Nineteen of the 21 Jamaicans who qualified for individual events will make their first appearance on today’s second day of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships at Randal Tyson Complex at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

The three-day championships got underway yesterday with the multi-events, the heptathlon for men and pentathlon for women as well as the weight throw finals for men and women, none 0f which had Jamaicans.

Twelve Jamaican women and nine men qualified for their respective universities after they finished in the top 16 of the ranking in their events with three more qualifying as part of their 4x400m or distance medley relay teams.

Three of the Jamaicans — Carey McLeod of the University of Tennessee, Kevona Davis of the University of Texas and Trishauna Hemmings of Clemson University — qualified in two events.

Davis, the former Edwin Allen star who had a slow start to her first season running indoor, but rallied to make two finals at the Big12 championships, and Hemmings will have a busy first day as both will contest two events today.

Today, Jamaicans will be involved in four field events finals as McLeod and Arkansas’ Ryan Brown will contest the men’s long event; former St Jago High thrower Gabriel Bailey will line up in the women’s shot put for Kent State University; Lamara Distin of Texas A&M will be in the high jump and Taishia Pryce of Kansas State University will be in the long jump.

Ackera Nugent of Baylor University, who equalled the World Under-20 record of 7.93 seconds in the 60m hurdles two weeks ago at the Big12 championships, will join Arkansas’ Daszay Freeman and Clemson’s Hemmings in the first round today.

Nugent is ranked second in the event behind Texas’ Chanel Brissett, who beat her in the Big12 final. Freeman, who was also second at the Southeastern Conference final, is 10th, while Hemmings, who was third at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) final, is ranked 13th.

Three Jamaicans will be in the men’s 60m hurdles race as well, led by SEC champion Damion Thomas of Louisiana State, Phillip Lemonious of Arkansas and Brithon Senior of South Dakota.

After missing the SEC championships as she was a COVID-19 contact, Texas A&M’s Charokee Young, will be eager to make up for that missed opportunity when she lines up in the 400m first round.

Big12 champion Stacey-Ann Williams, who is ranked number three, will also be a contender and both should face off in tomorrow’s final.

Wayne Lawrence of the University of Iowa will be the only Jamaican in the men’s 400m where he is ranked number seven with 45.40 seconds.

— Paul Reid