NCAA championships: What happened on Day One

By Shawn Medow

On the first day of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the SOJC Track Bureau published eight stories for four professional news organizations. Here’s a wrap-up of Wednesday’s action on the first day of the men’s championships:

Alex Castle worked for a South Dakota paper, the Press and Dakotan, covering the University of South Dakota’s first Division I NCAA pole vault champion, Chris Nilsen.

Writing for The Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine, Collin Catman covered Lewiston native Isaiah Harris’ heat victory and advancement to the 800-meter final on Friday.

Jake Willard wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer on Villanova’s Ben Malone and Cheltenham grad John Lewis, as the two failed to advance in the NCAAs.

SOJC Track Bureau alum Shawn Medow returned to the class for the Pensacola News Journal to cover Florida State’s shot putter Austin Droogsma, who improved on his 2017 12th-place finish with a seventh-place finish.

We wrote for our own website, too:

Melissa Ingabire covered Anderson Peters’ record-setting performance in the men’s javelin.

Allan Johnstone might have covered the most exciting finish of the day as Michigan’s Ben Flanagan narrowly took the men’s 10,000. 

Zack Bazile set two personal bests on his way to winning the long jump, and August Howell had it covered.

And Katie Hansen wrote about the favored Florida Gators’ struggles early on with the long jump and how that may affect the team race.

Shawn Medow

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