Texas Tech track and field gets school records from Caleb Dean, 1,600 relay
The month of May is time to be peaking in college track and field season. Caleb Dean might be doing that, and so, too, the Texas Tech men's relay teams.
Dean set school and facility records in the 400-meter hurdles Friday, finishing 1-2 with teammate Oskar Edlund at the NCAA West preliminaries in Fayetteville, Arkansas. In the same quarterfinals heat, Dean clocked 48.05 seconds, ninth-fastest in collegiate history, and Edlund ran 48.70.
Dean broke the John McDonnell Field record of 48.47 set by Washington State's Jeshua Anderson in 2009.
Now it's on to Hayward Field for the NCAA outdoor championships June 5-8 in Eugene, Oregon.
Friday was day three of the four-day regional rounds in Lexington, Kentucky, and Fayetteville. At both regional sites, fields of 48 athletes in individual events are cut to 12 qualifiers for national.
The Tech men added nine to their list of national-meet qualifiers Friday, bringing their total to 12. That included both relays.
Carl Hicks, Charlie Bartholomew, Josh Bour and Shaemar Uter broke the school record in the 1,600-meter relay, running 3 minutes, 1.58 seconds. They finished third overall and in their quarterfinal heat behind Texas A&M and Texas.
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The previous school record dated to 2005 when Johnny Jacob, Michael Mathieu, Terry Beard and Andrae Williams ran 3:01.62. Mathieu went on to win three Olympic medals and Williams one for their native Bahamas.
The Red Raiders' 400-meter relay of Jalen Drayden, Shawn Brown, Jack Marshall and Terrence Jones ran 39.02, fourth overall. Jones, who missed nearly the entire outdoor season with a hamstring injury, will at least be going to the NCAA championships, with a smaller workload than the Red Raiders had hoped. The three-time NCAA champion sprinter failed to qualify for regional in the 100 and 200 meters.
Tech advanced two to Eugene in the triple jump, Stacy Brown Jr. taking first with a mark of 53 feet, 8 1/2 inches on his first attempt and Garison Breeding getting 10th at 51-10.
Omamuyovwi Erhire advanced in the high jump, going 7-1 1/2, and Uter made it out in the 400, running 45.78.
They join three Texas Tech freshmen who clinched trips to Eugene on the first day: Trey Wilson, third in the shot put (64-5 1/2); Ernest Cheruiyot, fifth in the 10,000 meters (28:35.03); and Sean Gribble, 10th in the pole vault (17-5 1/2). Wilson and Gribble's performances were personal records.
Saturday is the final day of women's competition.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech track and field gets school marks from Caleb Dean, 1,600 relay
