The Alumni Times - N.C. A&T State University Alumni Newsletter

Aggies Put on Historic Performance in Kentucky

North Carolina A&T will roll into the NCAA Division I Track and Field Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in record fashion after completing a historic NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round for a historically black college or university (HBCU).

The Aggies will send 13 of the school-record 20 athletes they sent to the East Preliminaries to the University of Oregon's Hayward Field, June 7-10, for the NCAA championships. Over the past three days, the Aggies have taken down numerous school records. May 27 was another superb day of qualifying. The Aggies will have more representation than any other North Carolina institution at the NCAA championships. They will also send more athletes to the NCAA nationals than any other HBCU in history.

The men's 4x100 meter relay team consisting of seniors Chris Belcher, Caleb Gabriel and junior Rodney Rower and freshman Jaylen Mitchell nearly took the top qualifying time for the East to Oregon with them, but were defeated by a narrow margin by Auburn University (38.74) and Louisiana State University (38.75) to finish third in 38.76. The top 12 times advance to NCAA nationals. The foursome's time broke the school record of 39.44, set during this season's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Outdoor Track and Field Championships at N.C. A&T's Irwin Belk Track. It was the same runners save for junior Joel Thomas ran instead of Mitchell.

The women's 4x1 was also impressive. Junior India Brown, sophomores Yakira Love and Kayla White and freshman Taliyah Townsend sprinted to a school record as they qualified for nationals with the 10th-best time (44.01). The previous record was established at the 2017 Aggie Invitational when the same runners except Love ran on Friday instead of Tori Ray. One more Aggies relay team saw success when the 4x4 team qualified for nationals with a school-record time. Senior Dorian Claggett, junior Dajuan Harding, sophomore Justin Hamilton and freshman Najee Reams completed the 4x4 in 3:06.14 to be the 11th team out of 12 to qualify. They finished ahead of Clemson University and Florida State University to qualify. The 4x4 team out did itself as the same four guys held the previous record which was 3:07.32 recorded at the 2017 MEAC outdoor championships.

Belcher and Brown will represent the Aggies in three different events in Eugene. Both qualified on the men's and women's side in the 200 meters. A day after running the fastest qualifying time to reach the quarterfinals with a school-record 20.06, Belcher qualified for nationals in 20.31. Brown also pulled off a trifecta by finishing her 200m race in 22.92 to break her own school record of 22.98 recorded at the Tom Jones Memorial hosted by the University of Florida on April 28.

There were mixed reviews for the Aggies in the hurdles. Kayla White is headed to nationals in the 100-meter hurdles as she qualified in 13.18 a day after breaking the school record by running 12.94. White broke an 8-year record set by Loreal Smith at 12.97. White will try to become the Aggies first All-American in the 100mh since Smith in 2009. The Aggies 110mh participants on Saturday – sophomore Michael Dickson and senior TeQuille Jackson – failed to qualify as both men could not reach the Top-12.

N.C. A&T's representation at the NCAA championships will be off the track as well. Sophomore Lasheon Strozier qualified in the men's triple jump with a personal-record 51-feet, 10 ½-inch jump. It surpassed his previous best which was 51-feet, 10-inches at the Duke Invitational on April 21. Strozier will be the first Aggies triple jumper since Brandon Via in 2006 to compete at NCAA nationals.

“This year we did a good job of putting them in meets where they saw some of the same competition they saw this weekend,” said Ross. “Our administration fully backed us in taking them down to (the University of) Florida and Georgia and putting them against tough competition so that when they are competing at regionals, when they are competing at nationals, it's nothing new.”

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