KINGSTON, Jamaica—Five Jamaicans, including women’s 60m defending champion Brianna Lyston of Louisiana State University (LSU), advanced to their respective individual final after Friday’s opening session of the NCAA Indoor Championships at the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Lyston, who was second in the South-Eastern Conference (SEC) final two weeks ago, was second in her semi-final heat in 7.17 seconds- fifth best overall- will be joined by Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) champion Shenese Walker of Florida State (FSU), who ran a personal best 7.18 seconds.

Walker’s time bettered her previous best 7.19 seconds – fourth best all time at FSU.

ACC champion Oneka Wilson of Clemson University, was third fastest in the women’s 60m hurdles semi-final, running 7.99 seconds, but Marissa Simpson of the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP), missed out after finishing 14th overall.

Niesha Burgher, also of UTEP, advanced to the final of the women’s 200m after she ran 22.91 seconds – sixth best on the day. Dejanae Oakley, also made progress to the women’s 400m final, after winning her semi-final race in 51.85 seconds.

Shaquena Foote of San Diego State, the Mountain West Conference champion, ran 52.58 seconds, 14th best, but failed to advance. Meanwhile, Nia Robinson of the University of Arkansas was seventh in the women’s long jump with 6.45m after she was fourth last year; Aaliyah Foster of the University of Texas placed ninth with a best of 6.37m, while Machaeda Linton of LSU was 14th with 6.07m.

Robinson and Linton will return for the triple jump on Saturday.

-Paul Reid