Rosemary Chukwuma, Juliet Cherubet lead banner day for Texas Tech track and field

Texas Tech track and field freshman Juliet Cherubet qualified for the NCAA outdoor championships in two events Saturday, and teammate Rosemary Chukwuma ran the eighth-fastest women's 100 meters in NCAA history.

Their performances highlighted the Tech women's showing on the last day of the four-day NCAA West preliminaries in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It was a banner day for the Red Raiders, advancing 13 in seven individual events and one relay to the national meet.

The Tech women qualified three each in the 100 meters and the triple jump and two apiece in the high jump and the 100-meter hurdles.

The NCAA championships are June 5-8 in Eugene, Oregon.

Cherubet set a facility record in the women's 1,500 meters, circling the John McDonnell field track in 4 minutes, 9.04 seconds. Christin Wurth-Thomas set the old record of 4:12.70 in 2008, the year she was a finalist in the Olympics.

Cherubet later qualified in the 5,000 meters, running 16:01.65 for eighth.

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Chukwuma lowered her school record in the 100 meters, running 10.88 seconds in legal wind for second overall. She cracked the qualifying standard for the 2024 Olympics, 11.07 seconds, and became the second-fastest Nigerian woman all-time behind Blessing Okagbare, a former Texas Tech volunteer assistant and master's degree graduate.

Earlier, Chukwuma anchored the Red Raiders' 400-meter relay to first in a heat and third overall. Serena Clark, Success Umukoro, Alyssa Colbert and Chukwuma got the baton around in 42.77, No. 2 all-time for Tech.

The East regional in Lexington, Kentucky and the West regional in Fayetteville trimmed fields of 48 in most individual events at each site to 12 qualifiers for Eugene. Joining Chukwuma and advancing in the 100 were Colbert, sixth overall in a wind-assisted 11.03, and Umukoro, ninth overall in a personal record 11.09.

In the triple jump, Anne-Suzanna Fosther-Katta, Ruta Lasmane and Grace Oshiokpu placed fourth, fifth and 12th with marks of 45 feet, 4 1/2 inches, 45-2 1/2 inches and 43-11 3/4 inches, all in legal wind. The marks for Fosther-Katta and Oshiokpu were personal records for the senior from France and the freshman from Nigeria.

In the high jump, Tech freshmen Temitope Adeshina and Claire Lowrey had cleared 6-0 1/2 when the competition ended with the 12 qualifiers remaining.

Tech's other qualifiers were Zoe Burleson, ninth in the discus (187-10), and Destiny Smith and Naomi Krebs, 11th and 12th in the 100-meter hurdles in wind-assisted 13.03 and 13.13, respectively.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Rosemary Chukwuma, Juliet Cherubet lead banner day for Texas Tech track