The sophomore and former Service Cougar qualified provisionally for the NCAA Division II Championships with a winning leap of 24-4 1/2 (7.43 meters) at the Pacific Twilight meet in Forest Grove, Ore.
The leap improved his long jump by more than two feet, ranked him fifth among Division II long jumpers and set the long-jump record at Pacific's Lincoln Park Stadium.
Preston just missed the automatic qualifying mark (7.50 meters), but he could join four other UAA men who have already punched their ticket to the national meet on May 21-22 in San Angelo, Texas.
Among those is David Registe, one of the world's top long jumpers who did not compete Saturday. He has been nursing a bum hamstring and the meet was a last-minute change to the Seawolves' schedule.
UAA was scheduled to compete in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships at Western Oregon. But the two-day meet was canceled due to a possible case of swine flu on campus.
Preston made the most of Pacific University's invitation to UAA to compete in the 23-team Pacific Twilight meet.
Preson set a personal-best and UAA season-best time in the 100-meter dash, finishing fourth in 10.95 seconds.
He also anchored the UAA men in its 400-meter relay victory. The Seawolves clocked a season-best 41.80. Also running for UAA was senior Eric Walsh, junior Brandon Grant and junior James McLaughlin.
UAA senior David Kiplagat won the 3,000 steeplechase in 9 minutes, 29.09 seconds.
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