Texas Tech ex Koech makes U.S. team for World Championships
Jonah Koech won a Big 12 championship and achieved first-team all-America status during his last college season as a middle-distance runner with Texas Tech.
That was three years ago, and Koech's career is still on the rise.
On Sunday, he was runner-up in the 800 meters at the U.S. outdoor track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, losing a battle down the stretch with Midland native Bryce Hoppel.
The top three in each event earn spots on Team USA for the World Championships, provided they have the qualifying standard. Hoppel made his second consecutive worlds team, running a season-best 1 minute, 44.60 seconds. Koech got the qualifying standard in a personal record 1:44.74.
Koech transferred from Texas-El Paso to Tech before the 2019 season and won a Big 12 indoor meet title in the 1,000 meters and finished seventh in the 800 at the NCAA outdoor championships, helping the Red Raiders win their first NCAA title in any men's sport.
Hayward Field, on the University of Oregon campus underwent $200 million in renovations to host the worlds, track and field's biggest event outside of the Olympics.
It is the first time that the world championships will be held on American soil. They are scheduled for July 15-24.
Hoppel made the U.S. Olympic team last summer and finished third in the World Championships indoors in March at Belgrade.
Fred Kerley, who started his college career at South Plains College in Levelland, made Team USA in a second event. After he won the 100 meters in 9.77 seconds on Friday, Kerley finished third in the 200 on Sunday in 19.83.
Noah Lyles (19.67) overtook Erriyon Knighton (19.69) in the last few meters for the win.
Robert Dunning, an NJCAA champion for South Plains before he became an NCAA champion for Alabama, finished sixth in the 110-meter hurdles in a season-best 13.27.
Trey Culver, the two-time NCAA champion from Texas Tech, tied for seventh in the high jump. The Coronado graduate topped out at 7 feet, 1 1/2 inches. Shelby McEwen and JuVaughn Harrison, who beat Culver last summer at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, finished 1-2, McEwen with a personal best 7-7 3/4 and Harrison with a season-best 7-6 1/2.
Two members of the Texas Tech team this year competed in the triple jump, Chris Welch finishing eighth with a mark of 53-3 and Jalen Seals finishing 13th with a wind-assisted 52-1 1/4.
Big 12 champion Kayli Johnson finished 17th in the women's shot put, throwing 53-10 1/2.
Elsewhere, Tech all-American Ruta Lasmane won the Latvian national title in the women's triple jump with a mark of 44-10 3/4.
Former Tech all-American Karayme Bartley earned a spot on Jamaica's 1,600-meter relay pool for the World Championships with his fourth-place finish in the 400 in his country's trials. Bartley ran 45.78. He competed in the Olympics last year as a relay team member.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Track and field: Texas Tech ex Koech makes U.S. team for World Championships
