KEIRON Stewart of the University of Texas clocked a collegiate-leading 7.77 seconds to prevail in the 60m hurdles at the Arkansas vs Texas Dual in Fayetteville, Arkansas at the Randall Tyson Track weekend.

The 22-year-old Stewart, a Kingston College past student, was just seven-hundredth of a second outside the automatic NCAA Division One Indoor Championship qualification standard of 7.70 seconds. The Big 12 Indoor defending champion with a personal best 7.66 seconds, Stewart was fourth in the event at the NCAA Division One Indoor Championship last season, which his countryman Andrew Riley of the University of Illinois, Champaign, won in a personal best 7.58 seconds. This year's Championship is slated for March 9-10.

Meanwhile, Kimour Bruce and Gerald Bascoe took first and third place in the 60m at the SIU Saluki Open in Carbondale, Illinois. Both running unattached, the Jamaicans ran 6.77 and 6.80 seconds, respectively, with American DeMarcus Brooks of Rend Lake College finishing second in a time of 6.79 seconds.

Senior at the University of Miami (Florida), Tarika Williams, posted a personal best 7.30 seconds to capture the 60 metres at the Kentucky Invitational in Lexington. The 22-year-old, a past student of The Queens School, was fourth at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Indoor Championships last year in Blacksburg, Virginia, and failed to advance from the first round at the NCAA Division One Indoor Championships.

The automatic qualification standard for Williams' event is 7.23 seconds.

At the Penn State Nittany Lion Challenge, Dominique Blake ran 53.33 seconds to win the 400m, beating Americans Mahogany Jones of Penn State and Megan Duncan, unattached, who timed 54.32 and 54.76, respectively.

Another Jamaican quarter-miler, Patricia Hall, clinched her event at the Leonard Hilton Invitational in Houston, Texas, in a time of 53.91 seconds. American Kendra Williams was second in 55.23 seconds and the British Virgin Islands' Chantel Malone finished third in 55.45 seconds.

Shermaine Williams clocked 8.25 seconds to win the 60m hurdles at the Dick Taylor Invitational in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Her compatriot Rosemarie Carty of Johnson C Smith University placed second in 8.43 seconds, ahead of American Danielle Williams, also of Johnson C Smith who was third in 8.49 seconds.

In the shot put, Micarra Vassell of Louisiana Tech threw a personal best 15.09 metres to win at the UAB Blazer Invitational in Birmingham, Alabama.

The 21-year-old St Hugh's High past student improved on her previous best 14.35 metres set last year January. She's still, however, almost three metres short to reach the automatic qualification standard of 17.20 metres.