STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State Track and Field had a Division I-record 15 athletes selected for the 2026 NCAA West First Rounds starting next Wednesday in Fayetteville, Ark.

A year after sending 11 athletes to the NCAA West First Rounds in their first season eligible, the Texans are sending a program-record 15 this season. In total of the 15 athletes selected the Texans will have athletes in 13 different events. There are five events that will feature multiple donning the Purple and White. Tarleton State is tied with Utah Valley for sending the most individuals to the NCAA West First Rounds with 13 each as well as a relay. The rest of the WAC accounts for 18 total athletes led by UT Arlington with six and Abilene Christian at five.

Of the 15 Texans heading to Arkansas, seven were a part of the first 11 to ever qualify for the D1 West First Rounds last year at Texas A&M. Eight Texans will be making their first appearance at the NCAA First Rounds in their Texan and collegiate careers. The Texans will be sending six women and seven men to compete as individuals with two additional women for the 4x100 meter relay.

"I am extremely proud to have 15 student-athletes representing our program at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds," said head coach Bobby Carter. "This group has earned this opportunity through hard work, consistency, and belief in one another throughout the entire season. We're grateful to be competing at this point of the season but we're not satisfied with simply qualifying. This group of athletes are prepared, confident, and excited to compete against the rest of the West Region and take full advantage of this opportunity."

The NCAA West First Rounds is scheduled to start on Wednesday may 27, and conclude on May 30 at John McDonnell Field hoted by Arkansas. They are the preliminary rounds leading to the NCAA National Championships in Eugene, Ore. at Hayward Field on June 10-13. The top 48 individuals each event are selected to the first rounds. The top 48 is determined by each athlete's best mark or time at any point throughout the outdoor season, starting March 1 and ending May 18. Conference champions do not receive automatic bids, unlike other sports, they must still have a top 48 time in order to qualify. 

The NCAA West First Rounds will have one gender competing each day. The men will compete on Wednesday and Friday and the women will compete on Thursday and Saturday. All of the track events on Wednesday and Thursday will be prelims other than the men's and women's 10K. In the track sprint events, the 48 athletes will be broken into six heats of eight. The top three in each heat and then the next best three will advance to the next round on their next day of competition. In the quarterfinals, the remaining 24 will be broken into three heats of eight with the top three in each heat and the next best three times advancing to Oregon.

Women's Selections

Victoria Cameron will be making her second consecutive appearance in the 100 meters. Cameron punched her ticket to Oregon last year with the second fastest time at the First Rounds in 11.02 seconds. This season, Cameron enters the regional ranked third in the West with her best time of 11.01 seconds coming at the Texas Relays. She will look to make her second appearance at the NCAA Championships where she reached the finals and placed ninth in the 100 meters last year. She placed third at the NCAA Indoor National Championships earlier this year in the 60 meters.

Lauren Roy will be competing in both the 100 and 200 meters. Last year, she qualified and placed 32nd in the first rounds in the 200 meters and reached the NCAA Championships as a member of the 4x100 relay. The relay earned Second Team All-American honors finishing in 15th place. Roy enters this year regional as a top competitor in the region in both the 100 and 200 meters. Roy is fresh off a WAC crown in both events last week where she ran a wind-aided 11.03 seconds in the 100 and 22.79 seconds in the 200. She ranks 12th in the region in the 200 with that time and her best wind-legal time of 11.08 seconds at Baylor ranks 11th in the 100 meters. 

Prestina Ochonogor will be one of the few athletes competing in both a field and track event and one of the even fewer competing in both the long jump and 100 meters. Ochonogor was a First Team All-American last year in Oregon in the long jump. Ochonogor posted the second-best mark at the regional last year and then placed eighth at the NCAA Championships. She earned the gold medal last week in the long jump at the WAC Championships with a best leap of 6.07 meters. Her season best of 6.50 meters ranks ninth in the NCAA West.

Tayler Wessely will be making her first appearance in an NCAA First Round at any level. The former D2 athlete clinches her first NCAA bid in her second and final season with the Texans. The senior is ranked 19th in the hammer throw with a season best of 63.25 meters. Her best mark came last week at the WAC Championships where she posted the top two overall throws and took home the gold medal, her second of her Texan career. 

Malak Rashwan qualified for her first NCAA appearance as a sophomore. She has been sensational this season. She has gotten faster in almost every race she has ran setting the school record in her last wind-legal race in 13.66 seconds. She has posted three faster times since that with her season-best of 13.29 setting a new school all-conditions record as well as the Egyptian National All-Conditions record as well. She was the WAC Champion for the first time in her career in the 100-meter hurdles last week clocking in at 13.49 seconds in the finals. She enters ranked 23rd in the region.

Emma Holmes will be competing in both the 200 and 400 meters. Holmes enters ranked 29th in the 200 meters with a season-best of 23.18 seconds. She needed that time to earn the silver medal at the WAC Championships last week. The freshman in outdoors also will be running in the 400 meters. She shattered the school record becoming the first Texan woman to not only break the 54-second barrier, but also the 53-second barrier clocking in at 52.92 seconds. With that race she earned the 46th overall seed in the region as well as breaking the SMU facility record.

The Women's 4x100 meter relay squad returns to the West for the second-consecutive year. The squad is returning three of its four members from a season ago. Cameron, Roy and Amandine Estival were all on the NCAA Championship relay last year. Ochonogor joined the squad for the NCAA Championships. Newcomer Nellie Wartanian will be a member of the squad that owns the sixth best time in the region this year in 43.33 seconds. Estival and Wartanian are the only two additional members set for the relay that are not competing as individuals.

Men's Selections

JayBrion Jones will make his outdoor NCAA debut after competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships as a freshman earlier this year. Jones is ranked 14th in the 100 meters. His season-best wind-legal time of 10.10 seconds also set the new school record. At the WAC Championships, he claimed the silver medal with a wind-aided time of 10.01 seconds that was too high to count for the NCAA qualifiers. Jones is the third-ranked freshman in the field.

Ca'terrin Cox will be making his second-consecutive appearance at the NCAA West First Rounds. Last year he qualified and placed 37th in 14.13 seconds. This year he enters the competition ranked as the 14th best in the region in 13.55 seconds. He just ran that season-best time at the WAC Championships where he earned the gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles. Cox is the lone Texan qualifier that is in his senior season with the Texans and spent all four years at Tarleton State and not a single moment at any other program.

David Mvundura is a double qualifier in both the 100 and 200 meters for the second consecutive season. Last season, he posted top 35 times at the first rounds last year. He enters this year ranked 20th in the 200 meters and 37th in the 100 meters. Mvundura won the WAC in the 200 meters in 20.40 seconds last week. In the 100 meters his best wind-legal time on the season of 10.22 seconds. He ran a wind-assisted 10.07 seconds

Sir Jonathan Sims will once again compete in both the long and triple jumps at the NCAA West First Rounds. The senior enters next week ranked 22nd in the long jump with a best leap of 7.73 meters and 21st in the triple jump at 15.92 meters. he took home the triple jump crown last week at the WAC Championships and earned the silver medal in the long jump. He scored 18 points, making him the WAC Men's Field Most Outstanding Performer of the Meet. Sims has competed at the West First Rounds in each of his first three seasons. This will mark the third-consecutive season that he has qualified in both. In each of his first four seasons, he has made the first rounds in the long jump. As a sophomore at Arizona, he qualified for the NCAA National Championships in both after top 10 performances in the preliminary rounds. Last season he qualified for the National Championships in the triple jump and placed 20th. 

Jalen Cadet a week after competing in six different events in the WAC Championships last week. He took home the gold medal in the long jump and scored 23.5 points for the Texans, His season-best mark of 7.71 meters in the long jump ranks 25th in the West. This will mark his third appearance at the NCAA West First Rounds preceded by a pair of appearances during his time at UTEP in the 4x100 meter relay and the long jump. Last year he placed 43rd in the long jump.

Davi Torres will make his first appearance at the NCAA First Rounds. He qualified 27th overall in the high jump. At the WAC Championships, he won the gold medal with a season-best and qualifying mark of 2.14 meters. Torres barely missed the cut last year by just a few inches and is looking forward to his first NCAA appearance.

Johnathon Rodgers in his first year with the Texans qualified in the triple jump for the first rounds. Rodgers brought in a best mark of 15.73 meters that ranks 29th in the region. At the WAC Championships, he earned the bronze medal in both the triple and long jump. Rodgers is in his first year at the NCAA level after competing at New Mexico JC for the past two seasons.

Follow the Texans as they head to the NCAA West First Rounds on social media by following @tarletontrackxc on Instagram and X. More information about how to watch, tickets and other pertinent info will be released in the coming days.