Iowa State advanced two athletes to the NCAA national track and field championships Friday and Saturday at NCAA Midwest Regional meet in Lincoln, Neb.

Senior Gina Rickert will have a chance at her sixth All-American designation in the high jump after finishing fourth Saturday with a jump of 5—9 1/2.

Junior Susan Sherman’s first toss of the discus flew 171—3 to win third place and give her another chance at achieving All-American status. Sherman finished 11th in the weight throw at this year’s indoor national championships.

A hamstring injury Friday to junior Daniel Kaczmarczyk turned out to be crucial for the men’s team.

“We started the meet off on the wrong foot,” men’s head coach Steve Lynn said. “The conditions were ideal. [We felt Kaczmarczyk] was going to be in the top five in the long jump.”

The top five in each individual event advance to the national competition.

One highlight for the men’s squad was senior Ryan Wilson’s performance in the pole vault.

“[Wilson] almost qualified for nationals,” Lynn said. “He had his personal best ever.”

Wilson was the only senior to compete for the men’s team at the regional meet.

Kaczmarczyk’s injury was also a difficult break for the 4×100-meter relay team, which qualified in eighth place Friday.

In the finals Saturday, the Cyclones had trouble with their exchanges, Lynn said.

Iowa State’s men’s 4×400-meter relay team finished seventh in a season-best time of 3:08.75.

Lynn said that performance by Jerod Torrey, James Lopes, Ryan Boyington and Jared Graham was impressive, as the Cyclones topped teams from Nebraska and Texas.

“They are all Iowa kids, all underclassmen,” Lynn said of the relay team.

Shot putter Rocky Moore also fell just shy of qualifying for nationals, Lynn said.

Close calls were a theme for Iowa State. Freshman Rebecca Williams finished two-tenths of a second out of fifth place and a trip to nationals in the 100-meter hurdles Saturday. In Friday’s preliminaries, Williams ran a personal best 13.63 in that event.

Head women’s coach Dick Lee said Rickert and Sherman met their expectations in the meet by qualifying for nationals.

“Both had good, solid days,” he said.

Rickert said she was disappointed she was not able to have one of her best performances for members of her extended family who attended the meet.

“It wasn’t a stellar performance,” she said.

Rickert and Sherman will compete for national honors June 11—14 in Sacramento, Calif.

Lee said that meet will help determine his stance on the practicality for athletes of the just-completed regional meet, which was instituted by the NCAA for the first time this season.

“We’ll wait and see how all these people do at nationals,” he said. “That’s the concern of a lot of people.”