Women's Track and Field | May 18

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Seven Northern Illinois University track & field athletes continue their season after competing in the Mid-American Conference Championships last weekend. The Huskies are set to compete in the NCAA West Region Preliminary Round in Austin, Texas on May 25-27.
 
Among the seven traveling are senior Hope Schmelzle (Wheaton, Ill/Wheaton Warrenville South), who set the 3,000-meter steeplechase school record with a qualifying time of 10:04.17 that ranks her fifth in the region, and junior Lorena Martin (Salamanca, Spain/IFS Fray Luis de Leon), who recorded a 2:07.80 800-meter time at the MAC Championships to set her career best and qualify for Regionals. Schmelzle and Martin were both named MAC Champions in the events that they will compete in.
 
Senior Carly Pederson (Bloomington, Ill./Normal Community) is on the list of qualifiers and will join Schmelzle in the 3,000-meter steeplechase competition. Her qualifying time of 10:27.77 was earned at the MAC Championships as she cut 17 seconds off her previous best in the event.
 
The final two runners to compete in Austin are Kedisha Dallas (Ocho Rios, Jamaica/GC Foster) and Jourdan Doffeny (San Antonio, Texas/New Mexico JC). Dallas's 100-meter dash time of 11:56 and 200-meter dash time of 23.68 from the MAC Championship finals qualified her for both events. Doffeny's 100-meter hurdle qualifying time of 13.58 was ran in the preliminaries of the Championships.
 
On the field side, the Huskies have junior Chennel Palmer (Kingston, Jamaica/St. Andrew) and sophomore Jehvania Whyte (Kingston, Jamaica/Vere Technical) competing in the high jump and triple jump, respectively. Palmer hit her career high and school record mark of 1.83 meter to qualify at the Drake Relays and rank her ninth in the region, and Whyte recorded her career high and school record mark of 12.46 meters at the Horned Frog Invitational.
 
Regional qualifiers are based off the top 48 marks in the region for NCAA Division I athletes in their specified region's performance list after the conference championships are through.
 
A complete list of the NIU track & field qualifiers for the 2017 NCAA West Region Preliminary Round at Texas:
 
Kedisha Dallas – 100-meter dash, 44th; 200-meter dash, 47th
Lorena Martin – 800-meter, 32nd
Hope Schmelzle – 3,000-meter steeplechase, 5th
Carly Pederson – 3,000-meter steeplechase, 47th
Jourdan Doffeny – 100-meter hurdles, 41st
Chennel Palmer – High jump, 9th
Jehvania Whyte – Triple jump, 41^st
 
-NIU-