GREENSBORO, N.C. – For the second time in three years, the Norfolk State track and field programs will send a contingent of at least three athletes to the NCAA Outdoor National Championships.
Senior Keith Nkrumah (110 meter hurdles) and junior James Taylor (200 meters) punched their tickets with excellent races on Saturday night at the NCAA East Preliminary Round at Irwin Belk Track on the campus of North Carolina A&T. They will join junior Champagne Bell of the NSU women's track team, who qualified in the long jump on Thursday, at the outdoor nationals next month in Eugene, Ore.
Bell and Nkrumah will be making their second career trips to the outdoor nationals, and Taylor his first. Bell, Aramis Massenburg (110mH), Darris Shelton (LJ) and Sean Holston (400m), all qualified in 2011, while Nkrumah did likewise in 2012. Taylor was a second-team indoor All-American in the 200 earlier this season.
The top three from each of Saturday's three quarterfinals heats automatically advanced to nationals, in addition to the next three fastest times overall for a 12-athlete set of qualifiers. On the same track where he won the MEAC 110-meter hurdles title earlier this month, Nkrumah finished second in his heat and ran the fifth-fastest qualifying time overall on Saturday. Nkrumah crossed the finish line in 13.63 seconds. That is the second-fastest time of his career, behind only the school-record 13.60 he ran last month at the NSU Relays.
Roughly half an hour later, Taylor posted a PR of 20.63 seconds to place third and earn the last of the three automatic qualifying spots from the first heat of the men's 200 meters. Overall, the time of 20.63 was the sixth-fastest of the 12 qualifiers. Saturday marked a bit of redemption for Taylor, who false started in the prelims of the MEAC 200 earlier this month (also at N.C. A&T) and was disqualified at the NCAA East Preliminary Round last year in Jacksonville for stepping out of his lane.
Earlier in the evening, Nkrumah, Taylor, Damian Smith and Kenneth Smith ran a season-best time in the 4x100 relay, but it wasn't quite enough to advance to nationals. The MEAC championship quartet finished sixth in its heat in a time of 40.32 seconds, good for 19th out of the 24-team field.
The NSU women's 4x100 relay team also ran a season-best time, but fell just shy of qualifying for the national meet. Bell, Torie Cunningham, Qua'Nesha Wallace and Brittney McCants posted a time of 44.91 seconds and placed fourth in their heat. They ranked 13th out of the field of 24, missing out on qualifying for nationals by just one spot.
Freshman Kiara Howell completed NSU's performances at the East Preliminary with a best throw of 41 feet, 9.25 inches in the shot put, ranking her 46th in the field.
The NCAA Outdoor National Championships run June 5-8 on the campus of the University of Oregon.
