Sprinter Boey advances to NCAA championships
Red-shirt junior sprinter Zye Boey qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 100-meter dash.
At the NCAA West Regionals in Eugene, Ore. last weekend, 11 members of Eastern’s track and field team competed with the goal of placing in the top 12 in their event to move on to the NCAA Championship.
Boey was the only Eastern athlete to qualify.
Boey placed 11th in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.55 seconds, stamping his ticket for his second NCAA outdoor championship appearance.
The fastest 100-meter time at the west regional was 10.29 seconds ran by University of Oklahoma junior Rakieem Salaam.
Boey, who placed seventh in the indoor championships last February in the 200-meter dash, also competed at the regional in the 200-meter dash, earning 23rd place.
Boey ran the 200-meter dash in 21.60 seconds.
The best 200-meter dash time was 20.62 seconds ran by Salaam of Oklahoma.
Senior Darren Patterson also took part in the 200-meter dash, taking 41st place with a time of 22.00 seconds.
Patterson also placed 36th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.16 seconds.
Nationally ranked red-shirt freshman Mick Viken finished 19th in the pole vault. Viken’s best vault was 16-feet, six-3/4-inches.
The highest vault in the men’s west regional pole vault was 17-feet, 3/4-inches vaulted by Brigham Young University senior Chris Little.
Coach Tom Akers sent three hurdlers to the regionals.
Red-shirt seniors Pat Tortorici and Kris Gehrke competed in the 400-meter hurdles and sophomore Dominique Hall competed in the 110-meter hurdles.
Tortorici and Gehrke placed 32nd and 42nd, respectively, and Hall placed 36th.
Tortorici ran the event in 52.93 seconds while Gehrke ran it in 54.75 seconds.
Hall ran the 110-meter hurdles in 14.63 seconds.
Junior Tyler Carter took 29th place in the long jump, jumping 23-feet, 6-inches.
Senior Tyler Arnholt placed 34th in the discus throw. The Mattoon native threw the discus 162-feet, 3-inches.
Senior Donald Romero took 37th in the hammer throw with a toss of 184-feet, two-inches.
Two members of the Eastern women’s team also ran at the Regionals.
Junior Bridget Sanchez placed 30th in the 400-meter dash in a time of 55.69 seconds.
Megan Gingerich, a red-shirt junior, placed 30th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:09.08.
The NCAA championships will take place June 8 through 11 in Drake Stadium at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
The semifinal round for the men’s 100-meter dash will be at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8.
The men’s 100-meter finals will be at 7:02 p.m. on Friday, June 10.
Boey last competed at the outdoor championships in 2009, placing 26th in the 100-meter dash.
The outdoor track season has come to a close for the other 10 Eastern athletes that competed at the regionals.
Sprinter Boey advances to NCAA championships
Zye Boey, a red-shirt junior sprinter, takes off from the start during the men’s 100-meter dash April 2, during the second day of the EIU Big Blue Classic. Boey advanced to the NCAA Championships after placing 11th in the 100 meter dash at the NCAA West R