Women's Track & Field has six move on in three events at Olympic Trials
June 29, 2012
EUGENE, Ore. -- Texas Women's Track & Field saw six current and former members advance to semifinal and final rounds in the 200m, high jump and shot put to kick off the second half the 2012 Olympic Trials on Thursday at Hayward Field. All four of the Longhorns' competitors in the 200m moved on to Friday's semifinals, including Sanya Richards-Ross, who after winning the 400m earlier this week is looking to qualify for the London Games in two events. Richards-Ross beat out Charonda Williams by a little more than two tenths of a second to win the second of six heats in 22.67 and advance third overall to the semifinals. "You really want to go for it but you want to stay controlled," Richards-Ross said of running in the preliminary round. "I felt really good today and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Coach told me to get out really hard and then run as hard as I needed to down the stretch, and that's what I did." Alex Anderson, who placed eighth in the 100m finals in the first portion of the Trials, took second in her heat to Carmelita Jeter to automatically qualify. She will be seeded 11th overall with her time of 22.98. "It was a good heat full of good competition," Anderson said. "I just wanted to go out there and execute my race like my coach told me to, but it was a good race. With the 100m, every athlete has that day when they're upset, but you have to move past it because the 200m is coming up and you'll see some of the same girls. You just have to keep moving forward." Also racing in Anderson's heat was rising senior Chalonda Goodman, who placed fourth but was one of three to qualify on time with 23.07. "My main goal was just to get through the round," Goodman said. "That was my main focus going into the race, not really worrying about who else was in the race with me, but just running my own race, and I feel like I did that."
After narrowly missing an Olympic Team berth in the 100m, Bianca Knight rounded out Texas' 200m contingent, placing second in her heat to automatically qualify in a time of 23.11. She is seeded 17th overall heading into the semifinals. The 200m semifinals will take place Friday at 3:00 p.m. Pacific with the top eight advancing to Saturday's finals. The high jump was the Longhorns' first event of the day with Shanay Briscoe and Victoria Lucas competing in the qualifying round. Briscoe successfully cleared both 1.79m and 1.83m (6-00.00) on her first attempt, which was all she would need to advance to the finals in a six-competitor logjam at the top of the standings. "I was kind of nervous going in," Briscoe said. "Prelims always get me nervous, so I was just glad to make it through, go home and get ready for Saturday. It feels great to be here. I'm so honored and thankful and I just want to go out there and show that what I have done in practice I can do in meets." Lucas, who completed her collegiate career at Texas by placing sixth at NCAA Outdoors in May, cleared 1.79m (5-10.50) on her third attempt but was unable to advance further. She finished in a tie for 17th place. Also competing for the Longhorns was Michelle Carter in the shot put preliminaries. Carter threw 17.43m (57-02.75) on her first attempt and was in fourth after the first round. She improved upon that mark with an 18.44m (60-06.00) second attempt, which moved her up to second place behind Jillian Camarena-Williams heading into Friday's finals. Results: Thursday, June 28 Shot Put (qualifying) 200m Dash (qualifying) Texas Longhorns at the 2012 London Olympics |
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