Women's Outdoor Track & Field 5/21/2012 11:18:00 AM

NCAA Officially Punches Tickets to DIII Championships for Alli and Springer

May 21, 2012

Event Schedule
List of Qualifiers

BRONX, N.Y. - For the Lehman Lightning women's outdoor track and field program good things come in pairs.

And on Sunday the Lightning's dynamic track and field duo of Tobi Alli and Jasmine Springer received official word that they would both be heading to Claremont, California to compete in the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships beginning this Thursday.

Alli qualified for two events, the long jump and triple jump, while Springer will compete in the triple jump only.

Prior to last Thursday it appeared as though Alli would be making a solo trip cross country and only for one event as her season-best leap of 12.02 meters in the triple jump at the CUNYAC Championships put her right in the middle of the pack - 11th best it turned out - of Division III qualifiers. However, when Sunday's list was released, the Lehman sophomore found out that her long jump mark of 5.67 meters set at the Ramapo College Roadrunner Invitational back on April 6 was good enough to sneak her into the NCAA Championships field in that event as well, where she will be ranked 21st out of 22 qualifiers.

Springer, needing a big leap in her final meet of the season at last Thursday's TCNJ Last Chance Qualifier to make the cut in the triple jump, soared to a distance of 11.82 meters, which ended up placing her 19th out of the 22 competitors selected.

For Alli, this will mark the second consecutive year that she will be competing against the best of Division III. Last season, the California native traveled to Ohio Wesleyan University where she finished 13th in the 100-meter dash, becoming the first Lehman freshman to qualify since Lauren Lourick did so for the Lightning in the triple jump in 2008.

That Alli will not be competing in her signature event is through no fault of her own, as the announced field is one of the fastest in recent memory, featuring last year's champion, Ashlynn Chavis of Methodist University topping the list with a qualifying time of 11.83 seconds. The final qualifier in the field of 22, Lindsay Svehla of Rhodes College, posted a time of 12.14 seconds, which was .03 seconds better than Alli's best of 12.17 set at the CUNYAC Championships. As a point of reference, last year's NCAA final eight in the 100-meter dash featured only four women who finished with a time better than 12.14 seconds.

The trip to California will also be the second voyage to an NCAA Championship event in 2012 for the pair of Alli and Springer with both having competed in the indoor championships in March. Alli was the headliner there, earning All-American status for her seventh place finish in the 60-meter dash. In the long jump she finished 11th, just behind Springer who finished 10th.

According to the current schedule of events, Alli partake in the long jump on Thursday, set to begin at approximately 3 p.m., and then will return to the track along with Springer on Saturday, again at 3 p.m., for the triple jump.

Print Friendly Version