Stephen F. Austin
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Lumberjacks Open NCAA Championship Strong
6/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
June 11, 2014
Post-Meet Notes Day 1 
Results: 400m | 400m Hurdles | Pole Vault
EUGENE, Ore. - On the first day of the NCAA Championships, Josh Taylor continued proving to be one of the top athletes in the nation as he advanced to the final in his event while two of his teammates also competed on the big stage.
Taylor finished fourth in his semifinal heat of the 400 meter hurdles from Hayward Field with a time of 50.58 seconds. That time held the last at-large bid to the final but with two more heats remaining he had to sweat it out.
Taylor was making his debut as an individual at the NCAA Championship and ran his race as he again showed his closing speed. He moved up from seventh place and made up a large amount of ground over the final 100 meters to move up into fourth place thanks to his aggressive close.
His heat proved to be the fastest of the semifinals and his time held up against the other two heats to advance to Friday's final.
In his final outdoor championship meet, Cass Brown-Stewart finished 11th in the 400 meters clocking in at 46.20 seconds. That time was not enough to qualify for the final, but he will be back in action on Thursday on SFA's 4x400 meter relay team.
Pole vaulter Colton Ross came into the competition ranked No. 1 in the field along with defending champion Sam Kendricks of Ole Miss. Ross could not match Kendricks this time as he finished in a tie for 10th place.
Ross cleared 5.40 meters (17-8.50) on his first attempt after passing the first two heights. He then failed to clear the next bar to tie for 10th. A number of athletes in the field struggled to clear the earlier bars of the competition with a strong wind pushing the athletes down the runway.
Taylor and Brown-Stewart will represent half of SFA's 4x400 relay on Thursday in the semifinals. Hampton Hawkins and Torin Crowder are set to run with them with Shawn Goff available as an alternate for the Lumberjacks.
SFA entered the meet ranked No. 24 in the nation with five entries at the NCAA Championship. Jamal Peden will also be competing on Thursday in the long jump. He enters the meet ranked 11th in the field as he also is making his NCAA Championship debut for SFA.
Action begins at 1 p.m. Central with the second day of the decathlon opening the meet. Field events are slated to begin at 3:30 and events on the track get going at 6 p.m. Peden is set to jump in the second flight of the long jump at 6:30.
Fans can watch the action live online on espn3.com or with the WatchESPN app on their mobile device.
Updates will be available on Twitter for the Lumberjacks by following the @SFA_XC handle. Live results are also online at flashresults.com.
sfajacks.com
