Friday and Saturday marks the final two days of events in the men’s and women’s NCAA Track and Field Championships. Over the next forty-eight hours, 30 events will see a national champion crowned. In the meantime, we would like to catch you up to speed on all the semifinals having taken place and the national champions that have been crowned since Wednesday:
Oregon qualified for the finals in the men’s 4×100-meter relays, with Auburn, Florida and Alabama taking the top three seeds going into the finals of that race.
In the women’s 4×100, the Aggies came out on top of the eight teams to qualify for the finals.
Arkansas Leoman Momoh led the men’s 800 as they proceed into finals today, with Oregon’s Elijah Greer coming in at third. The Ducks’ Laura Roesler claimed the third spot on the women’s 800, with LSU’s Charlene Lipsey and Duke’s Cydney Ross taking first and second.
The first national champion crowned at the 2013 NCAA Track and Field Championships belongs to Arizona State’s Chelsea Cassulo in the women’s hammer throw competition. On her last attempt of finals, she stole the title from Illinois State’s Brittany Smith with a throw of 226 feet, 9 inches.
True freshman Shaunae Miller of Georgia, took the top spot heading into finals after finishing half a thousandth of a second ahead of Arkansas’ Regina George, who was in a separate heat. Oregon’s Phyllis Francis qualified for finals as well.
Duck Mike Berry failed to qualify for the men’s 400-meter finals, placing ninth overall. George Mason’s David Verburg and Florida State’s James Harris took the top two spots going into the finals.
Central Florida’s Octavious Freeman heads into the finals of the women’s 100-meter dash in that top spot after she ran a blazing 10.99, finishing a hundredth of a second faster than Oregon’s English Gardner.
Standford’s Kori Carter and Arizona’s Olympic finalist Georganne Molin battled for the top spot in the women’s 400 meter hurdles. Carter just barely edged out Molin for first.
USC’s Reggie Wyatt holds the top spot going into today’s men’s 400-meter hurdles. He ran a 49.23 to lead all competitors.
The State of Texas represented itself well, as Roltich of UT-El Paso took first in the semifinals of the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase and Charles Silmon of TCU placed first in the men’s 100-meter dash semifinals.
Day one ended with three more national champions in Georgia’s Freya Jones in the women’s javelin competition (Oregon’s Liz Brenner placed eighth), TCU’s Lorraine Ugen in women’s long jump and Iowa State’s Betsy Saina in the women’s 10,000-meter run.
Day two started us out with USC’s Bryshon Nellum and LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan taking the top spot in the men’s and women’s 200-meter dash, respectively.
Natalja Piliusina of Oklahoma State took the top spot in the women’s 1,500-meter run. Two Oregon Ducks also qualified, Anne Kesselring and Becca Friday.
Oregon’s Mac Fleet placed first in the men’s 1,500-meter run, while Ducks Chad Noelle and Patrick Todd failed to qualify.
Clemson’s Brianna Rollins record-breaking time in the 100-meter hurdles semifinals was more than enough to ease her into a first place finish.
Oregon sophomore Jonathan Cabral took the third spot heading into finals, while his opponents Spencer Adams of Clemson and Wayne Davis II of Texas A&M took the first and second spots respectively.
Texas A&M, Florida and Arkansas all advanced to the finals in the top three spots. The Ducks also qualified.
Despite not having English Gardner, the Oregon women’s 4×400-meter relay team dashed to first place with a time of 3:28.15.
Olympian and Colorado Buffalo Emma Coburn dominated the competition in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase semifinals.
Arizona’s Lawi Lalang took home a national title in the men’s 1,0,000-meter race. Virginia Tech freshman Tomas Kruzliak also took home a title, with his coming in the men’s hammer throw.
Freshman Johannes Hock of the Texas Longhorns won the Decathlon with a final score of 8267 points.
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Emerald photographers also put out two fantastic photo essays for day one and day two of the NCAA Track and Field Championships.