Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
EUGENE, Ore. — BYU’s Shaquille Walker didn’t set a personal-best time in the 800-meter semifinals at the opening day of the NCAA Track and Field meet Wednesday.
He didn’t need to, though.
Walker breezed into the finals Friday with a heat-winning time of 1 minutes, 47.45 seconds in what may be the final track and field meet of his collegiate career.
Walker, whose coach told the Deseret News recently that he is entertaining offers from various shoe companies to turn pro, started in the first lane and stayed just behind early leader Nick Hartle of UCLA through the first lap, then pulled away just before the final turn and never looked back.
The Richmond Hill, Georgia, native cruised to the finishing line, topping his heat’s second-place finisher Robert Heppenstall of Wake Forest by .11 seconds to secure the qualifying nod.
Texas A&M freshman Donavan Brazier posted the top 800-meter time with a 1:45.07. Utah State sophomore Clay Lambourne posted a time of 1:52.31 in the 800, good for 22nd place.
BYU’s Aaron Fletcher squeezed into the finals for the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Fletcher finished fifth in his heat with a personal-best time of 8:36.81. Louisville’s Edwin Kibichiy led all qualifiers with a time of 8:33.56.
Fletcher’s time ranks sixth all-time in BYU track and field history.
Jackson Walker ran the 400-meter portion of the decathlon in 50.30 seconds for 801 points. The junior from Idaho was 23rd at the end of the first day with 3,490 points, or 848 behind Wisconsin’s Zach Ziemek for the lead. Walker started the day with a 11.43 in the 100, then added 21 feet, 1.5 inches in the long jump, 41’3.25” in the shot put and 6’ in the high jump.
Former American Fork harrier Connor McMillan finished 16th in the 10,000-meter final, the only final contested Wednesday. The BYU sophomore finished in 29:40.65, good for second-time all-American honors. He spent the early portion with the pace in the middle of the pack, then fell back as winner Edward Cheserek of Oregon began to cruise away from the rest of the field in 29:09.57.
Jesse White added a personal-best time of 46.27 in the 400-meter semifinals. The senior ran in one of the inside lanes and couldn’t make up his position in finishing 10th in his heat as a non-qualifier. Tennessee sophomore Nathan Strother was the top semifinalist at 45.07.
Utah State’s 1,600-meter relay team of Parker Bluth, Brady Martin, Cole Lambourne and AJ Boully finished fourth in the third heat (No. 13 overall) with a time of 3:06.41 in the semifinals. BYU was 22nd overall in 3:09.30.
Utah Valley’s Nick Taylor posted a 15th-place time of 10.35 seconds in the 100-meter dash semifinals. Utah State’s Bluth had a semifinal time of 10.44.
Texas’ Senoj-Jay Givens posted the fastest time at 9.96.
Blush finished the 200-meter dash in 20.70 seconds, missing a qualifying time for Friday’s finals by just .05 seconds. Taylor finished 19th in 200 with a time of 20.98. The UVU senior earned second-team All-American honors, becoming just the third All American in the Wolverines' program history.
Utah State’s Boully also ran 52.67 in the 400-meter hurdles.
After six events, Oregon leads the meet with 19 points, followed by Arkansas (16) and Purdue (11).
The women’s track and field championships begin Thursday in Eugene, Oregon, with the men’s finals wrapping up Friday and women’s finals Saturday.
Full results are available on ncaa.com.
