EUGENE, Ore. –Ruebin Walters, Jereem Richards and Steven Gayle advanced to the finals of the 110-meter hurdles, 200 meters and 400 meters, respectively, on the opening night of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field on Wednesday evening.
Richards advanced to Friday’s final in the 200 meters with a first-place finish in the opening heat of the semifinals in 20.04, the fourth-fastest time in school history. Gayle advanced to the final in the men’s 400 meters with a semifinal time of 45.45. Gayle’s time is the seventh-fastest in school history. Walters moved on in the 110-meter hurdles, finishing first in his heat in a time of 13.43. The time was the third-fastest in the semifinals.
In other action on Wednesday, Tony Brown ran a personal-best 10.12 in the semifinals of the 100 meters. The time is an Alabama season-best and ties for the eighth-fastest time in school history. Brown did not advance to the final as the semifinal was one of the fastest 100-meter races in NCAA history. The top eight times came in at 10.03 or faster, led by Tennessee’s Christian Coleman, who set an NCAA record with a time of 9.82 to lead all qualifiers. Robbie Farnham-Rose finished 23rd in the semifinals of the men’s 1,500 meters in 3:50.51.
In the relays, Alabama’s men’s 4×100-meter relay team of Gayle, Richards, Terry Jernigan and Brown finished 14th in the semifinals in 39.19. The time is the second-fastest for the Tide this season.
Will Herrscher and McLean Lipschutz were competing in the finals of the pole vault and javelin at press time. Alabama’s 4×400-meter relay and 10,000-meter runners Alfred Chelanga and Antibahs Kosgei were scheduled to compete later on Wednesday evening.
The Alabama women open competition on Thursday afternoon at Hayward Field.
