FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Tarleton State Track and Field will feature Division I program record 15 total athletes to the NCAA West First Rounds beginning on Wednesday at John McDonnell Field.

For the second-consecutive year, the Texans are sending double-digit athletes to the NCAA West First Rounds. This year, the Texans are tied with Utah Valley with 13 individual qualifiers, tied for the most in the WAC. Last year in the Texans first year of eligibility for the NCAA postseason, the squad sent 11 athletes with seven punching their tickets to Oregon.

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. 

In the field events, it will only have one day of competition. In the long jump and hammer throw each athlete in the field of 48 will be given three attempts with the top 12 punching their tickets to Oregon. In the high jump, the top 12 clearances will earn a bid to the NCAA Championships.

Each day will be streamed on ESPN+ starting at the first track event of the day. Live results will be provided by flashresults.com. Tickets are available as single day passes and as a four-day pass.

Men's Athletes Competing

Ca'terrin Cox
Event: Men's 110 Meter Hurdles 
First Round: Wednesday, May 27 6 pm CT (Heat 2, Lane 6) 
Quarterfinals: Friday, May 29 6:15 pm CT  

-    Cox is making his second consecutive appearance at the NCAA West First Rounds. 
-    Last year, Cox also qualified in the 110-meter hurdles where he placed 37th overall in 14.13 seconds at College Station. 
-    This year he enters ranked 14th in the field with a season best time of 13.55 seconds where he won the gold medal at the WAC Championships last week. His wind-legal time of 13.74 seconds is the school record that he set earlier this season at the Clyde Hart Classic.
-    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.

Jalen Cadet
Event: Men's Long Jump
First Round: Wednesday, May 27 6:30 pm CT (Flight 2, Jumper 4)

-    Cadet is making his third appearance at the NCAA West First Rounds overall and his second in the long jump.
-    He enters the long jump ranked 25th in the field with a season-best mark of 7.71 meters.
-    Last week at the WAC Championships, he took home gold in the long jump as part of his 23.5 points across six events. He participated in the high jump, 4x100 meter relay, javelin and 100 meters in consecutive time periods spanning no more than 45 minutes.

Sir Jonathan Sims
Event 1: Men's Long Jump
First Round: Wednesday, May 27 6:30 pm CT (Flight 3, Jumper 1)
Event 2: Men's Long Jump
First Round: Friday, May 29 6 pm CT (Flight 3, Jumper 1)

-    Sims will be competing in his fourth consecutive NCAA First Rounds, making his fourth appearance in long jump and his third-straight competing in both.
-    This year, he enters ranked 22nd in the long jump with a best leap of 7.73 meters and 21st in the triple jump at 15.92 meters. 
-    The senior 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. 
-    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.

David Mvundura
Event 1: Men's 100 Meters
First Round: Wednesday, May 27 7 pm CT (Heat 2, Lane 9)
Quarterfinals: Friday, May 29 6:35 pm CT
Event 2: Men's 200 Meters
First Round: Thursday, May 27 8:45 pm CT (Heat 3, Lane 8)
Quarterfinals: Friday, May 29 7:50 pm CT

-    Mvundura is a double qualifier in both the 100 and 200 meters for the second consecutive season after making his debut last year at Texas A&M.
-    Last season, he posted top 35 times at the first rounds in both the 100 and 200 meters. 
-    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 a season-best 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 to claim the bronze medal last week at the WAC Championships.

JayBrion Jones
Event: Men's 100 Meters
First Round: Wednesday, May 27 7 pm CT (Heat 2, Lane 7)
Quarterfinals: Friday, May 29 6:35 pm CT

-    Jones will make his outdoor NCAA debut after competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships as a freshman earlier this year where he finished 15th.
-    The freshman is ranked 14th overall and the third amongst freshman 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. 

Davi Torres
Event: Men's High Jump
Semifinals: Friday, May 29 2 pm CT (Flight 2, Jumper 23)

-    Torres will make his first appearance at the NCAA First Rounds. 
-    He qualified 27th overall in the high jump with a best mark of 2.14 meters when he won gold at the WAC Championships.
-    Torres barely missed the cut last year by just a few inches.
-    Originally a 400 hurdles and triple jumper turned multis athlete, he is now specializing in the high jump in his third year with the Texans.

Johnathon Rodgers
Event: Men's Triple Jump
First Round: Friday, May 29 6 pm CT (Flight 2, Jumper 11)

-    Rodgers reaches the first rounds in his first season with the Texans owning a best mark of 15.73 meters this season, ranking 29th.
-    He claimed the bronze medal in the triple jump at the WAC Championships behind champion and teammate Sir Jonathan Sims.
-    Last year he placed fourth at the NJCAA D1 Outdoor Championships in both the long and triple jumps while competing for New Mexico JC.
-    He has competed for the Bahamas with teammate Jalen Cadet. He won the NACAC U18 Championships triple jump in 2023 while representing the Bahamas.

Women's Athletes Competing

Tayler Wessely
Event: Women's Hammer Throw
Semifinals: Thursday, May 29 9:30 am CT (Flight 3, Thrower 4)

-    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
Event: Women's 100 Meter Hurdles
First Round: Thursday, May 29 6 pm CT (Heat 6, Lane 7)
Quarterfinals: Saturday, May 31 6:15 pm CT

-    Rashwan qualified for her first NCAA appearance as a sophomore. 
-    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. 
-    The sophomore 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 needs a wind-legal time of 13.64 seconds to break the Egyptian national Record.
-    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. The Egypt native enters ranked 23rd in the region.

Prestina Ochonogor
Event 1: Women's Long Jump
First Round: Thursday, May 29 6:30 pm (Flight 4, Jumper 1)
Event 2: Women's 100 meters
First Round: Thursday, May 29 7 pm (Heat 5, Lane 4)
Quarterfinals: Saturday, May 31 6:35 pm CT

-    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. 
-    The sophomore is looking to make her fourth consecutive NCAA Championship after two indoor and last year's outdoor to start her collegiate career. She has placed in the top eight in the long jump earning First Team All-American status in each of the past three National Championships.
-    The Benin, Nigeria, native, was a First Team All-American last year in Oregon in the long jump. She 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.
-    Ochonogor has represented Nigeria in both the last World Outdoor Championships and the 2024 Paris Olympics in the women's long jump, placing 12th at the Paris Olympics.

Victoria Cameron
Event: Women's 100 Meters
First Round: Thursday, May 29 7 pm CT (Heat 1, Lane 5)
Quarterfinals: Saturday, May 31 6:35 pm CT

-    Cameron will be making her second consecutive appearance in the 100 meters at the NCAA West First Rounds.
-    The junior 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-straight appearance at the NCAA Championships where she reached the finals and placed ninth in the 100 meters last year. 
-    She has made back-to-back Indoor National Championships where she placed third at the NCAA Indoor National Championships earlier this year in the 60 meters.
-    Cameron did not run after the 200 meter prelims at the WAC Championships last week.

Lauren Roy
Event 1: Women's 100 Meters
First Round: Thursday, May 29 7 pm CT (Heat 3, Lane 6)
Quarterfinals: Saturday, May 31 6:35 pm CT
Event 2: Women's 200 Meters
First Round: Thursday, May 29 8:45 pm CT (Heat 1, Lane 8)
Quarterfinals: Saturday, May 31 7:50 pm CT

-    Last year, Roy qualified and placed 32nd in the first rounds in the 200 meters and reached the NCAA Championships as a member of the 4x100 relay. 
-    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.
-    She represented Team Ireland at the 2026 World Indoor Championships and placed 17th overall just weeks after posting two Second Team All-American performances at the NCAA Indoor National Championships.

Emma Holmes
Event 1: Women's 400 Meters
First Round: Thursday, May 29 7:25 pm CT (Heat 4, Lane 3)
Quarterfinals: Saturday, May 31 6:50 pm CT
Event 2: Women's 200 Meters
First Round: Thursday, May 29 8:45 pm CT (Heat 4, Lane 3)
Quarterfinals: Saturday, May 31 7:50 pm CT

-    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. 
-    She was named the WAC Women's Outdoor Freshman of the Year after scoring 20.5 points at the WAC CHampionships, the fourth most amongst women and the most amongst freshman in either gender.
-    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 the Memphis transfer earned the 46th overall seed in the region as well as breaking the SMU facility record.

Women's 4x100 Meter Relay
Athletes Participating: Victoria Cameron, Amandine Estival, Prestina Ochonogor, Lauren Roy, Nellie Wartanian
Semifinals: Saturday, May 31 5 pm CT (Heat 1, Lane 6)

-    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 that placed 15th and earned Second Team All-American status.
-    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.


Follow the Texans at the NCAA West First Rounds on social media by following @tarletontrackxc on Instagram and X.