T&T’s Tyriq Hors­ford of Mis­sis­sip­pi State, Kion Ben­jamin and Car­lon Hosten of Min­neso­ta missed out on qual­i­fy­ing for the fi­nals in their events on the first day of the 2023 Na­tion­al Col­le­giate Ath­let­ics As­so­ci­a­tion (NCAA) Di­vi­sion One Out­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships in Austin, Texas, USA on Wednes­day.

Hors­ford was the first lo­cal in ac­tion when he lined up in the men’s javelin qual­i­fy­ing round. The Zenith club mem­ber fin­ished down the field in po­si­tion 24th with an ef­fort of 61.44 me­tres which was the on­ly le­gal throw achieved on his first ef­fort. The five-time Carif­ta cham­pi­on fouled his next two at­tempts and missed on plac­ing among the top nine to ad­vance to the fi­nals which were con­test­ed right af­ter.

LSU’s Tzuriel Pedi­go won the gold (79.79m) ahead of Ethan Dabbs of Vir­ginia (79.27m) and Chinecherem Pros­per Nnam­di of Bay­lor (78.36m)

The Par­latu­vi­er res­i­dent won bronze in the event at the 2019 NCAA Cham­pi­onships as a 19-year-old.

Mean­while, T&T ath­letes run­ners Ben­jamin, Hosten and Devin Au­gus­tine were mem­bers of Min­neso­ta’s team in the men’s 4x100m semi­fi­nals. De­spite set­ting a school record of 38.70 sec­onds, Min­neso­ta’s time was on­ly good enough 14th place. LSU was the quick­est (38.06 sec­onds), fol­lowed by Texas Tech (38.20) and Flori­da (38.22).

Ben­jamin was back on the track for the 100m semi­fi­nals. The Mem­phis Pi­o­neers sprint­er sped to a sea­son’s best of 10.09 sec­onds to fin­ish in heat one and 14th over­all. The top nine ad­vanced to the fi­nal to be con­test­ed to­day. PJ Austin of Flori­da was the top qual­i­fi­er with a per­son­al best clock­ing of 9.89 sec­onds as the top five fin­ish­ers all dipped un­der the 10-sec­ond bar­ri­er.

Hosten was hop­ing for bet­ter luck in the 200m semi­fi­nals but he was beat­en in 20th place af­ter he was sev­enth in heat one n 20.55 sec­onds. Udo­di On­wuzurike of Stan­ford blazed to a PB of 19.76 sec­onds to top the event.

The next five run­ners be­hind him al­so ran un­der 20 sec­onds.

Sha­keem McK­ay and his LSU team­mates were 12th in the men’s 4x400m semi­fi­nals in 3:02.38 sec­onds. Flori­da led the way (2:58.62) with top five teams clocked sub-3 minute times.

The medal hopes for T&T will now rest on the shoul­ders of Leah Bertrand, Ak­i­lah Lewis and Cherisse Mur­ray all of whom were in ac­tion late yes­ter­day.

Bertrand rep­re­sent­ed Ohio State in the women’s 100m and 4x100m semi­fi­nals. Lewis was a mem­ber of Min­neso­ta’s line­up in the 4x100m semi­fi­nals. Cherisse Mur­ray (Al­aba­ma) was among the starters in the women’s shot put qual­i­fiers.

The fi­nals of the women’s events are set for to­mor­row.

Mean­while, Ja­maican ath­letes took the top three spots in the men’s long jump fi­nals on Wednes­day as Carey McLeod and Wayne Pin­nock, both of Arkansas, were first and sec­ond with dis­tances of 8.26m and 8.13m re­spec­tive­ly. Jor­dan Turn­er, rep­re­sent­ing Ken­tucky copped the bronze (8.12).

The NCAA Di­vi­sion One Out­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships will con­clude to­mor­row.

NCAA Di­vi­sion One Out­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships

Austin, Texas

Wednes­day’s Men’s Javelin

Fi­nals: 1st Tzuriel Pedi­go (LSU) 79.79m; 2nd Ethan Dabbs (Vir­ginia) 79.27m; 3rd Chinecherem Pros­per Nnam­di (Bay­lor) 78.36m

Qual­i­fy­ing: 24th Tyriq Hors­ford (Mis­sis­sip­pi State/Zenith) 61.44m (61.44, X, X)

4x100m semis: 10th (4h1) Min­neso­ta (Car­lon Hosten/Abi­lene Wild­cats, Kion Ben­jamin/Mem­phis Pi­o­neers, Devin Au­gus­tine/Pt. Fortin New Jets) 38.70 (school record)

100m semis : 14th (4h1) Ben­jamin (10.09 sb

200m semis: 20th Hosten (7h1) 20,55

4x400m semis: 12th Lou­siana State (Sha­keem McK­ay/Abi­lene Wild­cats) :02.38