Hawkeyes & Cyclones send total of 25 athletes to NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship

Iowa and Iowa State will have a total of 25 entrants this week at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

The Hawkeyes qualified 14 entries, Cyclones 11. It’s the most for Iowa since it qualified 15 in 2022.

ESPN will provide coverage of the NCAA Championships on Wednesday and Thursday, starting at 6 p.m. ESPN2 will air events Friday (7 p.m.) and Saturday (8 p.m.).

Decathlete Abraham Vogelsang kicks things off for Iowa on Wednesday. He used his performance at the Drake Relays to punch his ticket to Eugene, entering as the No. 8 seed. The freshman from Oslo, Norway, was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year during indoor season.

Iowa’s other qualifiers are Kalen Walker in the men’s 100-meter dash (Wednesday), Damaris Mutunga in the women’s 400 dash (Thursday), Alli Bookin-Nosbisch in the women’s 800 (Thursday), Daniela Wamokpego in the women’s triple jump (Saturday), Maria Arboleda women’s high jump (Saturday), Mike Stein in the men’s javelin (Wednesday), Lizzy Korczak in the women’s javelin (Thursday), Ryan Johnson in the men’s hammer throw (Wednesday) and Pauline Bikembo in the women’s heptathlon (Friday).

Walker earned his trip by placing third at the NCAA regional, running the the first sub-10.00 100 time in program history with a 9.94. The senior from Eddyville earned outdoor All-American honors in the 4x100 last year and this is his first trip as an individual competitor. He is the reigning Big Ten champion in the event.

Iowa also qualified in the women’s 4x100 and 4x400 relays and the men’s 4x400 relay.

Iowa State has seven men in six events and three women in three individual events, plus the women’s 4x400m relay. Five of those entries are seeded in the top 10 — Rachel Joseph (400, No. 2), Robin Kwemoi Bera (5,000 run, No. 3), Joash Ruto (3,000 steeple chase, No. 5), Rodgers Kiplimo (10,000 run, No. 8) and Cam Jones (shot put, No. 9).

Joseph posted the second-fastest time in the East and West prelims, running 50.95 in the first round and followed that up with 50.66 to take down the outdoor school record for the sixth time. The junior also had a 49.77 split in the 4x400 relay, the only sub-50 split in either region.