KINGSVILLE, Texas - It was a promising first day for the Lincoln men's and women's track and field teams Thursday at the NCAA Division II track and field national championships.
The Lincoln men scored 10 team points and had two All-Americans in the long jump.
Ryan Brown finished third out of 20 national qualifiers with a jump of 26 feet, 1.5 inches. Fellow teammate Kizan David placed fifth with a leap of 25-6.75.
Lincoln also qualified several athletes for Saturday's finals.
Starting the day for the Blue Tigers was the women's 4x100-meter relay. Renea Ambersley, Rene Medley, Shaian Vandenburg and Christine Moss won their heat and finished second overall in the preliminaries with a time of 46.26 seconds.
In the women's 400-meter dash, Lincoln advanced all three qualifiers to the final. Kissi-Ann Brown was third overall and won her heat in the prelims in 54.58 seconds, while Ambersley was fourth and won her heat in 54.82 seconds. Christine Moss was second in her heat behind Ambersley and was sixth overall at 55.12 seconds.
The top-two finishers in each heat automatically qualify for the final.
Medley posted the fastest time in the women's 100-meter dash prelims at 11.39 seconds. Moss finished 18th in 11.84 seconds.
In the men's 100 prelims, Javan Gray was second in his heat and eighth overall, clocking a time of 10.43 seconds. Raymone Campbell was 10th in 10.44 seconds, missing the final by one-hundredth of a second.
Brown also advanced to the final in the women's 400-meter hurdles. She placed second in her heat and fifth overall with a time of 59.92 seconds.
In Thursday's other events, Coy Spence failed to qualify in the men's 400 hurdles and the Lincoln men false-started in the 4x100 relay prelims.
In Saturday's lineup for the finals, the Lincoln women start off in the 4x100 at 5:10 p.m. The women's 400 final is at 6:15 p.m., while the men's and women's 100 finals are at 6:35 and 6:45 p.m., respectively. The women's 400 hurdles final is at 7:20 p.m.
The top eight finishers in the prelims qualify for the final, and the top eight finishers also received All-American status.
The Lincoln men are tied for second place with West Texas A&M, Angelo State and Cedarville. Grand Valley State leads the men's standings through four events with 14 points.
Through three of the 21 events in the women's team standings, Ashland leads with 12 points, followed by Grand Valley State with 11 points. Alaska-Anchorage, West Texas A&M and Texas A&M-Kingsville are tied for third with 10 points.