Ram Trio Primed for the NCAA Championships

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The final chapter of the entire 2021-22 Colorado State athletic calendar closes this week with CSU Track and Field's Lexie Keller, Jacob Brueckman and Jackson Morris competing at the NCAA Track and Field Championships from June 8^th-June 11^th in Eugene, Ore.

For the second year in a row and eighth time in the last 10 years, the national meet will be held at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon. The trip to TrackTown USA as it has been coined will be the first – athletically at least – for Keller, Brueckman and Morris. During his senior year at Albuquerque Academy, Morris, took an official visit to Oregon, while Brueckman, from Issaquah, Wash., visited the Track Capital of the World as a spectator twice, attending the 2014 World Junior Championships and then the 2017 NCAA Championships to cheer on fellow Ram greats Cole Rockhold, Grant Fischer, and Jerrell Mock after Brueckman's freshman season. Now a senior, Brueckman's trip feels like coming full circle to cap a career. However, both haven't seen Hayward Field since its 2018 renovation that cost approximately $270 million. For Keller, it's all new.

All three Rams hold four Mountain West Individual titles from the most recent conference championship in May and will be competing in those same events on the national stage. Brueckman captured the 1,500-meter championship after placing third the year prior and 10^th in 2019. Keller won the women's heptathlon with a school record and championship record score of 5834. On his second javelin throw at conference – also his second attempt all year – Morris hit a 225'6'' to qualify for regionals, win the conference title and reestablish his own school record. Later in the day, he added the discus title with the 10^th-best throw in CSU history.

Two weeks ago, Brueckman and Morris earned passage to nationals after positioning themselves in the top 12 in their respective events at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, while Keller had her ticket punched before that when all the conference championships were finalized. Nationally, Keller garnered the eighth seed out of 24 student-athletes who got to skip the regional meet for the multi. Brueckman earned qualification for the 1,500 after placing fifth in one of two quarterfinal heats at regionals. The top five from each plus the next top two times advanced from both regional meets. Morris simply finished in the top 12 in the discus throw and javelin throw to advance to Eugene in both – a feat that hasn't been done since Georgia's Martin Maric in 2006.

At nationals, each event – aside from the multis – has 24 competitors split evenly between the qualifiers from the NCAA East and West regionals. Fifteen of the 24 entered in the women's heptathlon including Keller are from the NCAA West.

Both of Morris' events will be one-day affairs with the javelin going on Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. MT and the discus on Friday at 6:35 p.m. MT. Each has two flights of 12, which will dwindle down to the top nine throwers and then culminating with a round of finals on the same day. Morris enters as the 16^th seed in the discus and the 20^th seed in the javelin.

Brueckman's 1500 consists of a two semifinal heats on Wednesday at 5:46 p.m. MT with the Ram running in the second race. Like regionals, the top five from each heat plus the next two best times will advance, but this time meet for the final on Friday at 7:12 p.m. MT. There aren't necessarily true seeds for the running events since the regional races are more technical than time oriented, however Brueckman did enter the regional as the 12^th seed and placed fifth with the third-fastest time in school history at 3:39.04.

Like Morris, Keller will be competing two days this week as the heptathlon starts Friday at 2 p.m. MT with the 100m hurdles and concludes Saturday with the 800 at 5:13 p.m. MT. The Albuquerque native earned USTFCCCA First Team All-American honors in March of this year after finishing third in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

NCAA Championships Schedule & How to Follow

Live Results - https://csura.ms/38UeNd3
NCAA Championship Headquarters - https://csura.ms/3x7D1sl
Starting Lists Attached

MEN
WEDNESDAY, June 8^th
Jacob Brueckman: 1500m, Semifinal – 5:46 p.m. MT (ESPN2 - https://www.espn.com/watch/)
Jackson Morris: Javelin, Final – 6:45 p.m. MT (ESPN3 - https://csura.ms/3xckNpO)

FRIDAY, June 10^th
Jacob Brueckman: 1500m, Final (IF advancement from Wednesday) – 7:12 p.m. MT (ESPN2 - https://www.espn.com/watch/)
Jackson Morris: Discus, Final – 6:35 p.m. MT (ESPN3 - https://csura.ms/3xmKOnr)

WOMEN
FRIDAY, June 10^th
Lexie Keller: Heptathlon, 100mH – 2 p.m. MT (ESPN3 - https://csura.ms/3xnoQkr)
Lexie Keller: Heptathlon, High Jump – 3 p.m. MT (ESPN3 - https://csura.ms/3mleX0k)
Lexie Keller: Heptathlon, Shot Put – 5 p.m. MT (ESPN3 - https://csura.ms/3mleX0k)
Lexie Keller: Heptathlon, 200m – 8:43 p.m. MT (ESPN2 - https://www.espn.com/watch/)

SATURDAY, June 11^th
Lexie Keller: Heptathlon, Long Jump – 11:30 a.m. MT (ESPN3 - https://csura.ms/3GYiB9J)
Lexie Keller: Heptathlon, Javelin – 12:45 p.m. MT (ESPN3 - https://csura.ms/3NSDzZW)
Lexie Keller: Heptathlon, 800m – 5:13 p.m. MT (ESPN - https://www.espn.com/watch/)

Additional NCAA Notes

Lexie Keller

Outdoor Season View: In her first heptathlon of the season, she won the event with a score of 5803 at the Jim Click Shootout. The result captured the school record, passing Emily Pearson's mark, which stood since 2008. At the time, the mark was second all-time in conference history and third in the NCAA. Within the seven events, she grabbed personal records in all and three remain (200, Long Jump, 800). A week later at the Doug Max Invite, she notched her shot put PR. At conference, she upped her point total in the hept by 31 points to 5834, which is two points away from the conference record which is shared between Allison Reaser (SDSU, 2014) and Nicola Ader of Nevada who tied it this season and is also in this week's field at nationals. Within the conference multi, Keller notched PRs in the 100mH, high jump, javelin and if it wasn't for a high wind rating possibly the long jump. The last Ram to compete in the heptathlon at nationals was Jessica Green in 2016 and she finished 22^nd. The only other time was in 2008 when Emily Pearson took 10^th and Katie Lloyd 13^th.
Indoor Season View: After entering the NCAA Indoor Pentathlon with the 15^th seed, Keller placed third to garner All-American honors. She subsequently was named Mountain West Women's Indoor Student-Athlete of the Year and USTFCCCA Women's Field Athlete of the Year for the Mountain Region, becoming the first female Ram to earn the latter. Her finish at nationals was the highest among any Mountain West female participant.
Championship Career Progression: In the Mountain West Indoor Pentathlon, she's progressed from sixth in 2019 to third place in 2020 to runner-up in 2022. In MW Outdoor Heptathlon, she's gone from third place in 2021 to winning in 2022. This was her first season competing at NCAA Indoors and will be her first at NCAA Outdoors too.
Ranking in CSU History: Heptathlon: #1; Pentathlon: #1; Outdoor Long Jump: #4; Outdoor High Jump: #13; Outdoor 100mH: #8; Indoor Long Jump: #5; Indoor High Jump: #14; Indoor 60mH: #4; Indoor 55mH: #4

Jackson Morris

Outdoor Season View: In CSU's second outdoor meet, Morris PR'd the discus by almost four feet and then at conference, he upped that to over six feet from what his PR was going into the season. He won the discus with a throw of 185'7''. All season, he simultaneously competed in the shot put, finishing fourth at conference. Previously mentioned, the first time he threw the javelin was at conference and just three times total. At regionals, field events only get three tries as well. Prior to those six throws, the last time Morris threw the javelin in a meet was March 26, 2021. Morris became CSU's first javelin conference champion.
Indoor Season View: A second-place shot put finish at conference capped what resembled like a rebound season for Morris who had been recovering from injury from the 2020-21 season. He only competed in shot put over the course of the 2021-22 indoor season, finishing with a PR at conference.
Championship Career Progression: In the 2019 conference meets, he finished third four times – twice in shot put plus the discus and javelin. This season, he finished runner-up in the indoor shot put, fourth in outdoor shot put and then won the discus and javelin. In 2019, he made it to NCAA West regionals, finishing 19^th in jav and 42^nd in discus. This is his first NCAA final site appearance.
Ranking in CSU History: Javelin: #1; Discus: #10

Jacob Brueckman

Outdoor Season View: In Brueckman's second race of the season, he won the 1500 at the West Coast Relays. At Bryan Clay Invite – Brueckman's third meet of the 2022 outdoor season – the senior PR'd the 1500 to 3:39.27, which was a 3-second improvement that bumped him up to third all-time on CSU's list from fourth. He shaved another .23 off that PR in the quarterfinals at regionals, but still sits third all-time. Bryan Berryhill has CSU's 1500 record at 3:37.05 followed by Richie Harris at 3:38.46. The MW championship he won occurred with no prelims, just a straight final. He became the first Ram 1500 winner since the Rams won the first three from 2000-2002. Five Rams have competed in the 1500 at the NCAA Championships in history, including the 2001 National Champion Bryan Berryhill who also holds CSU's record in the event.
Indoor Season View: Brueckman only competed in three meets, specializing in the mile and concluding with the third-best time in school history. He helped gain 11 points for the men with a fourth-place mile and third-place DMR.
Championship Career Progression: This marks Brueckman's first-ever trip to a national meet competing. Last year, he finished 26^th in the prelims of regionals for the 1500, which was his first regional appearance. At MW Outdoor Championships, he has gone from 10^th to 3^rd and 1^st in the 1500. For MW Indoor, he went 8^th then two fourth-place finishes in the mile. He does have two DMR medals to boast.
Ranking in CSU History: Outdoor 1500: #3; Indoor Mile: #3

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