Tennessee Trio Punches Tickets to Austin; Four Sprinters Make Quarterfinals

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Three Tennessee athletes punched their tickets to the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships on Friday, as Stamatia Scarvelis, Mustaqeem Williams and Hannah Jefcoat finished top-12 in their respective events at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds inside the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium.

Scarvelis (Santa Barbara, Calif.) qualified for her second championship event of the weekend with a 10th-place outing in the women's discus throw. The senior captain heaved a mark of 53.13m (174-3) on her first attempt to punch her ticket, as she will make her discus debut at the national championships in Austin, Texas on June 8.

In the men's 100m dash quarterfinals, Williams (Woodbridge, Va.) threw down a time of 10.18 - the third-fastest mark of his Tennessee career. The time was good for 7th place at the regional meet to punch Williams' ticket to nationals for the fourth consecutive season.

Jefcoat (Dacula, Ga.) was UT's final nationals qualifier of the evening, clearing a bar of 4.17m (13-8.25) in the women's pole vault for seventh place in the event. The sophomore school-record holder will make her nationals debut on Thursday, June 6 at Texas' Mike A. Myers Stadium.

FOUR QUARTERS: Tennessee had four from its sprints/hurdles squad advance to Saturday's quarterfinal rounds in the 100m hurdles and 200m dashes.

The Lady Vol duo of Alexis Duncan (13.07) and Domonique Turner (13.34) finished 1-2 in the second heat of the afternoon to automatically qualify for the next round. The tandem placed sixth and 13th, respectively, among competitors in the regional field.

Williams secured a spot in the men's 200m quarterfinals with a victory in heat 5 of prelims, cruising to a time of 20.61 for the auto-qualifier. On the women's side, Gabriella Cantrell ran a lifetime-best 23.25 for the second-fastest time in her heat to advance to Saturday.

CLOSE CALLS: The Big Orange had a handful of athletes place top-20 in their respective events, narrowly missing the top-12 cutoff for a spot at the national championships.

Alex Crigger - Men's 3000m Steeplechase - 16th (8:55.11)
Lenysse Dyer - Women's 400m - 17th (53.12)
Joseph Maxwell - Men's Shot Put - 18th (55.04m / 180-7)
Jonathan Sacoor - Men's 400m - 18th (46.59)
Kim Spritzky - Women's Pole Vault - 20th (3.92m / 12-10.25)

UP NEXT: Tennessee will wrap up the NCAA East Prelims Saturday, beginning with the men's shot put at 2:45 p.m. and commencing with the men's 4x400m relay at 9:45 p.m. Full results from Friday as well as Saturday's schedule can be found at this link.

For the most up-to-date information on Tennessee track & field, follow @Vol_Track on Twitter.

University of Tennessee Athletics

Tennessee Trio Punches Tickets to Austin; Four Sprinters Make Quarterfinals

Players Mentioned

Gabriella Cantrell

Alex Crigger

Alexis Duncan

Lenysse Dyer

Hannah Jefcoat

Joseph Maxwell

Jonathan Sacoor

Stamatia Scarvelis

Kim Spritzky

Domonique Turner

Mustaqeem Williams

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