INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA announced its 2023 east and west championship selections, with four members of the Milwaukee track & field program selected to compete in the west preliminaries hosted by Sacramento State University in northern California.
 
To qualify, an athlete must finish within the top-48 of their event within their region. Milwaukee's had two student-athletes qualify with their distances in the long jump as Anthony Campbell and Austin Wallace will both compete for the long jump title in Sacramento. Golden Cotton will take on the field in the 200m dash, while Annie Guerrero will compete in the high jump after their strong outdoor campaigns.
 
For Guerrero, this will be her second career appearance at the NCAA regionals, after qualifying in the high jump in the spring of 2021. The four qualifiers for Milwaukee are the most in a single-season since 2016, when the Panthers had seven student-athletes qualify for the west regional.
 
Campbell and Wallace are the first males to qualify for regionals in the long jump since the spring of 2009, while Cotton is the first sprinter to compete for the 200m dash at a regional since 2010. Before Guerrero and teammate Ashley Melvin qualified for the high jump in 2021, the previous high jumper to qualify for the women's team was in 2012.
 
Campbell this season set and re-set the program record for the long jump and enters in a tie with the 32nd best mark in the regional at 7.68 meters. His seed distance was set at this year's Horizon League Outdoor Track & Field Championships, where he set both the Milwaukee program and the Horizon League record.
 
Earlier in the spring, Campbell initially set his mark atop the program list at 7.38 meters at the Fighting Illini Challenge in April. While he also recorded a 7.35-meter mark at the Gibson Invitational as well as a 7.28-meter distance at the Clark Wood Open, finishing in the top-three at each event.
 
Wallace is seeded in the 37th position entering the west preliminaries next week. He also recorded his season-best at the Horizon League Championships at Youngstown State in early May at 7.60 meters.
 
At the league championships, Wallace finished second to Campbell as he established a new career-best mark and is alone in second on the all-time list in Panther history. Wallace won the decathlon at the Horizon League Championships, including a long jump of 7.33 meters. His score of 7509 points in the decathlon broke both the Horizon League and Milwaukee marks.
 
The long jump for both Campbell and Wallace will take place at 8:00 p.m. (CT) on Wednesday, May 24.
 
Cotton put together arguably one of the best outdoor campaigns this spring establishing himself as one of the greatest sprinters in Milwaukee history. He is seeded in a tie for 35th among the 48 to qualify with his mark of 20.82 seconds in the 200-meter dash set back in Mid-April at the Gibson Invitational.
 
Cotton's time of 20.82 was the first-ever mark below 21 seconds in program history, breaking a mark that had stood since the 2007 season. After starting the season with a 21.88 he followed that up by taking a full second off with his record-setting mark at Indiana State. After notching a 21.15 (Illinois) and 21.45 (Louisville) he went on the win the Horizon League crown in the 200m dash with a time of 21.13.
 
The first round of the 200m dash for Cotton will take place on Wednesday, May 24 at 10:45 p.m. (CT). Those qualifying for the quarterfinals will then compete 9:50 p.m. (CT) on Friday, May 26.
 
The high jump will take place on the fourth and final day of the NCAA west preliminaries and will feature Guerrero who established her season-best mark of 1.75 meters in her first event of the spring at the Fighting Illini Challenge on April 8. She will head to Sacramento tied for the 44th-best height among the 48 competitors to qualify.
 
No stranger to individual titles, Guerrero had three wins on the year with her 1.75-meter mark at both Illinois on April 8 and UW-La Crosse on May 12, in addition to her 1.74-meter height at Indiana State in mid-April. Guerrero is currently tied for the program's top spot all-time at 1.75 meters in both 2021 and 2023 and looks to take over sole possession of the program mark at the west preliminaries.
 
The women's high jump is the last event on the schedule for the Panthers and will commence at 4:30 p.m. (CT) on Saturday, May 27.
 
The four Panthers will look to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships held June 7-10 in Austin, Texas. The top-12 finishers in each event in Sacramento will qualify for the championships in Texas.
 
Links to the live results and live streaming via ESPN+ are available on MKEPanthers.com.