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INDIANAPOLIS – Missouri State’s Rochelle Etienne and Jamilah James have qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the NCAA announced Thursday.
James will be representing MSU in the triple jump while Etienne will be competing in the javelin throw for the Bears at the NCAA West Preliminary round which will be hosted by the University of Arkansas on May 25-28.
“Going in to the last meet of the season, we didn’t have anyone qualified for the preliminary round, but we knew we had a few people who could do it at the conference meet,” said head coach Jordan Fife. “Jamilah and Rochelle wanted to make sure they ended their careers here on the highest note possible and I’m proud of their efforts last weekend to make that happen.”
James has competed in three meets for the Bears this season including the Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Championships last weekend where she qualified for the NCAA’s. There, the graduate student from Scarborough, Ontario, jumped to a runner-up finish for the Bears, recording a mark of 12.65 meters. The distance smashed her former season-best of 12.19 meters which she earned at the Arkansas Twilight on May 6.
Etienne qualified for the NCAA preliminaries in the javelin throw with a gold-medal performance at the MVC Outdoor Championships where she threw to a mark of 46.69 meters. The distance beat her lifetime best by a full meter (45.24m) which she earned at the championships last year. The top finish was the third time the graduate student placed in the top three of the event this season.
“It’s always great to have the program represented on that stage and I’m happy for them that they’ll get that experience,” finished Fife.
The most-recent Bears to qualify for NCAA postseason outdoor action were Madison Meredith, Jessica Haney and the 4×100 relay team in 2021.
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