Thursday, May 29
Jacksonville, Fla.
All Day
Bowling Green State University
at
NCAA East Preliminary Round
Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications
Brooke Pleger Headed Back To NCAA National Championships
May 29, 2014 | Women's Track and Field
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Jacksonville, Fla. – Bowling Green State University redshirt junior Brooke Pleger will make a return trip to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships, placing second at the NCAA East Regional preliminary round Thursday in the hammer throw at Hodges Field on the campus of the University of North Florida.
Pleger was one of four Falcons to compete during the first day of the regional meet, along with teammates Tina Perrine, Kori Reiser and Jeanette Pettigrew. Perrine and Reiser both competed in the hammer throw along with Pleger, while Pettigrew ran in the first round of the 100. All four finished where they were seeded or better.
"It was great to see everyone meet or exceed expectations at this level of competition," BGSU head coach Lou Snelling said. "I'm excited to see that this is becoming how our team operates – performing well at the biggest meets of the year when it matters most. Couple that with the increase in the number of athletes who are competing at meets like this and it shows a definitive step for the program."
As expected, the hammer throw competition came down to a battle between the top two hammer throwers in the country – Pleger and Princeton's Julia Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe, who entered the meet with the target on her back as No. 1 in the nation, threw the hammer 221-feet-6 on her opening toss and that held up to win the meet. Pleger, who won the regional round a year ago over Ratcliffe, warmed up early with a throw of 204-7 and then posted her best toss of the meet at 216-2 on her second attempt.
From there, Pleger attempted to catch Ratcliffe but throws of 213-10, 209-7 and 204-9 were not enough to overtake the Ivy League sophomore. Despite the second-place finish, she is the first Falcon to advance to nationals twice since Stephanie Heldt in 1999 and 2001. She is the first to qualify in back-to-back seasons since Nikki Lessig in the shot put in 1994 and the discus in 1995. Pleger is the first to advance to nationals in the same event in back-to-back years since Beth Manson in the discus in 1988 and 1989. Manson is also the only two-time All-American in BGSU women's track and field history.
"Historically, it's been awhile since we've had someone qualify for the NCAA National Championships two years in a row," Snelling said. "And she has the possibility of being an All-American two years in a row. That's special. It just shows that student-athletes can come to Bowling Green, become MAC champions, qualify for national championships and become an All-American. That's all possible here."
Pleger threw almost five feet further than any of the 46 other competitors at the meet with Akron's Brittany Funk finishing third at 211-4. In fact, three of the top 10 finishers came from the Mid-American Conference with four finishing inside the top 20.
That fourth competitor was BGSU's Perrine. The senior surprised the field with a personal best throw of 188-9 on the final toss of her collegiate career. She was the leader after the first flight of 16 competitors and sat in fourth after the second flight. She hung in contention for one of the 16 spots in the finals until late in the third flight, eventually finishing 19th after being seeded 33rd entering the meet.
Reiser got her first taste of the NCAA Regional meet with a solid showing as well, finishing higher than her seed entering the meet. The redshirt freshman opened the meet with her best toss of the day, throwing 182-4 to finish 31st out of the 48 competitors. Reiser was seeded 36th coming into the competition.
After an extended weather delay early in the afternoon, Pettigrew took to the track to compete in the 100. In order to advance to the quarterfinals Friday, she needed to place among the top three finishers in her heat or post one of the next six best times. While she was unable to do that, Pettigrew did place higher than her seed. With a time of 11.88 seconds, she finished in 29th place, 11 spots higher than she was projected entering the competition. She was just .07 seconds shy of qualifying for the quarterfinals.
Perrine, Reiser and Pettigrew will be back in action again Friday at the meet. Perrine and Reiser will compete in the discus at 3:30 pm, while Pettigrew will race in the 200 at 8:25 pm.
NCAA East Region Preliminary Round
Jacksonville, Fla. / University of North Florida
Hammer throw – 2. Brooke Pleger 216-2, 19. Tina Perrine 188-9, 31. Kori Reiser 182-4
100 – 29. Jeanette Pettigrew 11.88
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