Posted: May 25, 2023

TLU 4x100m Relay Team Forces Run-Off on Day One of NCAA Championships

ROCHESTER, NY -- No. 24 Texas Lutheran men's track and field opened the 2023 NCAA Division-III Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Thursday with the 4x100m relay and the 200m dash.

Texas Lutheran opened the championship event in dramatic fashion, entering the 4x100m relay ranked 17th, Texas Lutheran would tie for eighth place with a time of 41 seconds. Initially being placed ninth, TLU would rise to an eighth place tie upon review a tie with less than a 1000th of a second difference between eighth and ninth place - forcing a head-to-head run-off tomorrow against Loras College at 4:30 PM EST/3:30 PM CST in the 4x100m relay as Weston Guzman (McAllen/McAllen), Wyatt Wilson (New Braunfels/New Braunfels), Bryce Powell-Chimene (Dayton/Dayton) and Elijah Jefferson (San Antonio/Construction Careers Academy) retake the track with a spot in the event finals on the line.

Jefferson would also race in the highly anticipated 200m dash prelims on Thursday. Jefferson, who entered with the 20th fastest time in NCAA Division-III history of 21.05 seconds in the 200m dash per the NCAA broadcast to rank eighth in 2023, would finish 15th with a time of 21.58 seconds. The final eight cut needed to make the event finals was set at 21.32 seconds.

Jefferson will compete tomorrow evening in the 4x100m relay run-off as well as the 100m dash, an event he enters ranked 12th in NCAA Division-III. Ezra Acero (San Antonio/Harlan) will compete in the pole vault finals Friday morning at 9 AM CST/10 AM EST.

Full Results: https://live.deltatiming.com/meets/20382

Coach Holland's Comments: "A lot of emotions after the men's 4x100. We ran a respectable race, but definitely not what we are capable of doing. They announced that unofficially we were out by 1/1000th of a second. Loras was moving on as a result and we were in the dreaded 9th position. So, as upsetting as that was, I inquired if they could possibly review the photo finishes and see if we did indeed miss out. Well, it turns out they were already on it. We waited for almost an hour to find out we will be doing a run off on Friday before the meet starts on the track. So at 4:30 eastern time TLU will battle Loras head to head to see which relay will advance to Saturday's final. Each team must remain with the same relay members and in the same order as the original races. By a coin toss, TLU will be in lane 5 and Loras in lane 6. The guys have the fighting spirit and are excited for the showdown.

Aside from the excitement of the relay and on that roller coaster of emotions, Elijah headed into the prelims of the 200. I know he wanted to race stronger, but the draw of lane 8 wasn't ideal and got the best of him. A disappointment for sure, but he's already looking ahead to tomorrow in the relay and the 100.

I'm very excited for tomorrow! I know we can get top 8 in our events and want everyone to have the opportunity to stand up on the podium. All of these guys on the team started working toward this championship last summer! They've worked hard to not only get to the championships, but to place as well. I'm really excited to see how everything plays out in the next two days!

Tomorrow starts off with Ezra in the pole vault at 10 am Eastern. Relay at 4:30 and 100 and 6 for Elijah."

For all updates on Texas Lutheran Track and Field, follow @tluthrows and @tluxctf on Instagram as well as as all official TLU Athletics accounts. All schedule updates can be found on tlubulldogs.com.