2021 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field National Championships Results (Day 2)
ALLENDALE, Mich. – Academy of Art track & field's
Marie-Jeanne Ourega made it two All-American performances in as many days as she delivered a career-best to take sixth in the long jump at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field National Championships on Friday. Back out at Grand Valley State Lacrosse & Track Stadium, Ourega officially became a four-time All-American while also qualifying through the 100m hurdles prelims to join many of her teammates in Saturday event finals on the track.
Coming off her
national title in the long jump the day prior, Ourega debuted at second place following her first triple jump then soon rose to first after a career-best 41-1.75 (12.54m) in her second attempt. She remained the leader of the first flight after bettering her previous career mark with wind-legal 41-4.25 (12.60m) on her third try. Though she would jump no further as ART U's lone qualifier to the final, Ourega's best upped her to fourth in program history (third among wind-legal marks) and hoisting an All-American trophy in sixth on the day. Overall, besides one foul, the Communications & Media Technologies major surpassed 40-6 (12.34m) in her five other jumps.
Alongside Ourega and amid the windy conditions on the runway,
Rian Young-Werner and
Camille Jouanno finished the first flight in sixth and seventh respectively. Their best jumps each came on their final attempts at 39-10.5 (12.15m) for Young-Werner and 39-3.25 (11.97m) for Jouanno, but both would drop out of qualification following the second heat which made up all but two spots of the event final.
In between the prelims and finals of the triple jump, Ourega took care of some other business, qualifying through the prelims of the 100m hurdles. She took fifth in her heat, the substantially faster of the two despite a legal wind, and finished sixth overall at 14.01.
The men's 4x400m relay prelims were a bit of a rollercoaster ride as
Makarios Page worked his way up during the first leg before
Omodiaogbe Oboh pushed in front of the five other teams in the Urban Knights' heat. From there,
Shareez Hamm maintained that advantage before handing off to
Daquan Berry who was still well out in front at just over the 3:01.00 mark. A strong final effort from Mississippi College and Ashland managed to earn those quartets automatic qualification, but ART U's 3:14.39 time still put them through to the final in eighth overall.
Qualification from the women's 200m prelims was decided by 0.14 seconds and it was
Darria Matthias who claimed the eighth and final spot overall after turning in a 24.18 mark for fifth place out of her heat.
A pair of Urban Knights contested the women's and men's sides of the 800m prelims on Friday with
Natalia Novak and
Elliot Slade both in action. Just under a second from reaching Saturday's final, Novak finished sixth in her heat and 14th overall with a time of 2:13.18. Slade ended up 3.53 seconds from qualifying to Saturday's final after going 1:55.71 for seventh in his heat and 13th overall.
The third and final day of Outdoor Nationals will begin with
James Young in the 1500m (1:20 p.m. ET) followed by the men's 4x400m (4:00 p.m. ET), the women's 4x100m (5:05 p.m. ET), Novak in the 1500m (5:25 p.m. ET), Ourega in the 100m hurdles (5:45 p.m. ET), and Matthias in the 200m (7:25 p.m. ET).
