Thursday, June 9, 2011

NCAA Outdoor Championships Day 2 in Weather Delay (Update: 10:23 p.m. ET)

The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships currently are in a weather delay due to lightning and heavy rain in the Des Moines area.

The meet was suspended at approximately 9:15 p.m. ET as the men's long jump was in its six round of jumps, the decathlon was in its ninth event and the women's 4x400-meter relay was about to begin its third heat of semifinals.

The next weather update will be announced at 10:45 p.m. ET Thursday.

Meet Recap (In Progress):
Sophomore Florida thrower Jeremy Postin (Auburndale, Fla.) earned the school's first-ever All-America honor in the men's hammer throw and junior distance runner Genevieve LaCaze (Queensland, Australia) broke her own school record in the women's steeplechase to highlight a strong second day at the NCAA Outdoor Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.

Weather took center stage on Thursday for the second day of the NCAA Outdoor Championships, with the start of the meet delayed for an hour and 45 minutes. The meet was then halted at 9:15 p.m. ET due to lightning and heavy rain in the area. The remainder of Thursday's activities are still slated to be contested on Thursday, but those activities were not completed by press time.

The event was halted with the men's long jump in the sixth round of jumps, the decathlon in the ninth event and the women's 4x400-meter relay about to start its third heat in the semifinal round.

Postin, who entered the meet seeded 10th in the men's hammer throw, placed eighth in the meet with a toss of 66.20m/217-2. He earns first-team All-America honors and becomes the school's first-ever All-American in the men's hammer throw.

"This was the finishing touch on a great year for Jeremy," said associate head coach/throws Steve Lemke. "He has been so consistent all year long. He came out on his first throw and really took pressure off himself and put it on other people early. It was kind of the same formula we used with Stipe yesterday and it worked again. For this being his first time here and being so new in the event, it was just a great effort for Jeremy."

Junior multi-event athlete Gray Horn (Waynesfield, Ohio) currently is in fifth place in the men's decathlon competition, which was suspended midway through the javelin – the ninth of 10 events in the competition. Horn has accumulated an eight-event total of 6,543 points.

Horn opened the day with a third-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 14.32 (+1.8) to pick up 934 points. That surged him into third place in the overall competition through six events. He then struggled in the discus, placing 21st overall with a toss of 37.13m/121-10 to score 606 points and drop into fifth place in the decathlon competition through seven events. He stayed in fifth after a fifth-place finish in the pole vault, where he turned in a personal-best leap of 4.90m/16-0.75 to earn 880 points.

LaCaze clocked a time of 10:04.68 in the women's steeplechase to break her own school record in the event. She advances to Saturday's final in the event, breaking her previous school record of 10:05.92 set at the NCAA Preliminary Rounds in Bloomington, Ind., two weeks ago. LaCaze placed 10th overall in the semifinal round.

"She was aggressive today," said Todd Morgan, assistant coach for distance and cross country. "The first thing at the NCAA meet is that you have to take care of today, so that you can make it to the final. I thought she did a great job and she has really improved tremendously in the steeple. She has worked really hard at getting better, especially with the water jump. What we saw today was the culmination of a lot of hard work."

Freshman multi-event athlete Brittany Harrell (McComb, Miss.) concluded the first day of the heptathlon with a four-event total of 3,201. That is just shy of her personal-best score of 3,245, accomplished at the 2011 Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships in Athens, Ga.

Harrell opened up the heptathlon competition by placing 16th overall in the women's 100-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 14.29 (+2.4). She then tied for fifth in the heptathlon high jump with a leap of 1.69m/5-6.50. Harrell was 13th in the shot put with a personal-best toss of 11.46m/37-7.25, which shattered her previous personal best of 10.88m/35-8.50. She closed the day with a 18th-place showing in the 200-meter dash at 26.01 (-1.7).

Freshman middle-distance runner Cory McGee (Pass Christian, Miss.) advanced to the finals of the women's 1,500-meter run, placing 10th overall in the semifinal round with a time of 4:18.52.

Junior distance runner Dumisani Hlaselo (South Africa) moved on to the finals of the men's 1,500-meter run, clocking a time of 3:49.26 to place 13th overall.

Freshman sprinter Darshay Davis (Mirimar, Fla.) saw her outstanding freshman season come to a close in the semifinals of the women's 200-meter dash, clocking a personal-best time of 23.59 (+1.2) to place 17th overall.