ALLENDALE, Mass. - The team of
Tariq Phillips (Waterbury, Conn.), Eli Henry (Stratford, Conn.), Christ N'Dabian (Bridgeport, Conn.), and
Nigel Green (Shirley, N.Y.) qualified for the Final Round of the 4x100-meter relay during the first day of the NCAA Outdoor National Championships for Southern Connecticut State University men's track and field on Thursday, May, 26, 2022 at Grand Valley State University.
The quartet, the final seed in the event, broke the SCSU program record with a time of 40.45 and finished in ninth place in the preliminaries to advance to the Championship Round on Sunday, May, 28, 2022, the first ever Southern 4x100-meter relay team to advance to the final round. They broke the program record that was previously set in 2008 by
Larry Johnson,
Kevin Taylor, Tyrone Joseph, and
Nana Ocran at 40.54. Phillips, Henry, N'Dabian, and Green are also just the third Southern 4x100-meter relay team to compete in the NCAA National Championships, along with Johnson, Taylor, Joseph, and Ocran in 2008 and Dan Seals, Trevor Howard, Ken Ricks, Lincoln Roach in 1985.
Green also competed in the 100-meter dash preliminaries, finishing in 10th place with a time of 10.41, fourth fastest in program history. Green was competing in his second consecutive 100-meter dash National Championship, the only Southern athlete to make two in the event.
Henry competed in the 400-meter run preliminaries and finished in 12th place with a time of 47.28. He became the fourth SCSU athlete to ever compete in the 400-meter run National Championships, joining Gary Pope in 2006, Eric Beaudoin in 2000 and Donnovan Little in 1988.
Sachin Manning (Bridgeport, Conn.) and
Ramsley Exantus (Stratford, Conn.) both competed in the 400-meter hurdles preliminaries, the first Southern 400-meter National Championship participants since
Logan Sharpe in 2014. Manning finished in 12th place with a time of 52.13, while Exantus had a time of 53.39.
Turner Kelly (Amityville, N.Y.) finished with a throw of 56.54 meters in the hammer throw. He was the first SCSU student-athlete to compete in the hammer throw National Championships since
Tresley Dupont in 2016. Dupont finished in eighth place with a throw of 61.81 meters.
Southern is back in action tomorrow, May 27, starting at 5:30 p.m.
Nigel Green will compete in the 200-meter dash preliminaries, while the 4x400-meter relay team of Manning, Henry, Exantus, and Green will compete at 8:10 p.m.
