Ricky Hurley punched his ticket to the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore. in the hammer throw on day one at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field West Preliminary Round in Sacramento, Calif. 

In addition to Hurley qualifying for the national meet for the first time in his career, Warren Hazel moved through to tomorrow’s 400-meter dash final for the second-straight season. 

Hurley took 12th in the hammer throw with a toss of 209′-6″. Hurley was in fourth after the two flights, but was bumped down to 12th after the final flight that featured the top-16 throwers in the field. It marks the sixth time in the last eight years that a Saluki male hammer thrower has qualified for the national meet. SIU men’s and women’s throwers have combined to advance to the NCAA Championship meet 19 times in the event since the NCAA adopted the current regional format in 2010. 

Hazel took second in his 400-meter dash heat to automatically advance to tomorrow’s quarterfinal The Old Roads, St. Kitts native ran 47.01, taking second in his heat to USC’s Michael Norman. Hazel’s time was the 18th-best time of the first round. 

Eight Salukis fell just short of qualifying for the national meet. Competing but not advancing for Southern was: Nate Dyer (hammer throw, 206′-2″ (62.84m), Shafiqua Maloney (400m dash, 33rd place, 54.62), Bri’Anna Branch (100m dash, 38th, 11.81), Tyjuana Eason (100m dash, 43rd, 12.00), Luke Horton (800m run, 42nd, 1:53.34), Mesha Newbold (400m hurdles, 42nd, 1:00.89), Sian Person (shot put, 46th, 45′-7″ (13.89m), and A’veun Moore-Jones(shot put, 47th, 45′-6.50″ (13.88m).

Hurley is up first for the Salukis on day two at the NCAA West Preliminary, as the Fox River Grove, Ill. native will throw second in flight two of the discus beginning at 12 p.m. PDT (2 p.m. CST). Hazel will run in the quarterfinals of the 400m dash at 5:30 p.m. PDT (7 :30 p.m. CST) while Maloney, Branch and Eason will all run in the first round of the 200m dash tomorrow at 7:55 p.m. PDT (9:55 p.m. CST).