WICHITA, Kan. — A group of 25 Wichita State track & field student-athletes travel to Austin, Texas this week to participate in the NCAA West Preliminary Round with the goal of advancing to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in June.

The NCAA West Preliminary Round begins Thursday, May 24 at Mike A. Myers Stadium with the men's javelin at 11 a.m.  Friday's competition opens at 11 a.m. with the women's discus and Saturday's schedule starts at 11 a.m. with the men's discus.

Twelve competitors from each individual event and 12 teams from each relay event will advance from the East and West Preliminary Rounds to the NCAA Championships June 6-9 in Des Moines, Iowa.

In Austin this week, competitors from 106 schools will participate on the men's side and student-athletes from 117 schools will compete on the women's side.

Junior Aliphine Tuliamuk will travel to Austin with the Shockers' highest seeds — No. 2 in the 5,000 meters and No. 4 in the 10,000 meters. Tuliamuk won 2012 Missouri Valley Conference titles in both events and her season-best times (15:26.07 5K; 32:39.35 10K) set conference records this spring. She'll compete in the women's 10K semifinal at 9:40 p.m. Thursday and in the 5K semifinal at 8:45 p.m. Saturday.

Seniors Lawson Montgomery (13.67) and Todd McKown (13.69) carry the West's No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, respectively, in the men's 110-meter hurdles. They finished second and third at the MVC Outdoor Track & Field Championships for all-conference honors. The first round of the 110-meter hurdles takes place at 5 p.m. Friday and the event quarterfinals at 7:05 p.m. Saturday.

Senior Brett Trudo is seeded sixth in the West after his season-best throw at the MVC Outdoor Championships (237-1). He finished second in the event for all-conference recognition and will compete in Austin starting at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Sophomore Natalie Morerod is scheduled to run in both the women's 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles. She'll enter the meet with the No. 10 seed in the 400-meter hurdles after setting a Wichita State record at the MVC meet with a championship-winning time of 57.48. The 100-meter hurdles first round starts at 5:30 p.m. Friday and the event quarterfinals take place at 7:20 p.m. Saturday. The first round of the 400-meter hurdles takes place at 5 p.m. Thursday and the quarterfinals at 7:45 p.m. Friday.

Shocker junior Tanya Friesen already qualified for the NCAA Championships with the personal-best 5,472 points she scored during the MVC meet, which also secured her the MVC title in the event. Multi-events are not included in preliminary round competition, and instead, the top 24 scorers in the nation in both the decathlon and heptathlon advance directly to the finals.

Friesen will compete in the long jump at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Austin for the chance to advance to the NCAA Finals in a second event. She enters the competition with a season-best long jump mark of 19-5 ¼.

Senior Audacia Moore is scheduled to run in both the women's 100 meters and 200 meters. She finished all-conference in the 100 meters and recorded the Valley's fastest 200-meter time of the season at the Arkansas Spring Invitational (23.57). The first round of the 100 meters is at 6:55 p.m. Thursday and the quarterfinals at 6:45 p.m. Friday. The 200 meters first round is at 8:25 p.m. Friday and the quarterfinals at 7:50 p.m. Saturday.

Senior Cassie Craig, who won the 2012 MVC title in the women's pole vault with a personal best mark of 13-4 1/2, will participate in the event at 1 p.m. Friday in Austin.

Senior Danielle Chapman won the women's 800-meter conference title in 2:06.69 and will run in the event's first round at 8:35 p.m. Thursday in Texas. The 800-meter quarterfinals will be held at 7:15 p.m. Friday.

Senior Dylan Hartnett won the MVC title in the men's 400 meters and will run in the event's first round at 7:20 p.m. in Austin, as well as on the Shockers' 4x400-meter relay squad at 9:25 p.m. Saturday. Hartnett's top 400-meter time of the season came at the Arkansas Twilight (47.11).

MVC champion Tomas Cotter, a junior, will run in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 8:50 p.m. Friday. Cotter's fastest time in the event this season was at the Stanford Invitational (8:51.88).

Other Shocker women scheduled to compete in Austin include: Shamoya Pruitt (100 meters); Scarla Nero (10,000 meters); J'Lynn Ledesma (high jump); Courtney Reinke (triple jump) and Megan Fuller (discus).

The Shocker men's team is also sending: Jake Wike (1,500 meters); Cory Beenken (110-meter hurdles); Brandon Childs (high jump); Jon Rizzo (javelin); DJ Lindsay (4x400-meter relay); Alex Reed (4x400-meter relay); Kyle Long (4x400-meter relay) as well as 4x400-meter relay alternates Aaron Young and Cooper Hanning.

Wichita State's Friesen, Trudo and Tuliamuk represented the Shockers at the 2011 NCAA finals as the Shockers sent a total of five student-athletes to Des Moines. Last season's championship group marked the largest for Wichita State since 2003.

- Wichita State -