Two World Under-20 leading performances in the women’s 100m and 100m hurdles from Ackera Nugent of Baylor University and her first legal sub-11.00 seconds in the 100m by Kemba Nelson of the University of Oregon highlighted the Jamaican women’s performances on Saturday’s final day of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division One track and field regional championships in Florida and Texas.

Both Nugent, the former Excelsior High School, and Nelson, the former Mt Alvernia High and University of Technology, Jamaica athlete, competed at the West Region held at Texas A&M University (TAMU) in College Station, Texas, while the East Regional was held at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida.

Additionally, a number of other Jamaicans booked their tickets to the NCAA National Championships to be held at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field June 9-12 and also achieved Olympic standards in their events.

Nugent, the NCAA indoor 60m hurdles champion had an afternoon to remember as she helped her 4x100m team qualify for the nationals, then ran back-to-back world-class times in the 100m hurdles and the 100m, all in a two-hour-and-10-minute span to qualify for the nationals in both.

At 3:30 pm she ran the second leg on the relay team and just under two hours later she ran a blazing fast 12.76 seconds (1.2m/s) to win the hurdles which was not just an Olympic qualifying mark, it was the best by an Under-20 athlete this season and fourth-best all times and was the fifth-best performance ever at Baylor.

Daszay Freeman of Arkansas was third overall with 12.92 seconds (0.4m/s) after she had run 12.85 seconds (2.0m/s) in the prelims, just 100th of a second out of the Olympic qualifying mark.

Twenty minutes later, just enough time to walk back to the starting line, Nugent was on her mark for the 100m where she gutted out a courageous 11.15 seconds (1.3m/s) for third overall.

In the first round on Thursday she had run a personal best 11.09 seconds (1.6m/s) in the prelims which tied the Baylor programme record and tied with compatriot Briana Williams for the Under-20 world lead as well as the Olympic standard.

After running a wind-aided 10.91 seconds (2.1m/s) on Thursday, Nelson proved it was no fluke as she got off to her usual fast start and won her heat in a personal best 10.98 seconds (0/1m/s), fourth best at Oregon and fourth fastest by a Jamaican woman so far this year.

The University of Southern California’s Twanisha Terry, who had beaten Nelson at the Pac-12 Championships two weeks ago, clocked an eye-watering 10.89 seconds to win her section and finish first overall in the 100m.

Stacey Ann Williams of the University of Texas was second in the women’s 400m, running a personal best 50.34 seconds, the fastest by a Jamaican woman so far this year, beating Charokee Young of TAMU who ran a personal best 50.85 seconds under the Olympic standard.

Kevona Davis also of Texas was fifth overall in the 200m, running a new lifetime best 22.87 seconds (1.2m/s) while Kimisha Chambers of Kansas State was fifth in the 400m hurdles in 57.72 seconds.

Rhianna Phipps grabbed the final qualifying spot in the triple jump with a personal best 13.20m (0.7m/s).

In the East Region, Adrenette Knight of the University of Virginia won the 400m hurdles in 56.07 seconds, while Clemson’s Trishauna Hemmings and Mississippi State’s Rosealee Cooper both qualified in the 100m hurdles running personal best times.

Hemmings ran 12.94 seconds (-1.6m/s) to place ninth overall while Cooper ran 12.98 seconds (1.0ms).