With two more chances to nail down national qualifying marks at Fort Hays on May 7 and Emporia State on May 9, sophomore Ira Autrey and senior Jessica Becker took advantage of the opportunity.

Competing at Emporia on Saturday, Autrey added to his already qualifying long jump mark by soaring to a 7.35m (24' 1 1/2") effort to move up to fourth on the national list and break a 33-year-old Bethany College outdoor record in the process.

Autrey's 24-plus jump moved past Anthony Miller's 23' 11 1/2" mark from 1976 and placed second at the ESU meet. Autrey is also qualified in the triple jump but did not compete in that event over the weekend.

Becker added the hammer throw to her list of national meet events to go along with the shot put and discus. Becker's 48.41m (158' 10") throw in the preliminaries gave her three more chances in the finals but she did not add more distance in her quest to beat Felicia Simms' 2006 BC record of 160' 7".

Tough luck happened in several events as the women's 4 x 100 had an exchange problem at Hays, the men's 4 x 100 dropped a baton at Emporia, and Nick O'Loughlin pulled up with a hamstring injury in the open 400m at ESU that also took him out of the 4 x 400 relay. Despite the bad fortune, one other effort was notable.

Senior Stephanie Wilson took down her personal best in the 800m to 2:24.70. Wilson's previous best was a 2:26.49 at the KCAC meet a week ago. Overall, the Swedes had solid efforts at the final two meets of the outdoor regular season even though there was some disappointment in not qualifying more for the national meet.

Competing in the decathlon at a multi-event meet at Baker last week, Jesse Muntz took second and scored a personal best 5999 points but will likely be just short of national qualifying status. As the week began, Muntz's effort put him 19th on the NAIA performance list - the top 16 advance to the nationals. The national meet is in Edwardsville, Ill. from May 21-23.

National qualifiers are as follows: Jessica Becker (shot put, discus, hammer); Mollie Dahl (shot put);Amber Dunham (shot put, javelin); Ira Autrey (long jump, triple jump).