Bryant Sixth in 100m, Harrison Advances Friday at USATF Outdoors

DES MOINES, Iowa – Kentucky track and field Class of 2015 alumna Dezerea Bryant finished sixth in the 100-meter dash final at the 2018 USATF Outdoor Championships on Friday at Drake Stadium.
 
Bryant, a two-time NCAA 200m Champion at UK, advanced to the U.S. 100m semifinal with a PB 10.99Q on Thursday. She ran 11.07wQ (+2.2) to place fifth in the semifinals, before running 11.17 in the final later in the evening.

Earlier on Friday, reigning event Champion, and Bryant’s fellow UK Class of 2015 alumna Keni Harrison ran 12.46Q (+0.8) to advance to Saturday’s semifinal with the top time.
 
Leah Nugent, who took NCAA bronze in the 400m hurdles her senior year at UK in 2015, placed second, running 54.70, in her signature event at the Jamaican Championships on Friday.

UK senior Katy Kunc moved on to the U.S. 3k steeplechase final on Thursday, running within a quarter of a second of her PR, 9:55.76q to advance on time from the second heat, placing seventh. The final is Saturday at 4:20 p.m. ET/3:20 CT (local).

Also on Thursday, senior Jacob Thomson was named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-America Men’s Track & Field/Cross Country team, selected by CoSIDA.
 
Thomson will run in the U.S. 5k final on Sunday.

Also on Saturday at the USATF Championships, Harrison will be in the 100m hurdles semifinals at 3:20 p.m. ET/2:20 CT (local). The final is at 5:52 p.m. ET/4:52 CT.

Sophomore Daniel Roberts will start his 110m hurdles pursuit at 3:35 p.m. ET/2:35 CT in a lane alongside Class of 2017 alumnus Nick Anderson.

Sha’Keela Saunders is entered in the women’s long jump, and Destiny Carter is entered in the women’s 200m although she scratched from the 100m on Thursday so this correspondent would venture that she won’t be stepping into the blocks.

The meet will be shown on NBC live from 4 – 6 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Wildcats current and alumni alike are also competing at the Jamaican and Trinidad and Tobago Championships this weekend.
 
Whereas the other three years of every four-year Olympic cycle, the U.S. Championships serve as a qualifying meet for Americans seeking to compete at major championships, the IAAF World Championships occurring one year before, and one year after each quadrennial Summer Olympic Games, this year National Championships represent in some measure the most prestigious competition available to many athletes.

That said, for athletes who compete for European nations – notably NCAA heptathlon and decathlon champion Tim Duckworth, who represents Great Britain, and NCAA triple jump bronze medalist Marie-Josee Ebwea-Bile, who represents France, the biennial European Championships in athletics are likely the top target for this summer. The European Championships will be August 7-12 in Berlin’s OlympiaStadion.

The British Championships will be June 30-July 1, and the French Championships are July 5-8 in Albi Municipal Stadium.

For North America and Caribbean athletes the NACAC Championships – the track and field equivalent to soccer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup – will also be contested this summer.
 

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