USC Men's Track & Field Comes Out Strong At NCAA West Preliminary Rounds

Trey Knight advanced to the NCAA Championships in the men's hammer throw and nine athletes advanced to NCAA Quarterfinals on Friday during the first day of the men's 2022 NCAA West Preliminary Rounds being held at John McDonnell Field in Fayetteville, Ark. today (May 25).  Today in the field events, the top 12 finishers advanced to the NCAA Championships, while you needed to finish in the top 24 in the running events, to advance to the quarterfinals in two days.

• The Trojans began the day with Trey Knight advancing to the NCAA Championships in the men's hammer throw as he took seventh with a best mark of 219-0 (66.96m).  Nikolaos Polychroniou finished third in the second flight with a best throw of 210-9 (64.25m) and his mark stood in 12th place (the final advancing position) heading into the final round of the last flight, but four throwers passed him and he finished 16th.  Polychroniou had the third-best throw by any freshman on the day. Christian Johnson had a best mark of 197-8 (60.25m).
• Tade Ojora easily advanced to Friday's quarterfinal by winning his 110m hurdles heat with a season-best time of 13.48 (+1.2).  He advances with the second-fastest time of the day.  Including the East Prelims results, Ojora now is tied for the 10th-fastest time this season.
• Eric Allen Jr. and Brendon Stewart both advanced out of the men's 100m preliminary round to Friday's quarterfinal.  Allen Jr. placed third in his heat with a wind-aided PR of 10.22 (+3.6w) and Stewart took third in his heat with a time of 10.53 (-0.8) to automatically advance.  Ashton Allen had a time of 10.52 (+0.8) which was seventh in his heat.
• Johnnie Blockburger took second in his men's 400m dash heat with a time of 45.91 to automatically advance to Friday.  Nicholas Ramey was in the same heat and placed sixth with a time of 46.62 and does not advance.
• Bobby Poynter and Sam VanDorpe both automatically advanced to the 800m quarterfinals on Friday.  Poynter had a PR of 1:48.03 to take second in his heat and Blockburger took third in the final heat with a time of 1:48.59.
• The Trojans closed the day's action with Kasaun James, Zach Shinnick and Ashton Allen all advancing to the 200m quarterfinal on Friday.  James finished second in the fifth heat with a wind-aided season-best time of 20.34 to automatically advance.  Shinnick won the sixth heat with a time of 20.55 (+0.3) to automatically advance and Allen took third in the third heat with a PR of 20.72 (+0.8) to advance.

Tomorrow will be the first day of the women's 2022 NCAA West Preliminary Rounds and it begins at 8 a.m. PT with the hammer throw.
 
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