Texas Tech Athletics
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Tech Ends First Day of NCAAs with Mixed Results
May 29, 2002 | Track and Field
May 29, 2002
BATON ROUGE, La. - The 2002 NCAA Outdoor Championships got off to an auspicious start Wednesday evening at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.
The men's 400-meter relay got things going for the Red Raiders. The team of freshmen Albert Booker and Ivory McCann, sophomore Carlos Francis and junior Julieon Raeburn were the 11th school to make it into the 12 school field. Running in the second heat Tech looked like it belonged in the field.
Booker took the first leg and held ground before giving way to Raeburn. The Trincity, Trinidad native also ran with the competition as he passed the stick to McCann who ran his way into second at the final exchange. Francis got off to a great start, but about 25 meters into the race he was grimacing with pain. As the rest of the field passed him, Francis was just trying to finish the race. Initial reports list Francis with a strained hamstring.
Freshman Jonathan Johnson came into this weekend with the 10th fastest time in the 800. Johnson, who likes to run in front of the pack, would be challenged as his qualifying time of 1:47.88 was the fourth fastest in the heat. The Abilene, Texas, native ran the first lap in a time of 51.90 and was 2nd to Simon Kimata of Oregon.
During the second and final lap Johnson continued to let Kimata set the pace until the final 100 meters. Over that final stretch Johnson found a kick that allowed him to set a new person record of 1:46.55, miss setting in the school record by just .14 seconds and ran the second fastest prelim time.
"[Running behind early] has always been my style," commented Johnson. "I just haven't had the opportunity to do it because I don't want to kick it out every time. It has always been my style, that is just how I like doing it."
In the final event of the day for a Tech athlete, the women's 200, Big 12 champion Tiffany Green ran in the first heat of four and turned in a time of 23.33 as she finished third in the heat but set a new school record. Her time, however, was not good enough to get her into the finals.
The championships will continue tomorrow as Booker runs the 400, senior Monique Wright-Cruse and Green run the 100 and both the 1,600-meter relays run preliminary races.
