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East First Round 100 Meters

By Winners OnlyPublished 10 months ago 3 min read
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McKenzie Long

The final day of the East First Round is starting at 1 pm eastern in Jacksonville, Florida. Here's a fun race to look forward to in today's action.

100 Meters

The top three finishes in each heat plus the next three fastest times will head to the NCAA Championships, which will occur, June 7-10 in Austin, Texas.

On Thursday, Georgia freshman Kaila Jackson had the top finish during the opening round with a wind-aided time of 10.95. Seniors Jacious Sears of Tennessee and Yanique Dayle of Ohio State recorded the second and third fastest times at 10.97 and 11.05 respectively.

Jackson and Dayle will meet in the opening of three heats. Jackson has had a very successful rookie season. During the indoor portion she was a silver medalist in the 60 meters in both the SEC Championships as well as the NCAA Championships. Her outdoor season has included a silver medal in the 100 meters and a bronze in both the 200 meters and 400-meter relay at the conference championships. Her opening round 100-meters finish at the East First Round is her best all-weather time but her top legal finish came in the SEC final when she crossed the finish line at 11.04.

Dayle comes in as a strong threat in the heat. A back-to-back bronze medalist in the 100 meters at the Big Ten Championships, Dayle advanced at last year's East First Round with a top six finish in the 100 meters.

In heat two, McKenzie Long of Ole Miss is expected to lead the pack of eight competitors. She made headlines when she ran a wind-aided time of 10.80 at this year's Texas Relays. That is the top all-weather time of the east region thus far. The senior, who transferred from NC State, where she competed from 2018-2022, won the bronze medal at this year's SEC Championships at 11.04. In the opening round of the East First Round she finished her race at 11.07 which was the fourth best recorded time of the opening session.

A couple of other Buckeyes who finished in the top eight during the opening round will do battle with long in the second hear as Big Ten champ Leah Bertrand tied her personal best with the sixth best time of the opening round at 11.08. Her teammate Nya Bussey was the Big Ten champ last season. She had the eighth best first round time of 11.15, which is also her personal record. Like her Ohio State teammate Dayle, last season Bussey advanced to the NCAA Championships in the 100 meters with a top 10 finish at the 2022 East First Round.

Heat three features Sears who is the reigning 100 meters champ of the SEC after blazing across the finish line at 10.96. This is her third straight year in the 100 meters quarterfinal with a chance to advance to the NCAA Championships. The last two seasons while competing at University of Miami she had unsuccessful attempts as she just missed the cut on each try. The Tennessee version of Sears is much faster and as she has finished her last three heats under 11.09 for the first time in her career.

Sears' top competitors in the third heat are Kentucky's Anthaya Charlton and UCF's Rayniah Jones. After sitting out during outdoor season as a true freshman in 2022, Charlton has become a bit of a star for her program. She ran her best time of 10.98 (wind-aided) at the Texas Relays, which gave her a top six finish. She was sixth in the opening session of the East First Round at 11.10.

Jones finished on the lower end of the qualifiers at 11.27, but the American Athletic Conference champ is known to save her best for when it truly counts. Jones ran a time of 11.47 in the 100 meters at the conference championship preliminary round before winning the gold with a wind-aided time of 10.94.

Predictions for Fun

(These predictions are for entertainment purposes only)

Top Three in Heat One

1. Yanique Dayle, 2. Kaila Jackson, 3. Dajaz Defrand (Florida State)

Top Three in Heat Two

1. McKenzie Long, 2. Leah Bertrand, 3. Nya Bussey

Top Three in Heat Three

1. Jacious Sears, Rayniah Jones, Chante Clinkscale (Auburn)

Next Three Fastest Times

Kynnedy Flannel (Florida), Kamaya Debose-Epps (Mississippi State) Jahniya Bowers (Youngstown State)

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