2013 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field National Championships Results (Day 2)

Photo Gallery (images by Rob Garcia)

Pueblo, CO – Back in a variety of events at Neta & DeRose ThunderBowl for the second round of the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field National Championships, the Academy of Art University women's team kept its eyes locked on another title. The Urban Knights produced a pair of All-Americans in Vashti Thomas (triple jump) and Jesseka Raymond (heptathlon), qualified five individuals for Saturday's finals (200m, 100mH), and used an inspired performance from Keanna Moody to help get the 4x400m relay into the finals as well.

“Today was a mixed bag of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows for the group collectively,” head coach Charles Ryan said.

Coming into the day's events #1 overall in the heptathlon, Raymond got ART U off to another strong start on Friday with three more competitions to for the seven total. She began with the long jump where, as the heat of the afternoon began to approach, the senior from New Orleans, LA had her best attempt come right off bat. She flew to an 18-1 (5.51m) which put her in the lead following the first attempts, and though she dropped to third after the next two rounds, she still came away with 703 points to stay on top in the overall heptathlon standings.

In the javelin, Raymond saved her best for last. After throwing a 99-9 (30.41m) in the opening round, she used a 109-5 (33.37m) to claim 9th in the event and add 541 points to her total. Raymond now had 4536 points overall and was still hanging on to the best position with the favorite, Ali Worthen of Seattle Pacific, now just five points behind.


The 800m was the final heptathlon competition and a strong event for Worthen who ended up placing third to ensure her the overall title. However, saving her energy until the final 150 meters, Raymond unleashed a burst of speed down the stretch to snatch 12th place (2:35.13) and give her 630 points for what would be an incredibly close battle for second and third in the entire event. The tactic, encouraged by Coach Ryan, enabled the senior to capture second, edging Central Missouri's Zoe Sharplin by five points.

“Jesseka Raymond was absolutely phenomenal today,” Coach Ryan said. “She stepped up in the biggest way you possibly can. She came into this meet ranked outside of the scoring position in the heptathlon and jumped all the way up to second overall. She was in first most of the day and was in an incredibly competitive field, but she handled herself like a leader. She did what she needed to do for herself and for the team.”


Following a lengthy break, ART U resumed its competition with Thomas making her way to the jumping pit for the first round of the triple jumps. Her opening attempt, which was slightly delayed as it coincided with the national anthem, ended up being ruled a foul and that made the next few hours extremely challenging.

Thomas, while still awaiting her next attempt, competed in the prelims of the 200m dash and left her competition in the dust with a 22.81 that won her heat, got her into the final, set a new program record, but most significantly, was the #2 mark in NCAA Division II history. She would claim second overall behind Johnson C. Smith's Danielle Williams who posted a 22.63 to set a new meet record. Thomas' feat, which could only be enjoyed for a few minutes before she returned for her next triple jump, bettered her previous lifetime best (23.33) by a huge margin.

“Vashti was her amazing, usual superwoman self,” Coach Ryan said. “She ran a world-class PR in the 200m. That is something that professionals get paid to run and that's not even an event she trains for. She went out and did that with a legal wind so that was very impressive.”


Back in the triple jump, Thomas fouled once again on her second attempt, but embraced the pressure and posted a 43-3.5 (12.89m) on her third try to ensure a spot in the finals. The mark was especially important as Thomas next had to prepare for the 100m hurdles which began in less than an hour. Her third place distance held up through the final three jumps, none of which Thomas attempted to keep her ready for the 4x400m relay not long after her 100m hurdles race. The end result was another All-American honor for Thomas in the triple jump after just a single attempt.

“The drama of the day was Vashti's events because the goal for the triple jump was: Take one jump, make the finals, relax, run 200m, run the [100m] hurdles, and if we had to keep jumping, we had to keep jumping,” Coach Ryan said. “She scratched her first jump which made her day really difficult because then she had to run the 200 and then come right back and finish off the last two jumps. She scratched the second one and could have very easily not been in the finals at all, but she's a veteran, calmed herself down, and had an amazing third jump. It was so good that it was good enough for third place overall. That just goes to show what king of poise she has and why she is who she is not just to this team, but to this sport in general. Not too many people could have battled through the stuff she had to today.”

The 100m hurdles featured three heats which all included Urban Knights. Heat #1 had senior Julian Purvis who, in a scary moment for all, clipped a hurdle and fell midway through to result in a 'Did Not Finish.'

“I talked to the girls before the first day and I told them that no track meet will go perfectly. At some point you have a mistake and that happened today with Julian falling in the 100m hurdles,” Coach Ryan said. “The 100m hurdles is our premiere event. It is our firewall. And because our group is so amazingly talented, we can survive Julian's fall and move forward to the championship. It's just a sad moment for somebody who has worked so hard and is a senior. You don't want to see somebody's NCAA career come to an end in a fall on the track. It was a very emotional moment for me and I know she is taking it very hard, but I know the team will bounce back.”

The second heat saw seniors Briana Stewart (13.02) and Jesseka Raymond (13.68) almost side-by-side for much of the race before a final push eventually had them both make the finals at third and eighth respectively.

“Jesseka came back from the heptathlon to qualify individually in the 100m hurdles which just speaks to the depth of our team when our fifth-best hurdler can make the NCAA finals,” Coach Ryan said. “It's an amazing accomplishment and we're very grateful to have her on the track as an individual tomorrow.”


In the final heat, Thomas joined junior Dinesha Bean for another dynamic one-two punch. Thomas was absolutely phenomenal with the best race of any of the 22 competitors on Friday and a time of 12.74 to lead the way. Bean, who finished second in the heat with Thomas, added a 13.55 to earn sixth overall and round out a group of five ART U athletes who will now compete in Saturday's final.

Day two concluded with another band of Urban Knights in action as the women's 4x400m relay prelims took to the track as the lights began to come on. Academy of Art University's team featured Stewart, Dominique Berry, Thomas, and Moody to close it out. Fighting through tired legs, Thomas ended her five-event day by handing off the baton to Moody with ART U contending for fourth in the heat which would have been a devastating blow to their chances for the finals. Instead, Moody exploded to a new personal-best of 54.10 to power her team to fifth overall (second in their heat) with a collective time of 3:44.58.

“Everybody's tired mentally though physically I think we're fine,” Coach Ryan said. “This is still our track meet to win or lose. We're still in the driver's seat and we're still the best team. Regardless of the mistakes we had today, I know that at the end of the day we are going to pull through them. We have an amazing group of women and they're not shaken at all by what went on today.”


The result in the 4x400m could not have been more important to Academy of Art's chance at another national title as Pacific West Conference rival Grand Canyon (9.0 points, 15th) continues to be ART U's biggest threat. The Knights are currently second as a squad (24.0 points) and both they and the Antelopes are practically going head-to-head with seven individual qualifiers and each a pair of relays to make the NCAA Championship likely going one of two ways on Saturday.

“Grand Canyon had a very good day and it looks like the meet is going to come down to us versus them,” Coach Ryan said. “Grand Valley State is still in the mix, but I don't think they have enough bullets to fire against us to win. As I see it on paper, going into Saturday, we and Grand Canyon have the same number of events to compete in and most of these are head-to-head so all we have to do is take out our rivals and we will walk away with the trophy as planned.”

The final day of the 2013 NCAA National Championships comes tomorrow (Saturday, May 25) and features the Urban Knights in the finals of the 100mH, 400mH, 200m, 5,000m, as well as the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. The 4x100m relay will come first at 5:10 PM MT (4:10 PM PT).