FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — One will be going for her fourth time, the other for his first, as two University of Colorado outdoor track performers qualified for the NCAA Championships in two weeks here Friday at the second day of the NCAA Outdoor Track West Preliminaries.
Senior Shalaya Kipp cruised to an easy win in her heat of the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, flirting with the NCAA West Prelim record until relaxing a bit on her final lap. She clocked in with a 10:03.87 time, her second-fastest this spring and well over six seconds ahead of SMU’s Tova Magnusson. The winners of the other two heats, Arkansas’s Grace Heymsfield (10:01.89) and Baylor’s Rachel Johnson (9:53.56) posted faster times to win their races to edge Kipp overall, though those hold little significance until they race against each other in two weeks. It will mark the nine-time All-American’s fourth trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.