Clarke and Barrett Advance to NCAA Finals

Both Patreece Clarke and Ashley Barrett qualified for the finals in Friday's preliminary heats at the NCAA DII Indoor Championships in Pittsburg, KS.
 
"Two for two," said HU head coach Bob DeVries, "That's a good day for any program at nationals. Coach Russell has done a masterful job of preparing both Patreece and Ashley for the big stage."
 
Clarke, an All American in 2023, raced her way into Saturday's 60-meter hurdle final with a mark of 8.53- out leaning Laiten Greeson of West Texas A&M to grab second place in her heat and advance. The HU sophomore goes into the final ranked fifth in the field.
 
"Patreece was very crisp out of the blocks, she stayed very focused over the last two hurdles and had a great lean to beat the WT hurdler by two-hundredths of a second, " noted DeVries.
 
Barrett was one of three freshmen among the 60-meter dash national qualifiers, but the HU speedster was the only one to advance to the final. Her 7.42 mark sends her to Saturday's championship race ranked #7.
 
"There were some nerves, you could see it in Ashley's race. But she did what she needed and she's in.  Our mantra, as always, is anything can happen in a final,"  said DeVries.
 
The NCAA championships can be viewed online at ncaa.com. Clarke and Barrett are scheduled to race at 4:10pm and 4:30pm, New Mexico time.