Mountaineers travel to Lexington for NCAA East Preliminary Round

The West Virginia University track and field team will send a trio of Mountaineers to compete in the NCAA East Preliminary Round on May 22-25 at the Outdoor Track and Field Facility in Lexington, Kentucky.

West Virginia qualified three student athletes for the preliminary round, including redshirt junior Cassandra Williamson and redshirt seniors Sarah Tait and Mikenna Vanderheyden.

The women’s track events begin on Thursday with the first rounds of competition at 6:00 p.m. ET, and conclude on Saturday with the quarterfinal events beginning at 5:00 p.m. on the track.

Live results will be available at WVUsports.com, while all four days of competition will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

Williamson will kick off the preliminary round for West Virginia in the women’s 800-meter first round on Thursday, May 23 at 7:50 p.m. The redshirt junior currently ranks No. 25 in the East Region, as well as No. 8 in the Big 12 after posting a program record time of 2:03.87 on May 9 at the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship.

Tait and Vanderheyden are set to compete in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase quarterfinal on Saturday, May 25 at 5:40 p.m.

Tait ranks No. 29 regionally, and No. 8 in the league after running a personal best time of 10:16.07 at the WVU Last Chance Meet on May 4. Vanderheyden sits at No. 12 in the East Region and No. 4 in the Big 12 after collecting a time of 10:02.80 at the WVU Last Chance Meet, becoming the third fastest Mountaineer to run the steeplechase in program history.

Last time out, Vanderheyden and Williamson collected All-Big 12 honors at the conference championship on May 9-11. Vanderheyden finished fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:13.39 while Williamson finished with a time of 2:03.87 in the 800 meters finishing sixth.

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