Collegiate athletes seek glory at NCAA Outdoors

THIRTY-TWO  Jamaican collegiate athletes will be in action  when the four-day National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I  Outdoor  Championships begins  at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, today.

The men will be in action on the opening day.   

Three Jamaicans will be hoping to book their final berths in the men's 110 metres hurdles when semi-final action gets under way at 9:08 p.m. Jamaican time. All three Jamaicans, Sharvis Simmonds of Clemson, Demario Prince of Baylor, and Jerome Campbell of the University of Alabama, are drawn in heat two  of the semi-finals where the top two  and the two fastest losers will advance to Friday's final.

Prince is the fastest of the Jamaican qualifiers from the regional meet with 13.14 seconds and will run out of lane six. Campbell, with his 13.33,  will come out of lane eight,and Simmonds, who advanced with 13.37, will run out of lane two.

Three other Jamaicans will be involved in action on the track. Kimar Farquharson of Texas A&M University will contest the 400m, and  Tyrice Taylor and Rivaldo Marshall of the University of Arkansas will do duties in the 800m.

Farquharson, who advanced from the regionals with 45.18 seconds, will contest semi-final two and will run out of lane eight. Taylor, the second fastest 800m qualifier from the regionals with 1:44.35, will come out of lane five in semi-final one, while Marshall, who advanced with 1:45.15, is drawn in lane six in semi-final three.

In field events, Jamar Ferguson of Louisiana and Brandon Falconer of Mount St. Mary's will compete in the javelin final at 9:15 p.m.

Jordan Turner of Louisiana State University will be in flight two of the men's long jump at 9:40 p.m., where he qualified as the fifth best with 8.08m.

Shaiquan Dunn of the University of Texas, with a season's best of 18.81m, and Kobe Lawrence of the University of Oregon, with a season's best of 19.74m, will contest the men's shot put final at 10:10 p.m.