Jamaican Carey McLeod of the University of Tennessee snatched a bronze medal in the men’s long jump with a new personal best 8.26m on yesterday’s second day of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) indoors track and field championships at the Randal Tyson Complex at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

McLeod, who will be back in action today in the triple jump, extended his University of Tennessee school record after jumping 8.25m at the South Eastern Conference (SEC) championships two weeks ago.

Gabrielle Bailey of Kent State University threw a personal best 17.11m for sixth place in the women’s shot put while Lamara Distin of Texas A&M was ninth in the women’s high jump, clearing 1.81m.

Also yesterday, three other Jamaicans advanced to finals today — Damion Thomas of Louisiana State University (LSU) and Phillip Lemonious of the University of Arkansas in the men’s 60m hurdles and Ackeen Colley of Western Illinois University in the men’s 800m, all in personal best times.

Two other Jamaicans will make their first appearance of the weekend today — Owayne Owens of the University of Virginia and Rhianna Phipps of Kansas State University, in the men’s and women’s triple jump, respectively.

Yesterday, McLeod did well to get a medal in a competitive long jump contest that saw the first four men achieve personal bests with LSU’s JuVaughn Harrison copping an amazing double, winning the long and high jumps, both with personal best efforts and college leading marks of of 8.45m and 2.30m, respectively.

McLeod was in second place for most of the competition and appeared to have secured it with his 8.26m jump before Harrison took over the lead for the first time in the fifth round.

Ryan Brown of Arkansas finished sixth with a best of 7.83m.

Earlier in the day, Bailey, formerly of St Jago High, had three legal throws but made them count, starting with 16.55m for fourth place before getting her best mark in the third round, beating her previous best of 16.84m that she won with at the Mid-American Conference championships and is now second in Kent State’s history, behind compatriot Danniel Thomas-Dodd.

Thomas, the SEC champion, moved up to number two on the LSU all-time list after running 7.56 seconds, the fastest in the preliminary round while Lemonious clocked 7.60 seconds, second all times at Arkansas and only behind Omar McLeod’s programme record 7.45 seconds.

A third Jamaican, Brithon Senior of the University of South Dakota was 10th overall in 7.79 seconds and was well placed in the heat with Thomas and Lemonious before hitting the final hurdle hard.

Colley advanced to his first NCAA final after running one minute 48.56 seconds to finish fifth in his heat and seventh overall, beating his previous best time of 1:48.61 minutes that he set while winning at the Summit League indoor championships.

Fabian Hewitt of Clemson was 14th in the men’s 60m dash in 6.78 seconds while Wayne Lawrence did not show up for the first round of the men’s 400m.