2016 NCAA Division II National Championships Results - Day 1

PITTSBURG, Kan. – A busy first day for Academy of Art University track & field at NCAA Division II Indoor Nationals was highlighted by the first pair of All-American long jumpers in program history. Johnny Carter and Craig Mattox got their hands on gold while Mobolade Ajomale (60m, 200m) and Jordan Edwards (400m, 200m) each took one step closer to their own inside Pitt State's Robert W. Plaster Center on Friday.

"It was a game-plan that has been worked on from day one," said jumps coach Brandon Campbell. "Johnny and Craig were really focused and all of their hard work all year came together. I had an idea of how the competition was going to go and it didn't matter where we were ranked coming in because I knew they would exceed that. They were teammates as well as competitors and, from all of us, it was just a well-executed day."

Jumping one right after the other in the first flight, Carter and Mattox worked in tandem from the outset. In fact, it was Mattox's opening attempt of 24-7 (7.49m) that ended up being his farthest in addition to serving as a new season-best. Carter's third jump was also his longest of 2016 as he flew to 24-9.75 (7.56m) and, at the conclusion of the first flight, both he and Mattox were the leaders of the pack. Those distances would have Carter fourth and Mattox fifth by the event's conclusion, making them both All-Americans.
 
Earlier in the day, Ajomale continued to light up the track in the 60m dash this season with a new program record in his prelim. The West Region Track Athlete of the Year would better the competition in his heat by 0.15 with a 6.61 good for 10th in NCAA Division II history. Fans will now get a chance to see the matchup many have been waiting for with Ajomale going up against Tiffin's Lamar Hargrove after both were atop the DII list this year.

Ajomale and Hargrove would also both qualify through to the finals of the 200m dash after being separated by just 0.01 in their respective heats during the prelim. Ajomale matched his season-best and program-record 21.04 while Hargrove was first out of his heat at 21.03. Edwards ran his own season-best in the event (21.42) to join his teammate in the finals.

Edwards had more individual success on the day, ensuring a return to the 400m finals to defend his individual title after a season-best 47.42 in his prelim. Winning his heat guaranteed a place in tomorrow's final and he would end up fourth of 16 overall.

"We had a pretty good first day," said head coach Kevin LaSure. "There were some ups and downs throughout the meet today and not everything went according to plan, but the effort was great all around. We had two huge performances in the long jump. Coach Brandon Campbell did a great job getting Johnny and Craig ready for the championships and making significant improvements on their rankings coming into the meet. Both Bolade and Jordan were able to advance in their events as well and that is huge for the team overall."

The men's mile prelims came down to 0.04 seconds off a spot in the finals for Valentin Pepiot. In his heat, the Frenchman finished fifth with a time of 4:06.94 which would end up making him 10th in an event that took nine on the top three from each heat plus the next three best times. The difference between Pepiot and ninth-place Jackson Sayler of Adams State was virtually the blink of an eye.

Fractions of a second also kept Marlon Britton out of the 60m hurdles final after his 8.081 in Friday's prelims had him just 0.03 from eighth place.

Keanna Moody competed in both the 400m and 200m prelims on Friday, but found herself outside of the finals in each. She went 55.75 in the 400m and 24.94 in the 200m.

The men's team is collectively sixth currently after having scored 9.00 points with 13 of 17 events still left to be scored on Saturday.

Academy of Art will return to the Robert W. Plaster Center for its second and final day of NCAA DII Nationals tomorrow with the following event finals on tap (local times CT): men's triple jump at 2:20 p.m. (12:20 p.m. PT), men's 60m at 4:40 p.m. (2:40 p.m. PT), men's 400m at 5:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m. PT), men's 200m at 6 p.m. (4 p.m. PT), men's 4x400m relay at 7 p.m. (5 p.m. PT), and women's 4x400m relay at 7:15 p.m. (5:15 p.m. PT).