USC Men Advance Four Individuals And Two Relays To 2023 Track & Field Championships

Track & Field | May 26, 2023

The USC men’s track and field team qualified four individuals and two relays to the NCAA Championships during the final day of the 2023 Men’s NCAA West Preliminary Rounds held at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calf.  today (May 26).  An athlete or relay needed to finish in the top 12 of an event today to advance to the 2023 NCAA Track & Field Championships to be held at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas from June 7-10.

• Elias Gerald set his outdoor PR in the high jump with a clearance of 7-1.5 (2.17m) to advance to the NCAA Championships in the event on June 9.  Gerald’s jump moved him to tied for ninth on USC’s all-time outdoor high jump list.  He tied for the highest clearance and was the only freshman to advance out of the West Preliminary Rounds in the event.
• The men’s 4x100m relay team of Matthew Okonkwo, Brendon Stewart, Chris Borzor and Ashton Allen had a time of 39.06, just off its season’s best, to win the third NCAA quarterfinal heat and automatically advance to the NCAA Championship semifinal on June 7.  USC had the fourth-fastest qualifying time.
• Johnny Brackins Jr. and Tade Ojora both advanced to the NCAA semifinals on June 7 in the 110m hurdles.  Brackins took fourth in the first heat with a PR of 13.51 (+1.7) and advanced sixth overall with the top non-automatic qualifying time.  Ojora won the second heat with a time of 13.55 (+1.7) to automatically advance.  He had the seventh-fastest qualifying time.
• William Jones won the first 400m quarterfinal heat with a time of 45.25 to automatically advance to the NCAA semifinal on June 7.  He had the third-fastest qualifying time among the qualifiers.  Jones was also the only freshman to advance to the NCAA Championships in the 400m from the West Preliminary Rounds.
• USC’s 4x400m relay team of Jones, Borzor, Brackins Jr. and Allen ran a season-best time of 3:04.04 to take third in its heat and automatically advance to the NCAA semifinal in the event. USC had the sixth-fastest qualifying time.
• Bobby Poynter had a time of 1:48.93 to take fifth in his 800m quarterfinal and he finished 18^th overall.
• Stewart had a season-best time of 10.20 (+1.8) to finish fifth in his 100m quarterfinal heat and 13^th overall, just missing out on advancing as the top 12 move on to nationals.  Borzor had a time…