Jacksonville, Florida -- Youngstown State senior Bobby Grace finished seventh in the shot put with a throw of 19.54 meters (64-1 1/4) and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore., June 11-14.
Grace, who finished third in the shot put at the national indoor track championships, will be making his first appearance at the outdoor championships.
He also just missed breaking his own outdoor record of 19.56 set on April 19, 2014, by just .02.
Senior John Seaver, who entered the preliminaries ranked 45th in the shot put, turned in a strong performance with a best throw of 17.33 (56-10 1/4) to finish 32nd.
Junior Jessica Parham, who made her first appearance in the NCAA preliminaries, finished 34th in the javelin with a throw of 43.69 (143-4).
Senior Samantha Hamiliton was the final Youngstown State competitor in day one. Hamilton ran 36:37.04 to finish 40th in the 10,000-meter run.
On Friday, Connor Neu will compete in the hammer throw at 10 a.m. while Austin McLean and Eric Rupe will run in the steeplechase at 8:50 p.m.
Neu is currently 10th in the hammer throw with a season-long toss of 65.26 meters on May 9 at the Campbell Wright Open hosted by Akron.
In the steeplechase, McLean and Rupe have both qualified in the middle of the pack. McLean posted a season-best time of 8:57.59 which came at the Virginia Challenge on May 9 while Rupe had a time of 8:57.62 in the race on May 16 at the Louisville Twilight. The duo has the 27th and 28th-best times entering the meet.
Jay Jakovina and Arnaldo Morales close out the Penguins NCAA event in the high jump on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Jakovina and Morales both cleared solid heights that advanced them to the meet. Jakovina cleared a height of 2.10 meters at the Raleigh Relays in March while Morales had a 2.09m on May 2 to win the Horizon League Championship. Jakovina has the 31st-best mark in the event while Morales is 42nd.
The top-12 finishers from each event advance to the NCAA Championships. The NCAA Championships are set for June 11-14 at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
