KINGSTON, Jamaica—Kobe Lawrence of the University of Oregon repeated his fourth place finish in the men’s shot put as the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor track and field Championships got underway at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on Wednesday.

Lawrence threw a season’s best 19.87m for the second straight year as his teammate Ben Smith won the title with a personal best and collegiate lead of 21.04m.

Shaiquan Dunn of the University of Texas threw 17.99m and finished in 18th position.

Jordan Turner of LSU was 12th in the long jump with 7.64m (0.9m/s) while Brandon Falconer of Mt St Mary’s College threw a personal best 69.33m in the javelin and Jermar Ferguson of the University of Louisiana threw 61.51m.

Meanwhile, three Jamaicans, Demario Prince of Baylor University in the 110m hurdles and the University of Arkansas pair of Rivaldo Marshall and Tyrice Taylor in the 800m, all qualified for their finals to be run on Friday.

Prince, who was fifth last year, was second in his semi-final race in 13.15 seconds (1.0m/s), third fastest overall and was beaten by JaKobe Tharpe of Auburn who ran a world record 12.75.

Tharpe smashed his previous best of 13.01 set last year which was the 32nd best ever before lowering Aries Merritt’s 12.80 seconds set in 2012.

Marshall ran 1:45.05, the fastest qualifying time ever in NCAA history to lead the qualifying round while Taylor ran a more modest 1:46.98 to win his semi-final.

Kemar Farquharson of Texas A&M University just missed advancing to the 400m final after he ran 45.62 and was 11th overall.

— Paul A Reid