Camryn Rogers concluded an impressive freshman season by coming just a couple of centimetres away from qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
The McMath graduate and Kajaks standout finished 13th in the women’s hammer throw event at the NCAA West Prelims in Sacramento. Only the top 12 advanced to Nationals which were held on the weekend at historic Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
Rogers’ second attempt of 61.31 metres had her Eugene bound going into the event’s final round. She fouled on her last throw and slipped out of the top 12 when Northern Arizona senior Brooke Anderson came up with the winning throw after fouling in the first two rounds.
Rogers still ranked second among freshman competing in the 46-athlete field with only UCLA’s Alyssa Wilson in front of her.
Two weeks earlier, Rogers was third at the Pac-12 Championships at Stanford with a best throw of 64.25 metres. She was right behind Wilson (66.53) and Arizona State senior Maggie Ewen (74.38).
The Pac-12 meet featured five rounds in the hammer throw while the NCAA Prelims was just three.
Back in April, Rogers twice re-wrote the school record. The first time came with a winning throw 65.28 metres at the 124th annual Big Meet between California and Stanford. Ironically, she broke the mark set by another Richmond native — Jennifer Joyce — back in 2002.
Then a couple of weeks later she did it again, this time with a toss of 65.61 to finish second to 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Sophie Hitchon of Great Britain at Cal’s Brutus Hamilton Invitational on April 27.
She also re-set her own U20 Canadian record in the process and currently ranks third in the world in that age group.
