2021 Bryan Clay Invitational Results (Day 1)

AZUSA, Calif. – Some of the best sprint marks in the country and in program history were all part of a busy day for Academy of Art track & field inside Cougar Stadium to begin the Bryan Clay Invitational. Among the highlights was a top-five time in the nation for the women's 4x100m, Darria Matthias' career-bests in the 100m and 200m, Marie-Jeanne Ourega breaking into the country's top 10 in the 100m hurdles, the tandem of Daquan Berry and Grant Swinton with NCAA Division II Outdoor Nationals provisionals in the 200m, and Shareez Hamm ascending program and national ranks in the hurdle events.

Starting strong with a provisional qualifier in the day's first event on the track, the quartet of Hava Turner, Matthias, Ombretta Picciolie Minkue Meye, and Ourega combined to go 45.75 in the women's 4x100m relay. The time slots in among the fastest five in the country, back fractions of a second from West Texas A&M, Azusa Pacific, and Minnesota State.

Matthias was absolutely on fire individually as well. Leading 22 other competitors in the prelims of the 100m dash, the native of Prospect, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines dropped her fastest time in an ART U uniform to 11.77. It was good for 11th in NCAA DII and third in program history. Fellow relay members Turner (11.95, fifth in Academy of Art history) and Minkue Meye (11.99) will also join her in Saturday's event finals. But Matthias was not yet finished because she closed out the day with another personal record of 23.90 in the 200m, taking over at seventh in the nation and becoming the third Urban Knight to run sub-24.00 in the outdoor version of the event.

Having her own individual success outside of the relay, Ourega's ART U debut in the 100m hurdles was a memorable one as she owned the top time among collegiate competitors at 14.04 for an Outdoor Nationals provisional qualification. The mark starts her at eighth in the country and will have her in the event finals tomorrow.

Berry impressed in each of his individual sprint events, qualifying to the finals of the 100m dash with a career-best 10.64 that put him now tied for fifth in program history. He and Swinton then practically mirrored one another across the finish line, ending at 21.27 and 21.28 for a pair of Outdoor Nationals provisional qualifiers. Both will compete in the event finals on Saturday.

As the top NCAA DII collegiate finisher in both hurdle events on Friday, Hamm elevated himself among the Academy of Art historical ranks with a pair of season-bests. In the 110m hurdles, Hamm went 14.70 to move up to third in program history with a time just 0.2 shy of the Outdoor Nationals provisional standard. He would provisionally qualify in the 400m hurdles, however, where he delivered a 52.94 effort that made him one of 10 in the country to finish the event faster than 53.00 thus far in 2021. The mark is also third in ART U history and will return him to contend both hurdle competitions on Saturday.

The women's hurdles events had their own share of highlights with Camille Jouanno (14.88) among the finals qualifiers in the 100m hurdles and Alice Coisne into Saturday's final in the 400m hurdles with the fifth-fastest time in program history at 1:03.18.

Two versions of the men's 400m dash saw Swinton's 48.06 get him into Saturday's final for the invitational while Makarios Page (48.65) and Lennard Marshall (50.29) made it in the other section. Omodiaogbe Oboh and Kaze Poitier each ran season-bests, finishing back of Swinton at 48.26 and 48.77 respectively.

The duo of Page (22.06) and Poitier (22.09) will join Ajani Ince (22.01) in the finals of the other 100m section after all three finished within 0.08 of one another.

Academy of Art will return to Cougar Stadium tomorrow for the second and final day of the Bryan Clay Invitational.