SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The women of Arizona finished up day two of the NCAA West First Round Championships on Thursday. The Wildcats excelled on the track, with three women advancing to their competition quarterfinals on Saturday: Talie Bonds (100m hurdles), Neysia Howard (200m), and Alisa Lyesina (800m). The three will get the opportunity to punch their tickets to the NCAA Championships in Austin in those quarterfinal races.
 
FIELD HIGHLIGHTS
The Wildcats had two competitors on the day in the women's shot put: Mackenna Orie and Tapenisa Havea. Orie's best throw of the day was 16.11m (52-10.75) and Havea's best was 15.85m (52-0). The pair will also compete in the women's discus on Saturday.
 
In the first event of the day, the women's hammer throw, Ava David finished with a heave of 59.09m (193-10). Additionally, Jenica Bosko finished with a leap of 5.96m (19-6.75) in the women's long jump later on in the evening.
 
TRACK HIGHLIGHTS
Talie Bonds finished second in the women's 100m hurdles to advance to the quarterfinals in the event on Saturday. The school record holder in the event won her heat with a time of 12.86. She will now compete in both the 100m hurdles and high jump on Saturday as she looks to qualify for her second consecutive NCAA Championships.
 
Neysia Howard ran a big-time personal best in the women's 200m to finish in the top-24 and advance to Saturday's quarterfinals in the event. She clocked a time of 23.32 to finish 17th overall, as she hopes to advance to her first career NCAA Championships. That time also moves Howard up to fourth all-time in Arizona school history in the event.
 
Alisa Lyesina advanced to Saturday's women's 800m quarterfinals after finishing in the top-24 in today's competition. She clocked a time of 2:06.89 and finished 23rd as she looks to join Howard in potentially advancing to her first career NCAA Championships as well.
 
In the women's 400m hurdles, Antonia Sanchez Nunez finished with a time of 59.61, narrowly missing out on advancing to the competition's quarterfinals. 
 
The men are back in action tomorrow with field events kicking things off at 1:00 p.m. MST. Then, the quarterfinals of the track events will get started at 5:00 p.m. MST, as the Arizona Men look to take advantage of their last opportunity to qualify for Austin. The women will finish up on Saturday. Live results for all the events can be found here.
 
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