EUGENE, Ore. — Mississippi State freshman standout Anderson Peters won the javelin Wednesday at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a meet-record and collegiate personal-best throw of 82.82 meters (271 feet, 9 inches).
The native of St. Andrews, Grenada, also met the standard he needed to enter international competition for his home nation of Spain. He is the second Spaniard to break 80 meters (262-5).
“Coming to Mississippi State with a personal best of 84.81m (278-3), it was kind of expected for me to become the NCAA champion,” Peters said. “I was physically at my best, but I wasn’t able to throw as far as I wanted to. The conditions weren’t perfect, but it was OK.”
Senior Nicolas Quijera finished second (80.21 meters, 263-2) to help MSU become the first school since North Carolina in 2007 to take the top two spots in the javelin at the NCAA Championships.
“I’m just so happy for those two, especially Nico,” MSU throws coach April Thomas said. “All season we’ve looked to this meet for him to reach 80m, and to get it on his last throw was a perfect ending.”
The mark also makes MSU the only school in NCAA history with three men to eclipse 80 meters in the history of its program. All three are currently on the roster.
“Over 80m, that’s all the significance you need right there,” Quijera said. “It was my dream since I was a young kid throwing the javelin. Now that I’ve got it, it’s awesome. It’s the standard for European Championships, so that allows me to compete in Berlin this summer. The next barrier is 90m.”
MSU also saw freshman Marco Arop qualify for the Friday’s finals in the 800. Arop finished fifth with a time of 1 minute, 47.14 seconds. Dejon Devroe finished 14th in the semifinals of the 800.
Three Bulldogs made it to the semifinals in the 400 hurdles, but all three saw their seasons end on the first day. Malcum Tatum was MSU’s top finisher, placing 15th in 52.01.
In the sprints, Ro’Derick Spears ended his career in the 110 hurdles semifinals, and Karson Kowalchuk saw his season end in the 100.
The men’s 4×400 relay team took 10th (3:06.12).
MSU ended day one in second place with 18 points. Georgia leads with 20 points thanks to wins by Denzel Comenentia in the shot put and hammer.
Ole Miss’ Domanic qualifies for final in 1,500
Ole Miss senior Robert Domanic put himself in position to score points for the men’s track and field team after punching his ticket to the final of the 1,500.
Domanic, the top American to run the 1,500 this season at the ninth-fastest time in NCAA history (3:36.33), went toe-to-toe with collegiate record holder and reigning NCAA champion, Josh Kerr of New Mexico. Domanic took second at 3:47.61, less than two tenths of a second off Kerr’s top semifinal time of 3:47.47.
Kerr ran his collegiate record (3:35.01) in the same heat as Domanic’s top American time in the final heat of the Bryan Clay Invite on April 19.
“Anything can happen,” Domanic said. “Josh Kerr is the favorite, but I think there’s about seven or eight guys that can come out and win this thing, so it’s going to be a tough race.”
This is the second career NCAA 1,500 final for Domanic, who finished sixth in 2016 at 3:41.71 to earn first-team All-America honors.
Domanic owns several other All-America awards throughout his Ole Miss career, including an NCAA title in the distance medley relay indoors in 2017.
“The standard at Ole Miss is that you want to shoot for the highest that you can go,” Domanic said. “Now, making a national championship meet is not good enough. The program has come a long way. Three or four years ago that would have been a victory in itself, but now we’re trying to go win titles and try to go and make All-American spots.”
Freshman Everett Smulders finished 10th in his heat and 22nd overall in the 1,500 (3:51.59) for Honorable Mention All-America status.
Sophomore Parker Scott finished 17th overall and ninth in the second heat of the semifinals of the men’s 3,000 steeplechase. Scott ran 8:53.33 for Honorable Mention All-America honors, which fell less than two tenths off Second-Team status.
Alabama men post program firsts in two events
The Alabama men’s track and field team posted all-time best finishes in the 10,000 and hammer throw at Oregon’s Hayward Field.
Juniors Vincent Kiprop and Gilbert Kigen finished second and seventh, respectively, in the 10,000. Kiprop crossed the line in 28:34.99 and Kigen finished in 28:55.66. Kiprop’s finish is the first in the top two in the event for Alabama at the NCAA Championships. The two top-eight finishes in the 10,000 at the same NCAA meet is also a program first for the Crimson Tide.
“I’d like to thank coach (Dan) Waters for what he did to prepare us,” Kiprop said. “We were expecting more, but I’m grateful to finish second. I’m going to do my best to finish strong in the 5,000 meters to help the team score as many points as possible.”
Junior Daniel Haugh finished fifth in the hammer throw with a mark of 238-7 (72.72m), which ranks No. 2 in school history.
“It was a little rough at first,” Haugh said. “But I just kept trying to execute my throw and stay focused on the inside of the circle and not let everything going on around me distract me. We built through the series and I pulled it out on my third throw to sneak into the finals and get three more throws. I knew I was capable of more but you can’t be mad when you throw 72 meters, the second-best of my life and get points for the team.”
Junior Kord Ferguson finished 13th in the shot put (63-7 ½, 19.43 meters), which is the sixth-best mark in school history.
Alabama is fourth with 14 points after the first day.
In semifinal action on the track, junior Ruebin Walters posted the fastest time in the semifinals of the 110 hurdles to advance to Friday’s final.
Junior Keitavious Walter finished third in his heat of the 200 (20.54) and just missed qualifying for the finals by 7/100ths of a second.
“We had some really great things happen today,” Waters said. “We’re obviously super proud of Danny (Haugh) for his finish in the hammer and, of course, Vincent and Gilbert finishing second and seventh in the 10,000 meters. I also thought Ruebin Walters looked amazing in the hurdles as well. We had a few ups and downs today but we still have plenty of opportunities to score on Friday. We’re excited about where we are right now.”
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