After besting their own school record just two days before in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, Arizona men’s 4x100-meter relay team was hoping for a little more magic on Friday afternoon.
Instead, it turned into disappointment as UA's team of Trayvion White-Austin, Brian Limage, James Onanubosi and Tyson Trippett, were disqualified for being out of the zone. Because of this they did not earn All-American honors after seemingly finishing in eighth place in a time of 39.22 from the inside lane.
They weren't the only ones who were DQ'd: San Jose State (out of zone) and USC (flagrantly impeded) also fell into this group. While Texas Tech did not finish the race.
Auburn surprised the field — and Houston, who was the favorite going in — crossing the finish line first in a time of 38.03. LSU (38.21) finished second edging Houston (38.25). Only five teams earned All-American honors: Auburn, LSU, Houston, Florida and Texas — in the order of their finishes.
People are also reading…
The program record the Wildcats set on Wednesday (38.75) beat the previous mark (38.85) set in last year’s west region of the NCAAs.
White-Austin competed in three events at the championships. He didn’t make it to the final round in the 100-meters or 200-meters. He was in 22nd in the 100-meters (10.42) and 18th in the 200-meters (20.59). He will compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials at the end of the month.
Yan Vasquez earned second team All-American honors on Wednesday after running a 50.42 in the 400-meter hurdles to finish in 14th place. This time was a personal best and the third fastest time in program history.
Sir Jonathan Sims was the other Wildcat competing in multiple events — the long jump and the triple jump. In Wednesday’s final of the long jump, Sims leaped 7.36-meters to finish 20th.
In the triple jump, his best jump was 14.97-meters (49 1/2 feet) for a 23rd-place finish.
Tucson High alum Blockburger 4th in 400
Johnnie Blockburger finished fourth in the NCAA's in the 400 meters with a time of 44.90 (.43 seconds behind winner Christopher Morales Williams of Georgia).
Blockburger, who began his college career at Arizona before transferring to USC, earned All-American status in the 400.
Blockburger was the Pac-12's Men's Track Athlete of the Year after winning the 200 meters and 400 meters at the Pac-12 Championships last month in Boulder, Colorado, while also anchoring the Trojans' 4x100-meter conference title-winning team.
