Track & Field Set for USA Championships
6/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Outdoor Track
FORT WORTH, Texas - The Purple and White will be well represented at the USATF Outdoor Championships from June 25-28 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
WHO
Among those competing are current student-athletes 2015 NCAA 60-meter champion Ronnie Baker (100 meters) and school record holder Megan Smith (discus throw). They will also be joined by three former TCU standouts: 2013 NCAA 100-meter champion Charles Silmon (100 meters), two-time NCAA long jump champion Whitney Gipson (long jump) and 60-, 100- & 400-meter school record holder Jessica Young (100 meters).
WHEN
On Thursday, June 25, Young (heat one) will compete in the first round of the women's 100-meter dash at 5:35 p.m. PDT/7:35 p.m. CDT. Baker (heat one) and Silmon (heat two) will compete immediately after in the men's event at 6:00 PDT/8:00 CDT.
If the trio qualifies out of their respective heats, the women's semifinals will take place at 5:00 p.m. PDT/7:00 p.m. CDT, with the men's semis at 5:15 PDT/7:15 CDT. The final will for each will take place later that night at 7:21 PDT/9:21 CDT (women's) and 7:30 PDT/9:30 CDT (men's).
On Saturday, Smith (flight one) and Gipson (flight one) are slated to begin at the same time (12:45 p.m. PDT/2:45 CDT) in the discus and long jump, respectively.
HOW TO WATCH
Live online video coverage can be found all week at this link - http://bit.ly/USATFLive.
On Friday, from 7-9 p.m. PDT/9-11 p.m. CDT, events will be shown live on NBCSN. Saturday, live coverage will be on NBC from 1-3 p.m. PDT/3-5 p.m. CDT.
Live Results will also be available at this link - http://bit.ly/USATFLiveResults.
THE RUNDOWN
To say Ronnie Baker had a successful year would be an understatement. The junior from Louisville, Kentucky, captured the NCAA title in the 60-meter dash, taking down the school record in the process, behind a time of 6.52 seconds. In his first 100 meters race of the season, he posted a wind-aided time of 10.02, which was then a personal-best. Baker would compete in five more 100's this season, improving his mark in each of the last four races. It culminated with a wind-legal PR of 10.05 in the prelims of the Big 12 Championships and a lifetime best under any conditions behind a wind-aided 9.99 in the finals. Also at the Big 12 Championships, he ran the third leg of the first-place 4x100 relay and the anchor leg of the second-place 4x400 relay teams. Baker's NCAA run in the 100 would be cut short however, after false starting in the opening round of the NCAA West Prelims. He rebounded quickly by helping the Horned Frogs earn berths to the NCAA Championships in the 4x100 and 4x400, where the Horned Frogs would finish as runners-up in the 4x100 at 38.59 seconds. Baker's wind-legal time of 10.05 ranks him at No. 11 among entries into this year's USA Championships.
Megan Smith redshirted the 2015 outdoor season, but competed unattached at four meets. At the first meet of the season, she rattled off a mark of 52.15m (171-1) to post the top mark among competitors at the TCU Invitational on March 20. Three weeks later, Smith notched a lifetime best at the Wes Kittley Invitational en route to another first-place finish. Her fourth toss of the day landed at a distance of 57.09m (187-3), which would've broken her own school record by over five feet (55.42m/181-10). That mark ranks 18th among entries at this weekend's meet.
Joining Baker in the 100 will be Charles Silmon, who competed at last year's USATF Championships in Sacramento, California. In his first heat, Silmon won by a nice margin at 10.17, a seasonal-best at the time that would be topped in his semifinal race. The next night, he won his heat again, clocking in at 10.07, another seasonal-best, to earn him a berth in the final. With the wind against them later that night, he placed fourth at 10.28. This season, he notched a wind-aided 9.91 at the Texas Relays (March 28), it was the seventh-time in his career that he's accomplished a sub-10 mark under any conditions.
Jessica Young will take part in the women's 100 meters again this year, one of the events that she holds the TCU record in set in Eugene in June 2011. At last year's championships, Young moved into the final after a third-place mark in the first round at 11.55, followed by a seasonal-best 11.18 in the semifinal. Also running against a strong headwind, she posted a seventh-place finish at 11.53 seconds. A month later, she would notch another seasonal-best at 11.16 seconds in Eugene again. She finished the season with a PR in Rieti, Italy, at the IAAF World Challenge behind a time of 11.13 seconds. This year, she opened up with a wind-aided 11.13 at the Texas Relays on March 28. Her last race came on June 14 in Rabat, Morocco, where she posted a wind-legal seasonal-best of 11.24 seconds.
Whitney Gipson, the 2012 indoor and outdoor NCAA long jump champion, also marks her return to the USATF Championships. Last year, Gipson placed fifth after hitting a mark of 6.50m (21-4). This season, her top distance came in Chula Vista, California, behind a mark of 6.42m (21-0.75).
