Southern Illinois University
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Salukis to compete at NCAA Outdoor Championships
06/04/2019 | 11:36:00 | Track and Field
The Southern Illinois University track and field team kicks off day one of the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Thursday at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. The championship meet is slated to run Wednesday, June 5 through Saturday, June 8. The Salukis have a total of three championship entries and traveled six student-athletes, including a relay reserve, on the trip to Texas.
Bri'Anna Branch (200m dash), the women's 4x100 relay (Branch, Tyjuana Eason, Genesis Ewell, Tredaja Harris) and Shauniece O'Neal (hammer throw) will represent the Salukis at the national meet. O'Neal will compete first, as she throws Thursday at 4:30 p.m. The 4x100 relay is up next beginning at 7:02 p.m. while Branch will run in the first heat of the 200m dash on Thursday at 9:14 p.m.
Should the 4x100 relay team advance to Saturday's final, they will race at 5:32 p.m. while the women's 200-meter dash final is set for 7:07 p.m.
All five Salukis will be making their first appearances at a NCAA Championship meet. The women's 4x100 relay team broke the school record at the 2019 NCAA West Prelims with a time of 44.27 to place seventh and punch their collective ticket to the national meet.
Branch had a remarkable outdoor season for the Salukis as she took home Most Outstanding Track Athlete honors at the 2019 MVC Outdoor Championships after she won three MVC titles (100m, 200m, 4x100) and took second in the 4x400 relay. She also broke the school outdoor records in both the 100m and the 200m dashes, which included the fist sub-23 second 200m dash time in school history. In doing so, she became the first Saluki women's sprinter since Denise Blackman in 1986 to qualify for the national meet in the 200m dash.
Eason will put a bow on a terrific career with her first appearance at a national meet. A 17-time All-MVC honoree and an eight-time MVC Champion, Eason ran the second leg of the 4x100 relay at the NCAA West Prelims.
Ewell is a five-time MVC Champion and has reached the podium eight times at conference meets, with all five of her MVC titles coming in relay events. Harris, meanwhile, will make her first trip to nationals despite running in the 4x100 relay for the first time this season at the 2019 MVC Outdoor Championships. The Mount Vernon, Ill. native helped SIU to a win in the event at the conference meet and later ran the opening leg of SIU's record-breaking sprint relay at the West Prelims.
O'Neal has an opportunity to further etch her name alongside some of SIU's all-time greats and add to Southern's historic dominance of the women's hammer throw.
The Salukis have scored the most points of any NCAA DI program since hammer throw was added as a NCAA event in 1996. Southern's 74 points ranks ahead of Southern California (69), South Carolina (61) and Georgia (61) for most all-time. SIU's three national championships in the event are tied with South Carolina, Georgia and Southern Methodist for most all-time while Southern's 13 All-Americans in the event are tied for the most with USC.
To follow the Salukis pursuit of national titles, fans can tune in to ESPN3 for a live broadcast of the meet. A meet schedule is available here, live results can be found here and links to ESPN's broadcast are here.
Players Mentioned
