KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Eastern New Mexico women's 4x100-meter relay team of Maijah Mathis, Kandice Miles, Lateria Slaughter, and Danee Bustos advanced to the national championship heat for the second straight year at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Outdoor Championships in Kingsville, Texas on Thursday afternoon.
The Hounds pushed through the windy, south Texas conditions to place third in the first heat with a time of 46.82 and seventh overall after the completion of the two heats. The top eight teams combined between the two heats advance to the championship heat on Saturday.
The Greyhounds' relay squad came into the meet on-fire as ENMU is coming off a third place finish at the Lone Star Conference Outdoor Championships with a school record time of 45.56 on May 4 and followed it up with a head-to-head win over West Texas A&M at the WTAMU Last Chance on May 12, a team that also qualified for the national championship heat on Saturday.
Miles, Mathis, Slaughter, and Bustos will be running in the final for the second straight year after qualifying and finishing eighth at the 2018 NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships in Charlotte, N.C. with a time of 45.74.
In the women's 100-meter dash prelims, Miles came in 21st place with a time of 11.95 while Mathis placed 23rd with a 12:05.
The relay team will compete for the national championship on Saturday as the women's 4x100-meter relay final slated to start at 4:10 p.m. MST.
Mathis and Miles will return to the track tomorrow for the 200-meter prelims at 4:35 p.m. MST before Ivar Moinat competes in the men's 800-meter prelims slated for a 5:20 p.m. start.
