Brianna Howard sprinting to NCAA Championships

Published 12:02 am Wednesday, May 29, 2024

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Lamar University junior Brianna Howard has qualified for the finals of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships after once again breaking the school and Southland Conference record in the 200-meter quarterfinals.

Howard joins Kenson Tate as the only two athletes to advance and they will head up to Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., where the finals will go from June 5 through June 8.

Howard is a junior from Beaumont who graduated from United High School.

Brianna Howard holds her ticket punched card, highlighting her ongoing spectacular season in track for Lamar University. (Courtesy photo)

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Getting to the 200m quarterfinals required a 12th place finish in the preliminaries May 23 for the local Beaumont native.

She set a then school and conference mark at 22.87 seconds.

On Saturday, she shaved off eight-tenths of a second to finish at 22.79 seconds, which was good for fifth in her heat and 10th overall.

Nią Clatworthy would run her final event of the season as she placed 39th in the 5,000m at 17:19.50.

This season would see the Porthcawl, Wales junior elevate herself to be among the top performers for the Cardinals. Earning six top-10 finishes, she made history at the Bryan Clay Invitational by breaking the Southland Conference 5,000m mark as the first runner to go under 16 minutes (15:59.77).

This performance would earn her SLC track athlete of the week honors. She also would set a 1,500m personal best of 4:25.47) at the John McDonnell Invitational. Then, she won two medals at the conference outdoor meet with a gold in the 5,000m and a silver in the 10,000m.