches.  Koeck appeared to be on track to advance to Austin with one of the top 12 spots as the third and final flight of throwers wrapped up, but two of the final three competitors managed to top Koeck's toss and knock him out of the group heading to Oregon.

Saturday's third and final day of competition in Texas saw action for two Golden Eagles.  Sophomore John Krzyszkowski ended up suffering the same fate in the javelin as Koeck did the day before.  His second throw smashed his own school record by nine inches, and his toss of 215 feet even had him slotted in seventh after the second of three flights concluded.  Krzyszkowski got nipped as the third flight concluded, knocking him down to 18th place and outside of the top 12 mark needed to advance to Eugene.

Brittany Feivor was MU's final participant, running in a rain delayed 5,000 meter race.  The sophomore's qualifying time had her ranked 48th in the region heading into the race, but she posted a time of 16:44.62 to finish 14th in her heat and 25th overall.