Photo Gallery (images by Rob Garcia & Shaquille Howard)

Pueblo, CO -- The Urban Knights signed off on an impressive first day at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field National Championships on Thursday at Colorado State-Pueblo's Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl. Senior Vashti Thomas captured the long jump title and broke a meet/facility record while senior Jesseka Raymond showed her full repertoire of skills, coming out #1 in the heptathlon after day one and helping her 4x100m relay team get into Saturday's finals. Senior Briana Stewart added a qualifier in the 400m hurdles to round out the day's highlights.

“Today's events pretty much went as planned,” head coach Charles Ryan said. “If anyone studied who we had coming into this meet and who was projected to make the finals, all of those people qualified through. Those who we had on the bubble did not get through to the finals so overall we had a day that was to be expected. We didn't make any mistakes and we didn't do anything spectacular.”

An early start to Thursday's action featured Raymond in the first four events of the heptathlon, starting with the 100m hurdles. Bursting out of the gate with a will to win, Raymond made an immediate statement with a personal record of 13.57 and the best time of her 16 competitors. On top of that, she was the only athlete to drop below 14.00 in the race.

Next up, Raymond went to work in the high jump. After clearing heights up to five feet without issue, the senior from New Orleans, LA ran into her biggest challenge at 5-3 and finished at 5-1.75 (1.57m) in the end. She would take 13th in that competition and sat in 5th overall with 1741 points.


In the shot put, Raymond began to rise back up, eventually delivering a 37-6 (11.43m) which serves as a new program record. She would place seventh in that event, secured another 623 points, and came out fourth with one event left: the 200m dash.

Particularly dangerous in the sprint events, Raymond channeled her determined spirit and flew to a 24.56. She not only won her individual heat, which ran into a tough headwind, but came away first overall to vault her back up to first in the heptathlon with a score of 3292. Raymond leads her next closest competitor, Ashland's Kendra Bassitt, by 44 points at the end of day one.

“Jesseka had her best first day of a heptathlon ever,” Coach Ryan said. “She is sitting in first place 44 points ahead of the #1 seed who was ranked about 400 points higher than everybody else coming into the meet so she had a great day and just needs to finish it off tomorrow.”

The men's long jump featuring ART U's redshirt freshman Johnny Carter was up next. Looking to go after the top jumpers in the country at the Division II level, Carter began his afternoon with a 24-7.75 (7.51m), but suffered an injury to his foot on the attempt and was unable to compete for his remaining five jumps. However, due to his stellar first effort, Carter was crowned an outdoor All-American as he finished sixth overall in the event.


Following the Opening Ceremonies and National Anthem, Academy of Art sent its women's 4x100m relay team of Julian Purvis, Raymond, Thomas, and Dinesha Bean to the track. The Urban Knights claimed third overall in the event preliminaries, ensuring their NCAA All-American status and qualifying for the finals on Saturday. The team offered a 45.21 which was second only to Johnson C. Smith and Grand Canyon.

The prelims of the men's 4x100m relay was next where Ronald Spears, Jr. joined Carter, Erik Piedad, and Jaylon Hicks for what turned out to be a very close competition for a spot in the finals. Just .03 separated Incarnate World (40.72), the ninth place team after two squads were disqualified, and ART U as the Knights turned in a hard-fought 40.75.

On both sides of the 400m dash prelims, Academy of Art athletes had solid performances, but were unable to make the finals. Freshman Keanna Moody took 13th overall, but posted a new program record with a time of 55.16. For the men, redshirt freshman Shaquille Howard also grabbed 13th in the 20-man competition, offering a 47.16 in his heat.

It was more near-misses for ART U in the 100m dash prelims which featured Bean and Raymond on the women's half and Hicks for the men. Bean powered to a new school record of 11.74 in her heat, but ended up being edged by Cardine Copeland (11.73) from Lincoln (Mo.) in another heat. The junior from Memphis, TN was just .01 off her competitor and took 10th overall. Raymond, who was competing in her sixth and final event of a crazy day, posted an 11.81 to match her season best and claim 14th.


Hicks, like Bean, found himself a millisecond from making the 100m finals with his closest opponent coming from his own heat. Despite dropping the new ART U record down to 10.32, the sophomore from Houston, TX was again .01 from Ashland's Joe Horn (10.31) and just missed the finals as a result of his 10th place finish.


The women's long jump had all eyes on Vashti Thomas who did not disappoint, going for a new facility and meet record on her very first attempt. Her opening distance of 20-4.5 (6.21m) rocketed her to #1 overall and she would not relinquish that position the rest of the way. In her third attempt, Thomas shattered the record she had just set by launching herself to a 21-2.75 (6.47m) and thus further ensuring her place atop the pedestal as the long jump winner. The record she broke had stood for the past 29 years.


“Today, Vashti was obviously spectacular and took care of business the way she needed to in her event,” Coach Ryan said. “She broke the NCAA DII meet record and the stadium record here in Pueblo so that was great.”

The Urban Knights' last event on the track was the women's 400m hurdles prelims which featured Stewart. The senior from Oakland, CA fought through the pain of an injury she sustained earlier this week in practice to capture fifth overall with a time of 59.84. Dominique Berry was also in action in the event, taking a 1:02.00 and 14th overall with her heat prior to that of Stewart.

“Briana had some issues earlier in the week, but she fought through them well,” Coach Ryan said. “She made it to the finals in the 400m hurdles where she belongs. So day one was about expectations and those expectations were met.”

At the end of day one, the ART U women's team score is 10 points which has them tied with Sioux Falls for 5th place. Grand Valley State is the leader with 17 points though just four of 21 events have been scored thus far. On the men's side, Academy of Art is 10th overall with three points.

“Our biggest surprise today was injuries suffered from some of our rivals,” Coach Ryan said. “Lincoln had a really tough day as three of their top girls went down with injuries. Nobody wants to see that kind of stuff happen. If we are going to win this title, we want to win it with everybody on the track. But with those injuries, it frees up the paths for other teams such as Grand Canyon to have easier ways through their finals and prelim races. Our meet got harder today not because of anything we did, but just because of unfortunate luck for some of the other teams. Moving forward, our girls are going to have to continue to stay focused and perform at the level that they are.”


Academy of Art returns to action tomorrow for its second of three days of competition. The Urban Knights begin with Jesseka Raymond in the Heptathlon (long jump, javelin throw, 800m) at 11:00 AM MT (10:00 AM PT). The evening features ART U in the finals of the women's triple jump and prelims of the women's 200m dash, 100m hurdles, and 4x400m relay.