Monroe Punches Ticket to NCAA Championships in Shot Put

Thursday, May 26

Jacksonville, Fla.

All Day

James Madison University

NCAA East Preliminary

5/28/2016 8:10:00 PM | Track & Field

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - James Madison graduate student Amber Monroe punched her ticket to the NCAA Track & Field Championships by virtue of a program-record throw in the shot put on Saturday at the NCAA East Preliminary, hosted by the University of North Florida at Hodges Stadium.

Monroe placed sixth out of 48 throwers in the shot put, clinching her spot at the national meet with a JMU-record toss of 16.67 meters (54-8¼). That bested her previous record of 16.25 meters (53-3¾), set last month at the Jopson Invitational.

The Miami, Fla. native earned one of the top-12 qualifying marks after recording all three throws better than 16 meters. Her first toss went for 16.07 meters (52-8¾) and her final for 16.19 (53-1½), both of which would have been enough for a spot in the top 12. Monroe entered the day with a No. 14 seed in the event.

The Dukes closed out their weekend at the East Preliminary with junior Carol Strock turning in a top-20 finish in the 1,500-meter run quarterfinals. Strock, racing in very windy conditions, crossed the finish line with a time of 4:25.61 to finished in 18th place.

The Mechanicsburg, Pa. native entered the weekend ranked 33rd out the 48 racers in the East Region and 113th nationally but was able to advance to the 24-person quarterfinal with a personal-record time of 4:22.33, good for fifth in her heat on Thursday night.

UP NEXT - EUGENE!
JMU's Amber Monroe extended the spring season by a couple weeks as she advances to the NCAA Track & Field Championships, which takes place June 8-11 at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Monroe will throw the shot put on Thursday, June 9 at 6:30 p.m. Pacific (9:30 p.m. Eastern).

COACH HICKS POST-MEET INTERVIEW (Monroe Interview) (Strock Interview)

OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
Monroe was able to brush off her 19th place finish in Friday's discus throw and was able to punch her ticket to Eugene in the shot put. She even used yesterday's performance as fuel to make sure she didn't miss out on the national meet in the shot put.

"Yesterday was a rough day, I had a lot of emotion from yesterday so I tried to incorporate that emotion into today's throwing and it went well for me," Monroe said Saturday after the shot put competition.

PREVIOUS EAST PRELIM RECAPS
Check out recaps from the entire weekend at the NCAA East Preliminary in Jacksonville.

Thursday Recap I Friday Recap I East Prelim Results

PHOTO OF THE DAY - view full photo gallery
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Amber and her fan club after she clinched her NCAA spot in the shot put.

TWEETS OF THE DAY

Congrats @AmberMonroe1 !!!! Congrats. Keep striving #GoDukes https://t.co/glpHr1X7HY
— Vad Lee (@_VL2) May 28, 2016

Congrats @AmberMonroe1! You're off to the NCAA Championships in the shot put after a JMU-record toss - 16.67 meters! pic.twitter.com/P5z8YfzlEx
— JMU Track & Field (@JMUTrackField) May 28, 2016