Marquette Track & Field: Marion & Parker Wrap Up 2018 At NCAA West Regional

Thanks to the West Regional being hosted out in Sacramento, California, we saw a (relatively) late night for Marquette track & field on Thursday night. Maya Marion competed in the shot put, while Jessica Parker ran in the preliminaries for the 800 meters. Neither woman was able to advance their cause, bringing their 2018 campaign and in fact their Marquette careers to a close.

Marion, the Big East’s first ever three-time champ in the women’s shot put, was the first of the two women to compete on the campus of Sacramento State. She landed a toss of 14.60 meters, but ended up committing fouls on her next two throws. Her first toss ended up placing her 44th out of 48 competitors, which sounds not great, but that’s also the ranking she had coming into the NCAAs. Marion would have needed to eclipse her school record by more than 0.80 meters in order to finish in the top 12 and advance to the national finals.

Parker went off in the 800 meters a few hours later, and finished sixth out of eight in the sixth and final preliminary heat. The top three in each heat advanced, and Parker’s time of 2:10.66 was 35th out of 48 total runners and just barely two seconds behind the final at-large time to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals.

Both women finish their careers with their names amongst MU’s most accomplished track & field performers. Marion broke an eight year old school record with her shot put throw that qualified her for regionals, and she finished with five Big East individual championships. Parker’s name is attached to five Marquette school records, including both the indoor and outdoor 800 meters, and she has top 10 finishes in 11 different events between indoor and outdoor track and field.

The Golden Eagles will take the day off on Friday before returning to action with Daniel Armstrong in the high jump on Saturday. The sophomore comes into regionals ranked 14th, and the top 12 will advance to Oregon.