June 26, 2009

USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships Website (results, video, start lists, etc.)

EUGENE, Ore. - UC Davis' Alex Wilright finished fourth in his preliminary race of the 400-meter hurdles at the 2009 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Oregon on Friday afternoon, qualifying for Saturday's semifinals.

His semifinal race is scheduled to be shown on ESPN at 5:24 p.m.

Wilright, the Big West Conference champion in the event this season who was timed in 51.02 seconds on Friday, was one of three UC Davis athletes competing in Aggie uniforms at the senior national championships at Hayward Field.

Jazz Trice and Polly Gnepa raced in the first round of the 110 high hurdles on Friday but did not advance to Saturday's semifinals. Trice finished seventh in his opening-round heat in a wind-aided time of 14.04 while Gnepa fell during his race and did not finish.

Wilright, who qualified for the NCAA Division I West Regional at Oregon last month but was disqualified in his preliminary 400 hurdles race, had a good showing on Friday during an event that features two medalists from the Beijing Olympics - gold medalist Angelo Taylor and bronze medalist Bershawn Jackson.

Wilright was fourth in his heat but his time was 14th-best overall, advancing him to Saturday's semifinal round. The final, which will determine the United States' representatives to the IAAF World Championships later this summer, will be on Sunday at 1:05 p.m.

Trice and Gnepa were each NCAA regional-qualifiers in the high hurdles and were in a highly competitive field that featured this year's NCAA champion (Ronnie Ash, Bethune-Cookman) and Beijing silver medalist David Payne. Payne, who was in Trice's race, won the heat in 13.48 seconds, fifth-best overall.

UC Davis is being represented in the junior nationals on Sunday by javelin thrower Brock Bennett. The top two finishers in that meet - also at Hayward Field - qualify for the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in Trinidad next month. The Aggies' Ethan Ostrom tied for seventh in the junior nationals pole vault on Thursday.

USA OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Hayward Field (Eugene, Ore.)
UC Davis results only<[>

110H (1st round) - 1. Dexter Faulk, Nike, 13.16... 28. Jazz Trice, 14.04; Polly Gnepa, DNF.

400H (1st round) - 1. Justin Gaymon, Georgia, 49.86... 14. Alex Wilright, 51.02