EUGENE, Ore. – Nine total UT Arlington men's and women's track and field athletes will compete at the highest of levels at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
Four males and five females will take their place among the elite beginning with
Arthur Petersen, Joel Begntsson, and
Lucas Van Klaveren on Wednesday followed by
Iyana Gray and the 4x100 team of Gray,
Tatyana Terrell,
Adeyemi Talabi, and
Vanessa Ugorji following things on Thursday.
Bryson DeBerry takes the stage on Friday, as wel as any advances from the track side, while
Jade Bontke competes in multis that same day.
The Mavericks will be looking for its fourth individual national champions, and beyond, in UTA track and field program history, joining:
2018 Women's Outdoor
Alexus Henry (High Jump) – 1.82m (5-11½)
1990 Men's Outdoor
McClinton Neal (400m Hurdles) – 49.23
1982 Men's Indoor
Gilbert Smith (Long Jump) – 7.95m (26-1)
Petersen and DeBerry return to Eugene for the second straight season, while DeBerry, Van Klaveren, and Bontke all come off an appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this season.
Sun Belt Conference Field Athlete of the Year
Arthur Petersen leads the way for the Mavericks. Petersen stole the show for the Mavs at the Michael Johnson Invitational in April as he had a mammoth throw of 79.90, breaking his previous school record and moving up to third in the nation in the javelin.
Petersen advanced to Eugene with a throw of 70.22 (230-4) to jump into the top three almost immediately. He followed that up with his best throw of the day at 70.34 (230-9), which firmly placed him in sixth place and into the nationals stage.
DeBerry bounced back after a tough SBC Championships and rolled to through the prelims, clearing his first four jumps at 2.00m, 2.05, 2.10m, and 2.15m, putting him well in position to advance. DeBerry comes in at ninth in the country after he broke his own school record in the high jump, clearing the 2.21m (7-03) bar at the Texas Relays earlier this year.
Bengtsson punched his ticket easily as he took the win in heat two of the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.65, heading to Eugene for his first time. In the prelims of the 110m hurdles at the Texas Relays on March 25, Bengtsson delivered what at that point was the nation's fastest time this year with a blistering 13.54, now sitting 15th in the nation.
Van Klaveren heads to the NCAA Championships as he found out before regionals he will represent UTA in the decathlon after an earlier point total of 7,760 was good enough to qualify him. He is joined by fellow multi superstar Bontke earned her trip to Eugene via the heptathlon with a score of 5,692 points earlier this year. Bontke was the top scorer at both the SBC Indoor and Outdoor Championships earlier this season.
Gray made massive waves all day as she broke three school records at prelims in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and as a part of the 4x100 meter while earning two nods into nationals. Gray absolutely crushed the school record in the 200 meter dash and become the first female in school history to go sub 23 second. She ran a blistering 22.78 to earn an 11th place finish and punch her ticket individually to Eugene.
Gray, along with teammates
Tatyana Terrell,
Vanessa Ugorji, and
Adeyemi Talabi raced to a school record 44.36, a record they have been aiming for all season long, and finished 10th overall to punch their ticket on to Eugene in the 4x100.
The following Mavericks will be competing from June 8-11:
2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships
Eugene, OR | Hayward Field
All times in Pacfic Time Zone
Wednesday, June 8
Thursday, June 9
Friday, June 10
Saturday, June 11
- 10:30 AM: Jade Bontke – Women's Heptathlon (Long Jump, Javelin, 800m)
- 2:32 PM: Women's 4x100 (Finals)
- 4:07 PM – Women's 200m (Finals)
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