From Jamaica to Canada to the U.S., three San Diego State track and field athletes and one former alum competed in three major track and field championship meets across the world during the last two weeks of June.
Junior Alison Reaser and Aztec alum Whitney Ashley were participants in the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships that took place in Des Moines, Iowa.
In 2011 Reaser placed first in the USA Junior Track and Field Championships in the heptathlon and this year she competed in the Women’s Heptathlon Senior and got 14th place out of 17 participants.
Reaser’s went head-to-head with athletes from all over the country in a seven-event competition that started on Thursday, June 20th and ended the following day.
Despite being sick, Reaser started off well and placed third in the 100-meter hurdle with a finishing time of 13.35 seconds and later that day she even placed fifth in shot put thanks to a 12.08-meter throw.
But by the second day, she was struggling and finished 14th in long jump, 11th in the javelin throw and 13th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:19 seconds.
As for Ashley who competed in the discus throw, she finished second in the Women’s Discus Throw Senior competition on Sunday, June 23rd with a final mark of 200 feet, 9 inches.
Ashley’s performance at the USA Championships qualified her for the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships, which will take place in Moscow, Russia, from Aug. 10-18.
SDSU also had two other track and field stars compete in championship meets outside the U.S. as well. Freshman Nicole Oudenaarden competed in the Canadian National Championships and junior Shanieka Thomas participated in the Jamaican National Championships in Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica.
Oudenaaredn finished tenth among eleven competitors in the Women Shot Put 4kg Championship on Friday, June 21st with a 12.45-meter throw and ranked tenth among twelve competitors in the Women Javelin Throw 600kg Championship the next day.
As for Thomas who was also competing in her home country, she entered the meet on Sunday, June 30th, following one of the most successful seasons in her career and with experience from the 2012’s Olympic trials in which she competed in the triple jump event.
Thomas placed third out of four entrants in triple jump with a final jump distance of 13.97-meters at a speed of about 14.15 miles-per-hour.
For Thomas’ achievements on and off the field this year, she was most recently named the 2012-13 Mountain West Female Athlete of the Year, which makes her the first Aztec to win the award.
On July 9th, the star triple jumper will represent Jamaica at the World University Games in Kazan, Russia.
