The Emory University track & field teams opened the NCAA Outdoor Championships Thursday afternoon at the SPIRE Institute in rainy and chilly Geneva, Ohio.
The Eagles were headlined on the first day of action by junior Henry Brandstadter and graduate student Nikki Boon who both shined in their respective events.
For the third consecutive outdoor national meet, Brandstadter earned All-America First Team honors in the long jump as he finished fifth overall for the second straight year. Brandstadter reached a distance of 7.26m in his first jump of the day which was good enough to reach the podium.
For Boon, she got started in the Heptathlon and opened a commanding lead on the field through the first four events. Boon took the second spot in the 100m Hurdles (14.25), Shot Put (12.76m) and 200m Dash (25.01) and was fifth in the High Jump at 1.60m. With her four placements, she scored 3276 points, more than 250 points than the next closest competitor. Boon also competed in the long jump and finished 10th to garner All-America Second Team honors with her distance of 5.73m.
Elsewhere, the Eagles saw two runners qualify for the finals of the 200m Dash as senior Jackson Price turned in the eighth fastest time in prelims at 21.32 and graduate student Eva Carchidi was sixth at 24.15.
Individually, Emory also saw representation in two other events during Thursday's preliminaries with seniors Scott Masterson (21st, 3:59.01) and Madison Tiaffay (16th, 4:35.33) competing in the 1500m Run and freshman Jada Kenner placing 19th in the 200m Dash with a time of 24.74.
The Eagles had three relay teams in action as well on day one with the men's 4x100m group of Brandstadter, Price and seniors Sam Ryba and Caleb Bunch finishing 14th at 41.41 while the women's sprint group of Carchidi, Kenner and seniors Audrey Johnson and Dashiel Tao Harris were 11th at 47.18.
In the final event of the evening, Harris, Johnson, Carchidi and sophomore Hannah Riley narrowly missed the cut for Saturday's finals by just .02 seconds as they were 10th out of 16 in the 4x400m relay at 3:48.20.
The NCAA Outdoor Championships continue on Friday for the Eagles with the final events of the Heptathlon as well as the prelims and finals of the women's shot put and preliminary heats of the 400m and 800m Dash.
