Fifteen Jamaicans bow into NCAA action today

FOLLOWING THE East and West qualifying quarterfinal rounds two weeks ago, the NCAA Division One Track and Field Championships will climax this week at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, with semifinals and finals.

Both males and females will compete over two days, with the men seeing action first, starting today at 6:05 p.m. with the 4x100m relays.

Fifteen Jamaican men will be in action today.

Jerome Campbell, Jaheim Stern, and Demario Prince will be the first Jamaicans in action at 7:08 p.m. in the men’s 110-metre hurdles.

Stern, the former Jamaica College standout who transferred from Hampton University to Louisiana State University, will be up first. He has a qualifying time of 13.56 seconds and will run out of lane nine in semifinal one. Prince, formerly of St Jago High, will come out of lane eight for Baylor University, where he qualified with a time of 13.59.

Jerome Campbell, the former Calabar and Jamaica College standout, will compete in semifinal two for the University of Northern Colorado.

Campbell, who was second in the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 60m hurdles and who represented Jamaica earlier this year at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, will start in lane four with a qualifying time of 13.23.

Jehlani Gordon will be the lone Jamaican in the men’s 100 metres, running out of lane four in semifinal one for the University of Georgia, where he has a qualifying time of 10.04.

Shemar Chambers, representing the University of Georgia, will run in semifinal two of the 400 metres, having qualified with 45.39. Shaemar Uter of Texas Tech University, who qualified with 45.61, will run out of lane eight in semifinal three.

Tyrice Taylor, representing the University of Arkansas, will contest semifinal one of the men’s 800m, running out of lane five with a qualifying time of 1:46.04. Rivaldo Marshall, also of the University of Arkansas, will be in semifinal three, starting in lane six with his qualifying time of 1:46.97.

Former Jamaica College standout Safin Wills of the University of Oregon will lead eight Jamaicans in the field events. He will contest the long jump, where his best is 7.67 metres, and the triple jump, where he qualified with 15.88 metres. Luke Brown, the former Calabar jumper, will also be involved in the triple jump for the University of Kentucky, advancing with 16.07.

Former Edwin Allen High thrower Trevor Gunzell, representing the University of Alabama, will contest the shot put with a qualifying best of 19.23 metres, and the discus with a qualifying throw of 57.79.

Kobe Lawrence of the University of Oregon will start in the men’s shot put with a qualification mark of 19.38; Racquil Brodrieck of the University of South Carolina goes in the discus with a qualification mark of 59.54; Christopher Young of the University of Alabama, 59.10; and Ralford Mullings of the University of Oklahoma rounds out the qualifiers in the discus with his mark of 67.21.