Trey Knight Earns Hammer Throw All-America Honors, USC In Three Finals At NCAA Track & Field Championships

Trey Knight earned All-America honors in the hammer throw by placing eighth and Tade Ojora in the 110m hurdles and the USC men's 4x100m and 4x400m relays advanced to event finals during the first day of action at the 2022 NCAA Track & Field Outdoor Championships held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. today (June 8). 

• Knight placed eighth in the men's hammer throw with a best mark of 232-0 (70.73m) which came in his fourth attempt to earn All-America honors and earn the Trojans their first point of the meet.  Knight was one of two underclassmen to score in the event and he became the first USC sophomore to score in the hammer throw since Adam Midles in 2005.  Knight became the first Trojan men's hammer thrower to score at nationals since Conor McCullough won the title in 2015.  Things started fairly dicey for Knight as he had a foot-foul on his first throw which appeared to go nearly 70 meters.  He then slipped on his second throw and had to deliver on his third-round attempt.  Knight calmly stepped up and drilled a throw of 229-7 (69.98m) to put him in second place in the first flight, .01 meters behind the leader. After the second flight was completed, he had advanced in eighth place, as the top nine moved on to the final.
• USC's men's 4x100m relay team of Kasaun James, Brendon Stewart, Ashton Allen and Johnnie Blockburger were the first Trojans on the track.  They took care of business by winning the third semifinal heat with a time of 38.83 to automatically advance to the final on Friday.  All of the nine qualifying teams posted a sub-39.0 relay time.
• Tade Ojora was the first individual runner for the Trojans as he was in the first heat of the men's 110m hurdles.  He took third place in the heat by equaling his season-best time of 13.48 (-0.2) and would have to await the next two heats to see if he advanced.  The top two in each heat, plus the next best three times would advance.  After all the heats were completed, Ojora had the fastest non-automatic qualifying time and was onto the final with the sixth-fastest time  He is the only runner returning to the NCAA final in the event.  Ojora placed sixth last season.
• After a false start in his heat, Stewart placed sixth in his men's 100m dash semifinal and finished 22nd overall with a time of 10.33 (-0.1).
• Blockburger placed seventh in his 400m semifinal and 20th overall with a time of 46.36.
• Sam VanDorpe took eighth in his 800m semifinal and finished 23rd overall with a time of 1:52.45.  There was also a false start to begin his semifinal.  He would have had to run a personal best to advance to the final.
• James placed sixth in his 200m semifinal heat with a time of 20.46 (-0.3) and finished 13th overall.
• The men's 4x400m relay team of Nicholas Ramey, Eric Allen Jr., James and Blockburger closed out the first day's action for USC.  They would need to run a season-best time or finish in the top two of its semifinal heat if they were to advance as the final qualifying time from the first two heats was 3:01.79. Turns out they didn't need to run a season-best time as they took second in their heat with a time of 3:02.58 to automatically advance to Friday's final.  USC had the eighth-fastest time among the qualifiers.

Tomorrow will be the first day of the 2022 NCAA Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championships, with finals in the scheduled field events and semifinals in the running events.
 
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