Stephen F. Austin
NCAA Preliminary Rounds
Payne, Taylor Advance to NCAA Championships
5/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Saturday Results
AUSTIN, Texas -- Stephen F. Austin's Demi Payne and Joshua Taylor are heading to Eugene, Oregon for the 2015 NCAA Track and Field Championships. Each athlete secured their place at nationals by finishing in the top 12 of their event on Friday at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds held at Mike A. Myers at the University of Texas.
Payne made life just about as easy as possible in the women's pole vault competition, jumping only one time on Friday. She waited until the bar was moved to 13-11 (4.24m), cleared the height on the first try and called it a day when the mark proved good enough to advance to the NCAA Championships as one of the west's 12 qualifiers. Once the final 12 were determined, the event was stopped by officials.
Payne, who holds the second best jump in outdoor collegiate history, will be one of the favorites to bring the national title home to SFA in two weeks.
Taylor is also on to collegiate track and field's biggest stage after posting a time of 50.17 seconds in the quarterfinals of the men's 400m hurdles. The time, which was just hundredths of a second off his school record pace, claimed the fifth fastest qualifying mark in the west region. His appearance in Eugene in two weeks will make the fourth career trip to outdoor nationals for SFA's decorated senior.
Jared Love, My'Lik Kerley and Stephanie White were in action on the track for SFA as well on Friday evening. The trio narrowly missed qualifying despite solid efforts. Love posted a new PR in the men's 100m quarterfinal (10.39 seconds). White, one of the best women's hurdlers in SFA history, was clocked at 1:01.18 in the women's 400m hurdles and ends her successful career in Austin. Kerley turned in a time of 47.69 seconds in the 400 meter dash. The freshman will run a leg on the men's 4x400 meter relay on Saturday evening at 9:45 p.m.
Sophomore Daven Murphree will also compete on Saturday starting at 1:00 p.m. in the men's pole vault.
Two more trips will be on the line for SFA on Friday. Kerley, Taylor, Johnathan Joe and Tedrick Hawkins in the men's 4x400m relay come in with the 12th best seed time. Nationals are located in Eugene, Oregon from June 10-13.
-SFA-
