Five San Diego State athletes qualified at the NCAA West Preliminaries at the University of Arkansas on Saturday to move on to the NCAA Championships.
Individually, Shaquena Foote (400m) and Xiamara Young (triple jump) punched their tickets to Eugene, Ore. along with the 4x100m relay team consisting of Foote, Hannah Waller, Jada Moore, and Aji Mbye.
The 4x100m relay team qualified in the first event of the day. Waller opened the race followed by Moore and Foote, with Mybe running the anchor leg. They finished the race in 45.35 seconds, the second fastest time in both San Diego State and Mountain West history.
They finished third in heat number one and ranked seventh overall in the field.
With the quartet advancing, San Diego State is the only non-Power Five program to send their 4x100m relay team to at least five of the last eight NCAA Championship meets.
Qualifying this year marks the sixth time the Aztecs have performed the feat. They also did so from 2016-18 and 2021-22.
Foote added a second event for her trip to Hayward Field, barely advancing in the 400m dash. Running a 51.85, she placed 12th to claim the final qualifying spot.
She is the sixth Aztec to advance to the 400m championships in program history and first to do so since 2018.
Young, on her third and final attempt in the triple jump, she recorded a personal best of 13.51m (44-4) to climb to 11th place for a qualifying spot.
She is the seventh Aztec triple jumper to reach the outdoor championships and fifth to qualify for both indoor and outdoor nationals in the same season.
In the other quarterfinal races on Saturday, Charlize James finished 15th in the 100m hurdles with a wind-aided time of 13.19 seconds while Jessica Kain was 16th at 4:20.00 in the 1,500m.
Sameerah Evans finished 39th in the triple jump with a wind-aided mark of 12.58m (41-3.25). The final event of the weekend was the 4x400m relay with Rhea Hoyte, Waller, Sydney Bentley and Foote posting a time of 3:36.12 to finish 20th.
The NCAA Championships take place June 6-8.