KINGSTON, Jamaica — Rivaldo Marshall of the University of Arkansas was disqualified from the men’s 800m on Wednesday’s first day of the NCAA West first round, being held at Texas A&M, after a protest was launched.

Marshall, the former NCAA Indoor 800m champion while at the University of Iowa, was one of four Jamaican men who had qualified for the quarterfinal of the NCAA Western Regional on Friday before he was disqualified.

Marshall was found to have breached World Athletics rule 15.5-3a, which deals with impeding other runners.

Kimar Farquharson of Texas A&M — 1:47.83, Dugion Blackman of Iowa State — 1:48.06, and Tyrice Taylor of Arkansas — 1:48.20, all made the cut to be among the top 24 runners from the event, advancing to the next round, which will see the top 12 qualifying for the NCAA National Championships to be held at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon next month.

Meanwhile, Jerome Campbell of Northern Colorado was fourth fastest in the 110m hurdles with 13.40 seconds (1.7 m/s), and Demario Prince of Baylor was eighth in 13.48 seconds.

Travis Williams of the University of Southern California was eighth best in the men’s 100m in 10.30 seconds (-0.6 m/s).

Safin Wills of the University of Oregon, who jumped 7.67m (0.0 m/s) in the men’s long jump, booked his place in the championships with the eighth-best mark, but Kavian Kerr of the University of Nebraska, who jumped 7.61 m, was 13th same as 12th place but with an inferior second-best mark.

Kobe Lawrence, also of Oregon, punched his ticket for the championships with a 19.38m mark in the men’s shot put.

Brandon Lloyd of Arizona State was 14th overall with 18.82m and missed advancing, while Ralford Mullings of the University of Oklahoma and Shaiquan Dunn of the University of Southern California did not take part.

There are two regional championships that are being held, with the East Regionals also being held at the University of Jacksonville in Florida, but the start of Wednesday’s schedule was pushed back by several hours due to a thunderstorm.

The schedule of the regionals mimics the national championships, with men and women competing on alternate days over four days, and will see the women competing at both events on Thursday.

— Paul Reid