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See how Texas Tech women’s track and field fared at NCAA regional

Two-time NCAA runner-up Shelby Frank on outlook with Texas Tech Shelby Frank was the NCAA indoor championships runner-up in the weight throw in 2023 and 2024. She transferred from Minnesota to Texas Tech for 2025. At NCAA regional track and field meets, the high jump ends when the field is narrowed to 12 athletes. In […]

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At NCAA regional track and field meets, the high jump ends when the field is narrowed to 12 athletes.

In Temitope Adeshina’s case, she needed to clear only 6 feet, 1/2 inch to make the 12 at the NCAA West regional in College Station. The Texas Tech sophomore has shown she can go higher at the NCAA championships, which is her next stop.

The Texas Tech women advanced eight athletes in individual events and their 1,600-meter relay through the competition that wrapped up Saturday, May 31, at Texas A&M’s E.B. Cushing Stadium. The NCAA championships are June 11-14 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

“Overall, I felt like our meet was good,” Tech coach Wes Kittley said. “We always like to get more kids (qualified), but the ones that were supposed to make it (to the NCAA championships) did, and it was a pretty good day.”

Adeshina’s never failed to miss the national meet. As a freshman last year, she placed fourth at the NCAA indoor and third at the NCAA outdoor, clearing the Olympic standard of 6-5 1/2 in Eugene and then representing Nigeria at the Paris Olympics. This year, she won the NCAA indoor meet with a jump of 6-4 1/4.

At the East regional in Jacksonville, Florida, and the West regional in College Station, fields of 48 athletes were narrowed to 12 in each individual event and trimmed from 24 teams to 12 in relays.

For Adeshina, ranked No. 1 in Division I based on her season-best of 6-5 1/2, the regional meet is about not making a mistake.

Unlike during the indoor season, when NCAA-championship berths are assigned after conference meets based on season-best times and marks, the outdoor season requires do-or-die performance in the regional round. Seasons for the highest-ranked athletes can end on one bad day.

“We all say, as coaches, this meet’s worth nothing except for the good ones to have a chance to mess up,” Kittley said.

Thrower Shelby Frank, a first-team All-American three times each at NCAA indoor and outdoor meets, qualified for national in two events. On Thursday, May 29, she was third in the hammer throw at 217-1, and on Saturday, she was second in the discus with a throw of 200-10.

The Red Raiders will send two to Eugene in that event — Zoe Burleson threw the discus 182-0 — and two in the triple jump: Victoria Gorlova jumped a wind-legal personal best of 45-10 3/4 for second, and Tamiah Washington went a wind-assisted 44-5 1/4 for sixth.

Also making it out of regional were Fanny Arendt, who automatically qualified by winning her heat in 2 minutes, 2.63 seconds, and Destiny Smith and Tonie-Ann Forbes, who also auto-qualified with top-three finishes in their heats of the 100-meter hurdles. Smith ran 13.01 and Forbes 13.11, both wind-legal, and sixth and ninth fastest overall.

Naomi Krebs, ranked sixth in Division I in the 100 hurdles but compromised by a grade-2 hamstring strain, failed to advance.

Tech ended the meet on a high note running a season-best 3:32.66 in the 1,600-meter relay. The lineup of Arendt, Mekenze Kelley, Mercy Umoibang and Vanessa Balde auto-qualified by finishing third in their quarterfinal heat.

“They really wanted it,” Kittley said. “We just competed better than we have all year against a bunch better teams. We haven’t been running fabulous 4-by-4s, so I was real proud of that.”

Just outside the top 12 in the triple jump were Suzan Ogunleye (43-10 3/4) in 14th and Busola Akinduro (43-10) in 15th.



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