Results
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Seven student-athletes from Cincinnati, Houston and Wichita State traveled to College Station, Texas and represented The American at the first day of the 2018 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Cincinnati senior Loretta Blaut battled hard for a national title, but fell short in a jump-off that needed seven rounds of competition to decide the national champion after two individuals tied for the crown. Blaut, who finished second after tying her school record height of 1.87 meters (6-01.50), was one of two Bearcats on the day to earn USTFCCCA All-America First Team honors as senior Adrian Valles finished tied for fifth in the men’s pole vault earlier in the day.
Valles cleared a height of 5.55m (18-06.50), settling for a tie for fifth place overall in the meet. Valles attempted to clear what would have been a PR and school record, but he was unsuccessful, as he still earned his fourth-consecutive indoor All-America honor and the sixth of this career.
Houston qualified its sprinters for all three finals, as Elijah Hall (60-and-200-meter dashes) and Kahmari Montgomery (400-meter dash) are set to compete again tomorrow. The Cougars are the only school to have a sprinter represented in each event.
Hall was just one of two sprinters in the meet to advance to two finals. Hall opened his day with the second-fastest overall qualifying time in the 60-meter dash after running a personal best 6.56 to win the first heat. Hall’s time gives him the second-fastest time in program history. He then broke his own school 200-meter record to win the heat in 20.21. Hall’s record is the sixth fastest time in NCAA Championship history and qualified him No. 1 overall for the final.
Montgomery also punched his ticket to Saturday’s final, with the fifth fastest overall time in the 400-meter dash at 45.81.
Cincinnati’s Alex Bloom, Houston’s Nathaniel Mechler and Wichita State’s Hunter Veith each competed in the heptathlon. Through the opening four events, Veith finished day one of the heptathlon in second place with 3,432, 169 points, while Mechler finished the day in 11th place with 3,158 points and Bloom brought in a total of 3,157 points, good enough to have him sitting 12th overall. The three student-athletes will be back in action tomorrow to wrap up the heptathlon with the 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1,000-meter run.