MEET HEADQUARTERS | WOMEN'S ENTRIES

AUSTIN, Texas — The sparkling 2017 seasons for Portland State track & field's Genna Settle and Ta'mara Richey got an extension Thursday, as both athletes were announced as qualifiers for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, May 25-27, in Austin, Texas.
 
Settle qualified for the NCAA west regional meet in the 100 meters, while Richey qualified for the meet in the triple jump.
 
Settle will run in the first round of the women's 100 meters at 6:30 p.m. (CT) Thursday, May 25, and return for the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. (CT) Friday, May 26, should she advance. Richey, meanwhile, will only face one round of competition in the triple jump, which starts at 6 p.m. (CT) Saturday, May 27.
 
The top 12 finishers in each event at the end of the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, June 7-10, in Eugene, Ore.
 
Settle's qualification marks the fourth straight season in which the Viking senior has qualified for the regional meet, joining her with Jazmin Ratcliff (2012-15) as the only two Vikings to qualify during all four years of their Portland State careers.
 
Settle will enter the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds ranked tied for 34th in the region in the 100 meters on the back of her Big Sky-winning time of 11.48 seconds. Settle's winning time in the 100 ranked just two-hundredths of a second off the personal best she set at the 2016 Big Sky Outdoor Championships, when she tied the championship record with her finish in 11.46 seconds.
 
Settle's win in the 100 at the Big Sky outdoor meet was just a part of a standout 2017 season for the Viking senior, who became just the second Viking ever to win four Big Sky titles in one year. Settle accomplished the feat while sweeping the titles in the indoor 60, indoor 200, outdoor 100 and outdoor 200 meters, something only former Viking Jernise Saunders and Eastern Washington's Joyce Rainwater had done before in 2009 and 1994, respectively.
 
Settle's sweep of the 100 and 200 at last weekend's Big Sky Outdoor Championships tied her for the most outdoor individual Big Sky titles in program history with three, while her four titles in 2017 tied her for the second-most overall individual titles with five.
 
Additionally, Settle became the all-time leading point scorer at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships with her 100-200 title sweep this season. Settle moved her career point total at the Big Sky outdoor meet to 59, eight more than the previous career leader, Ashley Quay, who had 51 from 2004-07.
 
Richey, meanwhile, will be making her first appearance at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds this season, after finishing the regular season tied for 37th in the west in the triple jump. Richey becomes the second straight Viking to qualify for the NCAA west regional in the women's triple jump, after former Viking ChaQuinn Cook became the program's first qualifier in the event since 2008 last season.
 
Richey will also be on familiar ground when she competes in the triple jump at the regional meet, after previously competing at the Texas Invitational at Mike A. Myers Stadium on April 14-15 earlier this season. It was there that Richey set the mark that qualified her for the regional meet, as she set a new personal best with a jump of 40-11.50 (12.46m).
 
Both Settle and Richey will likely need to better their marks at the regional meet, if they hope to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Only the top 12 make the national meet, and both athletes have some ground to make on the current 12th-best marks in the west.
 
The current 12th-best mark in the women's 100 meters stands at 11.25 seconds – more than a quarter of a second better than Settle's current best this season of 11.48. The 12th-best mark in the women's triple jump, meanwhile, stands at 43-03.25 (13.19m), just under 28 inches farther than Richey's current personal best of 40-11.50 (12.46m).
 
Settle and Richey have already made it past the first step to nationals, however, which started with Thursday's qualification for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds.
 
What happens beyond there will be decided in Austin, Texas.