NCAA qualifying meetings - summary

Approximately 4,000 university athletes descended on the two college towns of Bloomington, Indiana, and Eugene, Oregon (May 26, 27, 28) to seek a place in the NCAA outdoor championships to be held two weeks hence in Des Moines, Iowa.

The objective was to finish in the first twelve in each of the 20 events, and by so doing qualify for the national championships meet.

Such a format, which meant that finishing twelfth was as good as winning, inevitably produced some strange results. For example, in the women’s High Jump, none of the 96 jumpers entered in the two meets had to clear a bar set higher than 1.81m, and four advanced to the nationals after clearing 1.70 but failing at 1.75 and then surviving a jump-off.  Results of the other vertical jumps were similar.

EAST (Bloomington) Men  

(NOTE: All times in this report are wind-legal unless otherwise noted).

Most of the races were run in sections with the top three advancing as well as a few time qualifiers, so it made sense to go at least reasonably fast. Florida’s Jeff Demps showed he is ready to defend his NCAA title by winning the 100 here in 10.19 sec; Florida State’s Maurice Mitchell (10.24) and Ngonidzashe Makusha (ZIM) 10.26, won their sections to suggest a swift final in Des Moines. Mitchell was the fastest qualifier in the 200m at 20.60.

In the 800, World Junior finalists Robby Andrews of Virginia and Casimir Loxsom of Penn State led their sections in 1:47.89 and 1:48.48, with Kenyan Felix Kitur of VMI winning the third in 1:47.88. In the longer races, only 2010 NCAA steeplechase champion, Canadian Matt Hughes of Louisville, laid it on the line, winning his section in 8:35.74. Kenyan Sam Chelanga of Liberty University, last year’s 10,000m champion won the 5,000 and 10,000 handily here in 14:06.16 and 29:00.94.

Devon Hill of Miami ran the fastest 110m Hurdles time, 13.54sec, with two others clocking sub-13.60.

Florida State’s Makusha, as expected, led the Long jump with 8.07m. Arch-rival Florida’s outstanding Triple Jump duo of Christian Taylor and Will Claye outstood here with jumps of 16.72m and 16.52. Auburn’s sensational freshman, Stephen Saenz, led all Shot putters East and West with his 19.82.

EAST WOMEN

Indoor champions Lakeya Brookins of South Carolina and Kimberlyn Duncan of LSU won the sprints, Brookins taking the 100m in 11.31sec and Duncan the 200m in 23.04. Jenna Martin of Kentucky won the 400m in 52.30.

In the 800m, Yale’s Kate Grace best all with a PB 2:03.41. Ohio State’s Letecia Wright won the 100 hurdles, her 12.97 sec being the only sub-13 in the field. In the Long Jump, Louisiana Tech’s Chelsea Hayes led with a respectable 6.50m, but among the 48 entrants only the 12 qualifiers could better 6 metres. Ukrainian Ganna Demydova, a student at Southern Mississippi, triple jumped 13.56m to lead Patricia Mamona of Clemson (and Portugal) , 13.50 and ten other qualifiers.

In the Discus Throw, Tennessee’s Annie Alexander, after two fouls, popped a big PB of 58.58m to lead the other qualifiers by 2.32 metres. Croatian Dorotea Habazin of Virginia Tech led the Hammer Throw qualifiers with 67.51m, while 2010 champion Nikola Lomnicka of Georgia (and  Slovakia) ranked third with 62.88.

WEST (Eugene) MEN

Rakieem “Mookie” Salaam dominated the sprints in Eugene, winning the 100m in 10.29 sec and the 200m in 20.62. In the 400m, Southern California freshman Josh Mance continued to build on the promise he showed as an IAAF World Youth silver medallist in 2009 and as a finalist in last summer’s World Juniors at Moncton. Here he outran a good field of qualifiers with a PB 45.47.

The 800 qualifiers were led Oregon sophomore Elijah Greer in a big PB of 1:45.98, Sudanese-born Charles Jock of UC Irvine’s 1:46.27, and UCLA’s Cory Primm, who ran 1:46.36. 2010 hurdles champion Andrew Reilly of Illinois edged Omo Osagebe of Texas Tech as both PB’d in 13.32 sec , with three others going under 3.50.

Best of the field events were a 19.70 Shot Put by Mason Finley of Kansas and a 59.87 Discus Throw by Leif Arrhenius of Brigham Young.

WEST WOMEN

Perhaps the best performance in both meets was by Jessica Beard of Texas A, who cruised 51.21 sec to win the 400 metres; and came back to run her leg of the 4x400m in 51.37. Almost as good was a major PB of 2:02.59 by Stephanie Brown of Arkansas in the 800 metres. Nia Ali of Southern California led all the 100m hurdlers with a crisp 12.92 sec.

Freshman Anna Jelmini of Arizona State led the Discus Throw with 57.09m and there was good Hammer throwing from Amanda Bingson  of UN Las Vegas (67.92) and Jeneva McCall of Southern Illinois (67.24).

James Dunaway for the IAAF