UTEP showed no signs of weariness following travel difficulties at the NCAA Midwest Track and Field Regional in Des Moines, Iowa, Friday.

After being scheduled to arrive on Thursday afternoon, the Miners had groups land in Des Moines at 2:30 a.m. CST and 10:30 CST on Friday.

The travel was no distraction for Erma Gene Evans, who arrived in town only two and a half hours before her competition began. She won the javelin to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships with a throw of 177-7 (54.14).

UTEP also had five athletes advance threw preliminaries to Saturday’s finals.

Kelly Young was the 12th and final qualifier in the 1,500-meter run. She ran her second-best time of the season in 4:25.80.

Oludamola Osayomi had the second-fastest time in the opening round of the 100-meter dash, winning her heat in a clip of 11.32.

All-Americans Elias Koech and Fatimoh Muhammed followed suit in the 800-meter run. Koech ran the top time in the men’s race in 1:47.88, while Muhammed won her heat in 2:06.21.

Another All-American Daniel Ward moved on in the 200-meter dash, taking third in his heat with a season best of 20.99.

Other Miners who competed but did not advance to the finals included Halimat Ismaila in the 400-meter dash (54.63) and defending region champion Dominic Kiprono Tanui in the 800 (1:48.91). Tanui should advance to the national meet by holding the nation’s ninth-fastest time this season.

Junior Keisha Walkes uncorked a season-best throw of 51-0 1/4 (15.55) to take eighth in the shot put and freshman Hans Eriksson was 12th in the hammer (186-2/56.75). Walkes marks is the second-best throw in school history.