T&T sprint­er Leah Bertrand of Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty blazed in­to the quar­ter­fi­nal round of the women’s 100 me­tres of the East Re­gion­als of the US Col­le­giate (NCAA) Di­vi­sion One (D1) Out­door Cham­pi­onships in Jack­sonville, Flori­da on Thurs­day evening.

Bertrand of lo­cal club Sim­plex, sped across the line in 11.08 sec­onds to win the sixth and fi­nal heat in the first round. The tim­ing matched the per­son­al best (pb), she set in the semi­fi­nal round of the Big Ten Con­fer­ence Cham­pi­onships in Bloom­ing­ton, In­di­ana on May 13.

The 2021 World Un­der-20 Cham­pi­onships semi­fi­nal­ist was the fifth-fastest in the first round. She re­mains fifth on the T&T’s women’s 100m all-time list along with Fana Ash­by (11.08). Na­tion­al record hold­er Michelle-Lee Ahye (10.82), Kel­ly-Ann Bap­tiste (10.84), Khal­i­fa St Fort (11.06) and Se­moy Hack­ett (11.07) are the on­ly lo­cal women's sprint­ers to have gone quick­er than Bertrand.

Al­aba­ma's Cherisse Mur­ray (To­co TAFAC) booked her tick­et to the NCAA Fi­nals when she was 10th in the women’s shot put first round. The 2010 Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) girls U-17 cham­pi­on had a best throw of 16.67m which was suf­fi­cient to fin­ish among the top 12 to en­sure a place at the NCAA Fi­nals in Austin, Texas from June 7-10.

At the West Re­gion­als in Sacra­men­to, Cal­i­for­nia, Min­neso­ta's Ak­i­lah Lewis (Con­corde) booked a lane in the 100m quar­ter­fi­nals af­ter fin­ish­ing third in heat four in 11.49. Lewis was 22nd fastest over­all. The top 24 ad­vanced to the quar­ter­fi­nals. The five-time Carif­ta medal­list set a per­son­al best of 11.28 in fin­ish­ing fourth at the Big Ten Cham­pi­onships, to move up to 16th on the T&T all-time list.

The women’s 100m quar­ter­fi­nals in the East and West Re­gion­als are set for Sat­ur­day (May, 27).

On Fri­day, sev­er­al T&T ath­letes were list­ed to com­pete. At the East Re­gion­als, Jaden James (Fa­ti­ma)of Louisiana State Uni­ver­si­ty (LSU) is sched­uled to line up in the round one of the men’s dis­cus. The 2021 Carif­ta Boys U-20 dis­cus bronze medal­list will be seek­ing to fin­ish among the top 12 to qual­i­fy for the NCAA Fi­nals. His LSU school­mate Sha­keem McK­ay is ex­pect­ed to com­pete in the men’s 4x400m re­lay. The top 12 teams will book a spot at the NCAA Fi­nals.

At the West Re­gion­als, Min­neso­ta’s Kion Ben­jamin (Mem­phis Pi­o­neers), Devin Au­gus­tine of Point Fortin New Jets (PFNJ), Car­lon Hosten (Abi­lene Wild­cats) will have a busy day.

Ben­jamin, Au­gus­tine and Hosten are set to con­test the men’s 100m quar­ter­fi­nals. Au­gus­tine and Hosten will re­turn to the track for the 200m quar­ter­fi­nals. Ben­jamin was third-fastest (10.20) in the 100m first round on May 24 while Hosten and Au­gus­tine were 17th and 18th fastest both with 10.36 clock­ings.

In the 200m first round, Au­gus­tine was fourth-best as the 2019 Carif­ta Boys U-17 100m gold medal­list crossed the line in a new per­son­al best of 20.44. Hosten was 11th-fastest in 20.59.

The trio will al­so be in the line-up for Min­neso­ta in the first round of the 4x100m and 4x400m re­lays. The Min­neso­ta 4x100m team could fea­ture an all T&T quar­tet as Jay­don An­toine (Neon Wolves) is on the re­lay squad.

An­oth­er T&T ath­lete Kashief King of PFNJ is lead­ing Illi­nois in the men’s 4x00m. King won gold for T&T at the 2022 Com­mon­wealth Games in the men’s 4x400m.

The NCAA East and West Re­gion­als end on Sat­ur­day.