That was close. He was the No. 12 qualifier, but Terence Boyd earned his bib. He’s moving on to Eugene. #UKTF #NCAATF pic.twitter.com/AdbdIjJMzw

— UK Track and Field (@KentuckyTrack) May 29, 2015

Meet Central

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By Jacob Most

May 28, 2015

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Terence Boyd cut it close, but advanced to the NCAA Championships in the long jump on Thursday at North Florida’s Hodges Stadium.

With only field events and the 10,000 meters offering places in the NCAA Championships on Thursday, Boyd was the lone Wildcat to book his plane ticket to Oregon,.

Seven Cats did advance into quarterfinal races. A total of three Wildcats had the opportunity to advance all the way to the NCAA Championships on Thursday, while 13 Wildcats had the chance to move into the next round in running events.

The top-12 finishers in each NCAA East Preliminary Championship events move on to the Big Dance.

Boyd was the No. 12 qualifier with a personal-best mark of 24-feet, nine inches/7.54m (+0.7 meters/second wind). He bettered the No. 13 finisher’s top mark by two inches.

Boyd, a senior captain who battled through a leg injury to score a point in the long jump at the SEC Championships two weeks ago, qualified for the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career.

Thursday qualifiers

Seven Wildcats (six women, one man) moved on to quarterfinal heats in running events, on Thursday. The quarterfinals are the final round contested in Jacksonville, with the advancers moving onto the national semifinals to be held in two weeks at Hayward Field.

All three of UK’s entries into the women’s 400m hurdles advanced and three of UK’s four 100m entries moved on to the quarterfinals.

Kentucky had the top two times in the 400m hurdles as Kendra Harrison cruised in 55.82 to win her heat, and Leah Nugent also won her heat in 56.70. Daje Pugh ran a personal best of 58.57 to qualify automatically as well.

Dezerea Bryant, who by no fault of her own has rarely run the 100m with a legal wind as a Wildcat, broke the school record with a time of 11.15 (-0.1), which was the best first-round qualifying time in the East Region. Bryant has run as fast as 10.96, last season, although that was with a massive +4.0 wind at her back.

Keilah Tyson cruised to the win in her 100m preliminary heat with a time of 11.50 (+0.5), while Dominique Booker moved on automatically from Bryant’s heat with a time of 11.63.

Keffri Neal had to weave his way through traffic on the final straightaway, but found a way to advance automatically into the 800m quarterfinal with a time of 1:48.88.

Kentucky’s NCAA East Preliminary Championships picture

In total, 28 Wildcats (15 women, 13 men) qualified for this week’s NCAA East Preliminary Championships. Texas’ Mike A. Myers Stadium is the host site for the NCAA West Preliminary Round, also being held this weekend.

For each individual event contested at each of the preliminary sites, the top 48 declared student-athletes were accepted into the competition. For each relay event, the top 24 declared relay teams were accepted into the competition.

Results and upcoming schedule