GREENSBORO, N.C. – Sophomore
sprinter Mercedes Jackson (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown)
clipped her school-record time even lower as she finished 13th
overall in the preliminary round of the 100m dash of the NCAA East
Regionals, Thursday evening at North Carolina A&T's Irwin Bell
Track at Aggie Stadium.
Having edged her own record down to 11.51 while winning the ECAC
Championships two weeks ago, Jackson continued her progress to the
NCAA Championships in Oregon by running a career-best time of 11.46
on Thursday. The sophomore standout finished second in
heat four behind Clemson's Dezerea Bryant (10.36) to
advance to Friday. Aurieyall Scott of Central
Florida posted the best time of the prelim round, crossing the line
in 11.15.
The top-12 times from Friday's finals advance to the national
meet at the University of Oregon.
In the men's race, senior Dennison
Long (Greenbelt, Md./Eleanor Roosevelt/FIU) ran his
second-fastest time of the season, 10.47, to place sixth in heat
five, and 31st overall. Isiah Young from Ole Miss
set the pace in the prelim round with a time of 9.99.
Long set his career-best time earlier this year when he won the
100m dash at the Mason Spring Invitational with a time of
10.39.
The second day of the three-day regional meet opens on Friday
morning with the women's hammer throw at 10:00 a.m. In
addition to racing in the 100m dash semifinals, Jackson will run in
the 200m prelims tomorrow. Two other Retrievers will
compete on Friday as senior Trae
Proctor (Brandywine, Md./Thomas Stone) will run in the
110m hurdle prelims and freshman Vincent
Rentzsch (Oranienburg, Germany) will try to earn a trip to
the West Coast in the javelin.
