12 University of Wyoming track student-athletes are competing in the NCAA preliminary championships today in hopes of moving forward to the next stage of the championships.

Two weekends ago, after the conference championships, UW head coach Don Yentes said all the qualifiers looked good, and he was confident they would be ready for the challenge of championships.

Yentes said,  “They (Greg Miller and Lenyn Leonce)look super, and it won’t be surprising if they made it all the way.”

“We had 13 athletes qualify for the meet which is the most in this school’s history,” Yentes said.

The 4-by-100-meter relay team may have taken a hit as event qualifying Sophomore Mario Harris suffered a hamstring injury. Because of the severity of the injury, he will not be participating in the meet. Yentes said he expressed deep regret for his Mario’s injury. 

Portland forecasts called for weather to be in the low 50s with rain during the preliminaries. “Fortunately for us, we are used to this same kind of weather” Yentes said. “We are the only team with such harsh conditions and we are used to this type weather.”

Sophomore Lenyn Leonce said his primary goal is to set a personal best in the long jump and finish in the top 12 with the hopes of making it to the next round of the NCAA championships. 

It may prove a difficult task as the West region has many competitive jumpers in his division. 

“The competition is stiff right now,” Leonce said. “But hopefully I can put it all behind me and do my own thing.” 

Leonce described the preliminaries as just another meet where he just has to perform the same as usual. 

Leonce said his performance throughout the season as dismal as he was unlucky in avoiding the foul board for long jump. Before that, an ankle injury hindered his performance. However, he made it clear his injury has not been an issue for him in the past two weeks, and he is ready to go out and perform.

The NCAA first round meet is scheduled to be held in Eugene, Oregon today through Saturday. 

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