LUT WILLIAMS BCSP Editor
North Carolina A&T quarter-miler Randolph Ross Jr. secured the only first-place finish for the HBCU men or women at the four- day NCAA Div. I Outdoor Track & Field Championships completed Saturday in Eugene, Oregon.
It was the last meet for Duane Ross, the director of A&T’s track & field programs, who is moving to the University of Tennessee to take over its track programs (see story below). Ross had hoped to go out after ten years leading the Aggies with a national championship.
How the Aggie men fared
Randolph Ross Jr., a junior and son of the departing head coach, repeated as the national champion in the 400 meters as he clocked a winning time of 44.13 seconds in Friday’s men’s finals. Ross secured ten points for his first-place finish.
It was the only first-place finish for the Aggies who were trying to match or finish better than the third-place 34 points they scored in the 2021 men’s championship.
They scored 22 points this year to finish in a tie for ninth with Texas Tech (see STAT CORNER). Flori- da, led by 100 meter and 200 meter champion Joseph Fahnbulleh, won the men’s title with 54 points fol- lowed by Texas with 38 points and Tennessee with 34 points.
A&T sophomore sprinter Javonte Harding had the fastest time (19.98 sec.) in Wednesday’s 200 meters preliminary but was disqualified for running out of his lane.
Harding did make the finals in the 100 meters. He finished fourth in 10.08 seconds to garner third place and earn six points for the Aggies.
Ross also ran legs on A&T’s 4×100 meter and 4×400 meter re- lay events that grabbed top eight finishes. Harding was also on the 4×100 quartet.
The 4×100 foursome of senior Tavarius Wright, Ross, senior Malcolm Croom-McFadden and Harding finished fourth in 39.35 seconds to tally five points.
Freshman Raheem Hayles, Ross, senior Akeem Lindo and sophomore Shemar Chambers finished eighth in the 4×400 relay in 3:03.15 for one point.
Aggie senior Brandon Hicklin scored three points for A&T when he finished fifth in Wednes- day’s long jump competition.
A&T had a total of 11 men competing in eight events.
The only other HBCU men’s team to score was Prairie View A&M. Sophomore triple jumper Nathan Crawford-Wallis had a leap of 16.10 meters to earn one point for the Panthers by virtue of his eighth-place finish.
The HBCU women
The A&T women tallied 11 points to finish in 23rd in the competition while Howard garnered 3 points to finish tied with seven oth- ers in 49th place (see STAT COR- NER).
For A&T, senior hurdler Paula Salmon and freshman sprinter Grace Nwokocha accounted for their points.
Salmon finished fourth in 12.85 seconds in the 100 meter hurdles to score five points for the Aggies. Salmon’s time trailed the event winner, Alia Armstrong of LSU (12.57), by just .28-hundredths of a second.
Nwokocha had sixth-place finishes in both the 100 (11.21 sec.) and 200 meters (22.44). She earned 3 points each for those finishes, six overall.
Howard’s points came in the 4×400 meter relay when the senior quartet of Ozioma Scott, Jessica Wright, Ameenah Saalih and Jessika Gbai came in 6th in a time of 3:28.39.
Wright had finished ninth in the 400 meter hurdles finals.
Ross moving on
A&T quest for a men’s national title in Ross’s final meet came down to a couple of matters.
Harding’s disqualification after his pace-setting 200-meter run all but sealed their chances of com- ing away with the title. Additionally, the Aggies 4×400 meter relay team this year was just not as strong as the quartet from last year that included Randolph and Trevor Stewart who both finished in the top four in the 400 meters. Last year’s quartet won both the indoor and outdoor 4×400 relay.
A&T finished runners-up at the NCAA indoor championships back in March when the 4×400 relay team could only finish eighth. They had a similar finish on Saturday.
What’s next for A&T
There are two big questions left to be answered for A&T. Who will Athletics Director Earl Hilton choose to replace Duane Ross? And, how many of the athletes currently on the roster will choose to stay with the Aggies, join Ross at Tennessee or turn pro?
