EUGENE, Ore. (June 8, 2024) –Washington State University’s Maribel Caicedo and Micaela De Mello each captured First-Team All-America honors in the 100m hurdles to highlight the fourth and final day of competition Saturday for the Cougars at the 2024 NCAA Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field.
In a very fast field, Caicedo, a graduate student from Guayaquil, Ecuador, looked strong throughout the race as she crossed the finish line second in 12.56 seconds, less than a tenth behind winner Grace Stark of Florida, who finished in 12.47. Caicedo’s second-place showing capped a remarkable season for the general studies major who lowered the school record by nearly a half second when she ran 12.49 two weeks ago the 2024 NCAA Championships First Round in Fayetteville, Ark. Caicedo’s second-place effort also marked the highest finish by a female Cougar at the NCAA Outdoor Championships since 2011, when javelin thrower Marissa Tschida finished third.
De Mello, a redshirt-junior from Palhoca, Brazil, earned outdoor All-America first team honors for the first time as she crossed the line in a time of 12.92 seconds, good for seventh overall. She caps her third season in a Cougar uniform by lowering her personal-best time to 12.85, also in Fayetteville, and reached her first NCAA Championship final.
Paced by the hurdling duo, the WSU women finished 27th in the team standings with 10 points, their highest team finish since tying for 27th in 2007. On the men’s side, WSU finished tied for 62nd paced by Lee Walburn’s seventh-place finish Thursday in the decathlon.
Caicedo and De Mello become the first Cougar women to earn All-American honors in the 100m hurdles, while also becoming the first All-America first-team selections since Valentina Barrios Bornacelli garnered first-team honors as a freshman with an eighth-place finish in the javelin at the 2022 NCAA Track and Field Championships. It also marked the first time two Cougars competed in the finals of a track event at the NCAA Championships.
The women’s 100m hurdles concluded a strong showing for Cougar track and field athletes in Eugene. Earlier in the week, senior Lee Walburn finished seventh in the decathlon, earning All-America first team honors, while junior Nana Gyedu finished 18th in the women’s shot put to garner All-America honorable mention honors.
WSU’s three…
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