Sam Hardin leads the way for Texas A&M, as the Aggies starts the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships on a high note.
Hardin finished the NCAA javelin final with a throw of 238-11 (72.82) in the sixth round. Hardin’s fourth-round throw of 239-8 (73.05) combined with his last attempt to push him up to sixth overall with three team points.
“It’s incredible and kind of funny to place sixth in my sixth year with the program,” Hardin told 12thman.com after his last throw. “This is what I wanted to do my entire career. I was finally able to do it in my last meet of my senior year.”
Hardin battled to get to this point after he missed the majority of the 2018 outdoor season with a knee injury.
“To get sixth in the javelin for Sam is a great performance, A&M head coach Pat Henry told 12thman.com. “He had an operation and came back from that, and his knee is still hurting him. He’s probably glad that last throw is over with for now.”
The opening day consisted of the semifinals for the running events, and finals for the field events.
A&M sent nine women to the championships this weekend, while the men have 12 athletes competing. Coming into the week, the Aggie men and women are ranked No. 5 and No. 4 nationally by the USTFCCCA.
Jace Comick was the first Aggie on the boar, placing seventh in his heat of the 100 meter semifinal. His time of 10.30 (1.3 wind) ties his career best run from this season.
Bryce Deadmon had a career-making day as well behind his performance in the 400m to advance to the NCAA final. Deadmon ran a 45.53 from lane two in the semifinal, which moves him to the No. 14 performer on the Aggie all-time list.
Devin Dixon and Carlton Orange advanced to the NCAA final after placing second and third in the first heat of the 800 meter semifinal.
Dixon’s run of 1:45.67 comes in as the No. 5 performance on the Aggie all-time list. Orange was the top time qualifier in the 800m as his career-best time of 1:46.87 pushed him to the No. 5 performer on the Aggie all-time list.
In the 400m hurdles, Robert Grant (49.39) continued his strong senior campaign by coming in second in his heat to auto-advance to the NCAA final. SEC 400m hurdle champion Infinite Tucker also competed in the semifinals, and came in sixth place in the third heat to place 13th overall.
In the pole-vault NCAA final, Jacob Wooten placed 15th overall after a 17-6 ½ (5.35) attempt. Carl Johansson tied for 19th place at 17-0 ¾ (5.20).
Nathan Hite had a busy day as he competed in the first day of the NCAA decathlon. Hite finished the opening round at 15th overall behind his 3,856 total point showing.
In the first heat of the 4×400 semifinal, the Aggie men were able to come away in first place after the four-man team of Deadmon (45.2), Grant (45.8), DeWitt Thomas (45.87) and Dixon (44.40) combined for a time of 3:01.26.
The 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships will continue on Thursday as day two will begin around 1 p.m. at Mike A. Myers Stadium. The event will be broadcasted on ESPNU.