NCAA Track and Field Preview: Women's Entries

AMES, Iowa – The 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships begin on Wednesday in Austin, Texas. To help prepare Cyclone fans for the action in Austin, check below for a breakdown of ISU's women's competitors at the National Championships.

Keira Christie-Galloway – Women's 100m Hurdles (Semifinals: Thursday, 8:02 p.m.; Final: Saturday, 6:12 p.m.)
It has been quite the journey for the freshman, who only arrived in Ames at the start of the semester. The indoor season saw her break the school record and claim the Big 12 title in the 60-meter hurdles. During the outdoor campaign, she took down the school record three times in the 100-meter hurdles, the most recent time coming last month in Norman at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships in 13.10. She needed every second, as her margin-of-victory at the conference meet was 0.02 seconds, but it was enough for her to become ISU's first Big 12 champ in the 100-meter hurdles and the first Cyclone woman in program history to an indoor 60 hurdles/outdoor 100 hurdles sweep of the conference titles. A pair of strong outings in Sacramento at NCAA West Prelims (13.20 and 13.18) see her continue her season this week in Austin.

Erinn Stenman-Fahey – Women's 800m Run (Semifinals: Thursday, 8:44 p.m.; Final: Saturday, 6:44 p.m.)
The Canadian's final campaign on the track has continued for another week after a dramatic performance at the NCAA West Preliminaries. After advancing through to the quarterfinals, Stenman-Fahey had a battle on her hand in the quarterfinal, as a slower pace meant a top-three spot would be critical. She made her pass heading onto the front stretch and was able to hang on Leticia De Souza of Baylor for the final ticket to Austin by 0.06 seconds. Stenman-Fahey clocked her personal best 2:05.42 in the 800 at the Sun Angel Classic earlier this season and finished sixth at 800 at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships.

Amanda Vestri – Women's 10,000m Run (Final: Thursday, 9:38 p.m.)
Coming to the end of her sophomore season at Iowa State, Vestri has established herself as one of the top women's distance runners in ISU history and now has an NCAA Championships qualification to her name as well. Time-wise, she hit a couple of big milestones in 2019. During indoor season, she became the sixth Cyclone to go under 16 minutes at 5K, clocking a 15:55.37 at the Iowa State Classic. Outdoors, she became the sixth Cyclone woman to go under 33 minutes at 10,000m with a 32:39.93 at the Stanford Invitational. At the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, she picked up a pair of silver medals at 5K and 10K behind teammate Cailie Logue, becoming only the second set of teammates to go 1-2 in both races in Big 12 history. At NCAA West Prelims, Vestri did her best to keep up with a very fast pace set for the 10K. Though she was not able to stick with the leaders, her work gave her the breathing room to come home 12th and secure her trip to Austin.