The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 2022 Outdoor Championships concluded on Saturday at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon with just one Bahamian competing in a final event.

Doneisha Anderson, representing the University of Florida Gators, ran the second leg on their women’s 4 x 400 metre team that placed ninth in three minutes and 31.16 seconds.

The event was expected to have two Bahamians competing, but sophomore Megan Moss didn’t suit up for the winning University of Kentucky Wildcats team that clocked 3:22.55.

Kentucky’s nearest rivals was Texas in 3:23.35.

Moss, however, did run on UK’s 4x4 team in the preliminaries on Thursday where they posted the second fastest time of the semi-finals (3:25.67) for an automatic qualifier into the final.

On Thursday, Moss also ran in the preliminaries of the women’s 400m, but while she came through in a lifetime best of 51.73, it was only good enough for fifth in her heat and 15th overall as she missed out on a trip to the final on Saturday.

Kentucky, coached by Bahamian Lonnie Greene and assisted by “Golden Girl” Debbie Ferguson- McKenzie, finished third in the ladies’ team standings with 50 points. But for the first time in programme history, Florida captured the women’s title, defeating Texas 74-64 in the team titled race.

The Gators, coached by Mike Holloway, also won the men’s title.

Florida International University (FIU) sophomore Rhema Otabor produced the best performance by a Bahamian at the meet on Thursday when she threw the javelin 183-feet, 5-inches or 55.92 metres on her second attempt for fourth place.

Senior Ashton Riner of BYU won with 191-1 (58.24m), Nebraska’s sophomore Maddie Harris was second with 185-3 (56.46m) and Madison Wiltrout, a junior at North Carolina, was third with 185-3 (56.46m).

Also on Saturday, Charisma Taylor, a junior at the University of Tennessee, was scheduled to compete in the women’s triple jump. But a nagging injury she sustained a couple weeks ago denied her the opportunity to compete.

In the men’s final, which was contested on Friday, two Bahamians suited up in the high jump with Shaun Miller Jr, a sophomore at Ohio State, emerging with the best showing as he took ninth place with a leap of 7-feet, ½-inch or 2.15 metres. Kyle Alcine, a senior at Kansas State, ended up 15th with 6-10 ¾ ( 2.10m).

The winning height was 7-5 ¼ (2.27m) by Tejaswin Shankar, a senior at Kansas State.

During the men’s preliminaries on Wednesday, Grand Bahamian Terrence Jones Jr got 12th place overall for Texas Tech in the 100m in 10.23 and Wanya McCoy, a freshman at Clemson, was 15th in the 200m in 20.54.

The athletes will now prepare to return home for the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations National Championships, scheduled for June 24-25 and the Relay Carnival on June 26. The event will also serve as the final selection for athletes to qualify for the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games.

The World Championships is set for July 15-24 in the Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon and the Commonwealth Games will follow from July 27 to August 7 in Birmingham, England.

Junior athletes will also get a chance to qualify for the World Athletics’ Under-20 Championships in Santiago de Cali, Colombia, August 1-6.