California Baptist University
NCAA National Championships
OTF Preview: Karinauskaite and Soca Prep for the 2024 OTF National Championships in Eugene
6/3/2024 9:40:00 AM | Cross Country & Track
RIVERSIDE--- For the second consecutive season, the California Baptist University track team will send multiple runners to the national stage. After earning qualifying placements at the West Regionals, Greta Karinauskiate and Valentin Soca will be the Lancers representatives at the 2024 Outdoor Track and Field National Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
The action for CBU will begin on Wednesday evening as Valentin Soca will compete in the Men's 10K. Soca is the first male athlete to earn a spot at Nationals for CBU and did so by grabbing the final qualifying spot at the West Regionals. Soca's time of 28:58.67, which he set at the Stanford Invitational, is the 12th fastest in a loaded field. The time is Soca's personal best, and the program record is nearly 20 seconds. The Men's 10K will feature four returners from last year's field, including two top 10 finishers in Patrick and Victor Kiprop from Arkansas and Alabama, respectively. Habtom Samuel of New Mexico is the leader in the event heading into the finals after recording a time of 28:26.91 to win the West Regionals.
The steeplechase will be the Lancers' final event of the week, as Greta Karinauskaite will be looking to become a back-to-back All-American. Last season, Karinauskaite made history by capturing the silver medal and First-Team All-American status in the steeplechase in Austin, Texas. This season, Karinauskaite has the fourth fastest time in the NCAA at 9:37.31 she set at the Bryan Clay Invitational and ran the third fastest time at the regional level at 9:40.22.
Karinauskaite will face an extremely tough field in her second go-around, including last season's gold medalist Olivia Markezich of Notre Dame and the 2024 steeple leader in Alabama freshman phenom Doris Lemngole. Lemngole and Markezich hold the two fastest times of the 2024 season and will be two of the top runners in the field in Eugene. There will be four returning athletes from last year's steeple finals, including Markezich, Karinauskaite, Elise Thorner from Florida, and Calli Doan from Liberty.
FOLLOW ALONG:
Streaming: ESPN/ESPN 2/ESPN U
Live Results Here
June 5 @7:08 PM- Men's 10K Finals
June 6 @6:02 PM- Women's 3000M Steeplechase Semifinals
June 8 @2:54 PM- Women's 3000M Steeplechase Finals (if nec.)*
For live updates, follow @CBUXCTF on social media and visit CBULancers.com
Players Mentioned
