CINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati track and field program will make the short trip to Lexington, Ky., this week to compete in the 2024 NCAA East First Rounds inside the UK Outdoor Track and Field Complex.
 
// NCAA EAST FIRST ROUND (Wednesday-Saturday)
In total, 13 Bearcats qualified for the NCAA East First Round in 14 different events and will look to claim their spot at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
For individual event entries, the top 48 declared student-athletes were accepted into the first-round competitions. The top 12 finishers in each event will advance to the NCAA Championships. The complete list of first round qualifiers can be found here.
 
The East First Round will run Wednesday, May 22 through Saturday, May 25. The men's first round events will be held on Wednesday and Friday, while the women's events will be held on Thursday and Saturday. The complete event schedule can be found here.
 
Fans can follow along with all the action from Lexington via live results found here. The meet will also be streamed on ESPN+. Fans looking to attend the first rounds can find ticket information here.
 
Two Bearcats have already punched their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships as freshman Juliette Laracuente-Huebner (heptathlon) and junior Dominique Hall (decathlon) were announced as qualifiers last Thursday.
 
Both used record-setting performances at the Big 12 Championships to achieve their qualifying mark. Laracuente-Huebner broke the school record, scoring 5,637 points as she placed fourth overall. Hall recorded the second-best decathlon point total (7,649 points) in program history as he finished second overall.
 
// CINCINNATI NCAA EAST FIRST ROUND PARTICIPANTS
Women (Thursday and Saturday)
Hannah Connell – 110m Hurdles
Davenae Fagan – 400m / 200m
Hannah Jackson – Hammer Throw
Annika Kinley – High Jump
Abby Knouff – Pole Vault
Spirit Morgan- High Jump
 
Men (Wednesday and Friday)
Justin Abrams- Pole Vault
Giovanni Gutierrez- Shot Put
Naquille Harris – 100m
Robert Hart- Long Jump
Keco Morrison – 400m  
Noah Thomas – Hammer Throw
Tyler Wirth – 1,500m
 
// NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS
Dominique Hall – Decathlon
Juliette Laracuente-Huebner – Heptathlon
 
// MORE ON THE ATHLETES
Eight of the 13 east first round qualifiers earned All-Big 12 honors at the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
Justin Abrams, Noah Thomas, Robert Hart, Davenae Fagan and Hannah Connell will all be making their first career appearance as Bearcats at the meet.
 
Robert Hart holds the highest East Region individual event ranking of any Bearcat this season as he ranks eighth in the men's long jump. Hart recorded the second-best long jump (7.82m ) mark in school history earlier this season. He earned All-Big 12 honors after placing fifth at the conference championships.
 
The high jumping duo of sophomore Spirit Morgan and junior Annika Kinley are making yet another first round appearance. Morgan will make her second appearance at the meet and currently ranks ninth in the region with a mark of 1.80m / 5' 11". She recently received All-Big 12 honors after placing fifth overall at the Big 12 Championships.
 
Kinley will make her third consecutive appearance at the meet. Kinley advanced to the NCAA Championships last season, where she finished 21st overall.
 
Tyler Wirth is headed back to the NCAA First rounds for the third year in a row in the 1,500m. Wirth has turned it up a notch in his final season as a Bearcat, breaking the school record in the 1,500m with a time of 3:39.58 earlier this year. His record time also ranks 11th in the region.
 
Wirth also qualified in the 5,000m (13:49.51) and is only one of two Bearcats that will compete in multiple events at the meet.
 
In her second year as a Bearcat, junior Abby Knouff is coming off her best outdoor performance of her career as she cleared 4.21m / 13' 9.75" at the Big 12 Championships and placed fifth overall. Knouff advanced to the NCAA Championships last year but did not compete.
 
Senior Naquille Harris is headed back to the East First Rounds for the second time in his career in the 100m.  Last year, he placed 33rd overall at the meet. Harris tied his personal best time of 10.18 at the Clark Wood Invitational, the second fastest time in school history.
 
Leading the way for the women's sprinter group is freshman phenom Davenae Fagan, who qualified in both the 200m and 400m events. Fagan joins Wirth as the only Bearcats who qualified in multiple events.
 
Fagan earned All-Big 12 honors in the 400m event after clocking a time of 52.73, the second fastest time in school history. Her 200m qualifying time has cracked the record book as her mark of 23.44 is the fifth fastest in school history.
 
After spending the last four years at USF, senior Hannah Connell will make her second career appearance at the meet as she qualified in the 100m hurdles. Connell's last appearance at the meet was in 2022, where she finished 15th In the 100m hurdles and ran on the 4x100m and 4x400m teams for USF.
 
At the Big 12 championships, Connell clocked a personal best time of 13.42 in the 100m hurdles and earned All-Big 12 honors as she placed sixth overall.
 
Rounding out the qualifying sprinters is senior Keco Morrison who will run in the men's 400m  this weekend. Morrison ran his fastest time of the season at the Big 12 Championships with a time of 46.56. Last season he placed 40^th overall in the 400m at the meet.

A two-time NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championship qualifier at Pikeville (Ky.), graduate student Noah Thomas will make his East First Round debut competing in the men's hammer throw. Thomas has thrown a new personal best mark in the last four meets, including launching a throw of 61.92m at the Big 12 Championships, the second-best throw in program history.
 
Seniors Hannah Jackson and Giovanni Gutierrez will join Thomas in representing the throws group at the meet. Jackson qualified in the women's hammer throw with a mark of 58.53m / 192' and placed fourth overall at the Big 12 Championships. Jackson placed 26^th overall at last year's regional.
 
Gutierrez is making his second appearance the meet in the men's shot put. He qualified with an outdoor personal best mark of 18.32m / 60' 1.25", the third-best throw in program history. Gutierrez placed 32nd at the East First Round last year.
 
A decathlete by trade, senior Justin Abrams will solely focus on the pole vault this weekend. Abrams cleared a bar height of 5.20m / 17' 0.75" at the Michael Johnson Invitational, the seventh-best mark in school history. Most recently he placed sixth overall in the men's decathlon at the Big 12 championships.
 

Related Videos

Now Playing:

• Play Video