Ojora Places Fourth In The 110m Hurdles At The NCAA T&F Championships

Track & Field | June 09, 2023

Tade Ojora placed fourth in the 110m hurdles and Elias Gerald ninth in the high jump during the final day of the 2023 Men’s NCAA Track & Field Championships held at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas today (June 9).  USC scored nine points during the two days of competition (including 4 by Nikolaos Polychroniou in the hammer throw) to finish tied for 27th overall.  In addition, Allie Jones scored 3665 points during the first day of the heptathlon and sits in third place after the first four events.

• Ojora placed fourth in the men’s 110m hurdles final with a PR of 13.29 (+1.8) to earn the Trojans 5 points in the team competition.  He also moved from fifth to second on USC’s all-time list in the event, trailing only the 13.14 posted by Aleec Harris in 2014.  Ojora is now the third Trojan to become a three-time 110m hurdles All-American (also 6^th in 2021 and 8^th in 2022), joining Ryan Wilson (2001-03) and William Erese (1997-99).  Ojora also had the highest finish by a Trojan in the event since Harris placed second at the 2014 NCAA Championships.  There was a total of 0.05 seconds between the top four finishers in the final.
• Gerald placed ninth in the high jump with a best clearance of 7-1.00 (2.16m).  That clearance was just one half-inch off his PR and he went out at the next height of 7-3 (2.21m).  He finished one position out of scoring and was the highest finisher among freshmen in the event.  He finishes his season as a second-team All-American.  Gerald had one miss at 6-11 which made the difference of him tying for fourth and placing ninth due to misses.
• Allie Jones finished the first day of action in the heptathlon final with 3665 points, good for third place.  Jenelle Rogers of Ball State is in first with 3840 points and Beatrice Juskeviciute of Vanderbilt is in second with 3675 points.
• Jones opened the day’s action by winning the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.07.  That time earned her 1114 points and a 24-point lead after the first event.
• Jones then placed 15^th in the high jump with a top clearance of 5-6.50 (1.69m), before going out at 5-7.75 (1.74m).  She earned 842 points in the event and her two-event total of 1956 was good for second place, six points behind the then-leader Avery McMullen of Colorado.
• Jones had a best shot put of…