Des Moines – Disappointment gave way to opportunity in one Cyclone event at the NCAA Regionals on Friday and Saturday at Drake.

As senior Rebecca Williams was disqualified with a false start in Friday’s 100-meter hurdle preliminaries, freshman Jenna Caffrey was able to unexpectedly finish fifth in Saturday’s finals to earn herself a spot in the NCAA Championships in two weeks.

“For Jenna to make it as a freshman is tremendous. The experience she’ll gain as a freshman will pay huge dividends down the road as she gets older,” sprints and hurdles coach Scott Roberts said. “I think it’s a tremendous experience for her to do that.”

After Williams was disqualified, Caffrey said she had extra motivation to get an ISU representative to Nationals. She did that by running her second-fastest time of the year at 13.59 seconds.

“There was a little more motivation with not having Becca [Williams] in finals, so I was kind of running for both of us,” Caffrey said.

Also representing the hurdlers was Sara Boisen, who finished just outside of qualifying time in the 400 hurdles with a sixth-place finish.

The men’s team’s best chance at qualifying for Nationals came to an abrupt end in the 4×400-meter relay. After the first three legs of Jared Lewis’, Elijah Braimah’s and Tony Stanfield’s fight to stay near the front, Jared Graham came down with an injury on the backstretch and was unable to finish, disqualifying the team from a chance at Nationals.

The ISU men finished in 24th with just one point, while the women finished 25th with eight points.

Elsewhere:

– Jayden Russ took eighth in the steeplechase. Only the top five finishers automatically qualify for Nationals, and Russ’ time of 9:04.50 will not be enough for him to gain an at-large spot.

– Agata Kosuda finished sixth in the triple jump with a jump of 12.84 meters. Kosuda will have to wait and see if her mark will qualify her for an at-large spot. Priya Hoze finished 22nd in the same event.

On Friday:

– Braimah and Lewis also competed in the 200-meter run, finishing 13th and 18th, respectively, in preliminaries, leaving neither in position to race in the finals or qualify for Nationals. Graham also competed in the 400, finishing 20th.

– Jenny Mockler was ninth in the 800 preliminaries, one spot out of qualifying for finals. Mockler’s time will not qualify her for Nationals.

– Hoze was eighth in the long jump, putting her in the at-large pool, but not high enough to qualify.

– Lisa Koll’s 10th-place 5,000 ended her season, as coach Dick Lee said even if Koll would qualify for Nationals, she would not be able to compete from fatigue throughout the season.

The NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif., will take place June 6 to 9. Caffrey and Neil Hines are the only two Cyclones to automatically qualify.