No. 24 Lumberjacks Ready for NCAA Championships
6/9/2014 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
June 9, 2014
Championship Central Pages: Oregon | USTFCCCA | NCAA
Meet Schedule
Live Results | Heat Sheets: Men | Women
Twitter: SFA | NCAA | TrackTown USA | FloTrack | RunnerSpace
Live Video: online ESPN3 | WatchESPN app
ESPNU: Friday & Saturday (check local listings)
TrackTown Live Preview Show: Monday | Tuesday
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – With the Stephen F. Austin men’s track and field team ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 1996, a group of seven Lumberjacks are set to take on the nation’s best at the NCAA Championships this week. Action is set to begin Wednesday morning from Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, and run through Saturday.
SFA’s five event entries on the men’s side are on par with some of the traditional powers in track and field. UCLA, a team that has won eight NCAA Championships, also has five entries this year.
The Lumberjacks open the meet with a busy day on Wednesday. Colton Ross will be the first in action for SFA in the pole vault at 6 p.m. CT. He enters the competition tied with defending national champion Sam Kendricks of Ole Miss for the top mark this season. Both have cleared 5.70 meters (18-8.25). That height is also tied for fifth in the world this year.
Running for the Lumberjacks on Wednesday will be Cass Brown-Stewart and Josh Taylor. Brown-Stewart looks to improve on his seventh-place finish a year ago at the NCAA Championships. He will run his semifinal heat at 7 p.m. and enters the meet ranked 20th in the field of 24 runners.
Taylor is coming off a school-record performance in the 400 meter hurdles at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds and stands No. 9 in the field with his time of 50.17 seconds. He is set to run at 8:15 p.m.
Brown-Stewart and Taylor are both on the men’s 4x400 meter relay team that is set to run in the semifinals on Thursday. Hampton Hawkins, Torin Crowder and Shawn Goff also represent SFA in the 4x4. This is the third time in four years SFA’s men have reached the NCAA Championship but have yet to crack the top eight and score points in the event.
SFA’s final entry is Jamal Peden in the long jump. He will take flight on Thursday. He comes into the meet ranked 11th with his jump of 7.81 meters (25-7.50) at the Texas Relays.
Fans will be able to follow the build up to NCAA Championships in unprecedented ways this year. USTFCCCA has partnered with TrackTown USA for a two-day preview show TrackTown LIVE. The preview show will air live online at TrackTownLIVE.com with 90-minute broadcasts. The broadcasts will air from 5:30-7 p.m. Monday and 3-4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The shows will feature guest appearances from prominent student-athletes competing at the meet, coaches, former student-athletes, media members and more.
TrackTown LIVE will be held just outside the gates at Hayward Field in Powell Plaza. The shows will also be simulcast by USTFCCCA, FloTrack and RunnerSpace.
Action during the meet will be live online as well on ESPN3. Wednesday and Thursday’s action will be exclusively online on ESPN3 with television coverage also available on Friday and Saturday on ESPNU.
Live results will again be provided by Flash Results and available online at flashresults.com. Fans will be able to keep up with field events during the competition with updates after each attempt.
Fans are encouraged to follow and interact with the meet on Twitter by using the hashtag NCAATF and TrackTownUSA. Updates on the Lumberjacks will be made on the cross country team’s official Twitter account @SFA_XC. Fans wanting to get more info from the meet can follow @TrackTownUSA and @NCAA as well as track and field media site accounts for @FloTrack and @Runner_Space.
Links for live results, video and more will be provided at sfajacks.com.
sfajacks.com
