2013 USA Indoor Track & Field Championships Results (Day 1)
Albuquerque, NM -- Representing ART U Track & Field against the nation's elite for the fourth consecutive season, two individuals and one alumni were in action at this year's USA Indoor Track & Field Championships. In the women's 60m hurdles, Urban Knights alum turned volunteer
Vashti Thomas qualified through to tomorrow's semifinal round while
Dinesha Bean was less than 0.04 from advancing. Though unable to reach the finals,
Jordan Edwards still offered the third best time in program history in the men's 400m dash.
As the first non-field event of the day, round one of the women's 60mH featured many of the top hurdlers in the game, both collegiate and professional. Bean competed alongside last year's champion Nia Ali as well as Olympic bronze medalist Janay DeLoach Soukup for a star-studded
opening heat. The ART U senior was extremely close to former Johnson C. Smith star Lakaevia Tyler, going 8.63 versus Tyler's 8.60 which ultimately got the latter into the semis.
Thomas was up in
heat two where she just barely beat out Lindsay Lindley for second place behind Candice Price's 8.02 mark. The former Academy of Art track star turned in an 8.16 to finish a nose in front of Lindley at 8.17. Following the final heat, where Kristi Castlin blew away the competition with a 7.98, Thomas found herself fifth overall and assured at least a chance to compete in the finals tomorrow at 11:50 AM MST (10:50 AM PST).
Up against the likes of Pittsburgh's Brycen Spratling in his 400m heat and former Indiana star Kind Butler III in the event, Edwards had his work cut out for him particularly given that this was his second time ever competing in the event in his career. In the end, he would turn in a 47.74 mark that, though not a finals qualifier, was still rather close to
Shaquille Howard's second-place mark of 47.35 on ART U's all-time list. Edwards, who went 46.82 at the SPIRE DII Challenge earlier this year, still holds the program record.
Academy of Art University Track & Field has one brief trip to Washington (Seattle Pacific Final Qualifier) on deck before the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships.
