NCAA Indoor champions Kemba Nelson and Micah Williams of the University of Oregon made a winning start to their 2021 outdoor campaign at the 42nd Annual Aztec Invitational, hosted at San Diego State University on Saturday. The national 60m champions from indoors both won their respective 200m category this weekend.
Williams, who won the men’s short sprint title at the NCAA earlier this month, flashed to a personal best time and meeting record of 20.47 seconds to secure victory in the men’s race.
The Oregon freshman entered the weekend with a 21.03 outdoor personal best and he easily lowered that mark on his way to breaking a 10-year-old meeting record of 20.54, set by former Texas A&M sprinter Demetrius Pinder in 2011.
Jacoby McNamara finished second to Williams in a personal best time of 20.68, as the Ducks claimed the top-4 spots after Xavier Nairne of Jamaica ran 20.73 for third place and Gaston Bouchereau ran 21.15 for fourth.
Earlier in the day, freshman Nairne clocked an impressive 10.20 seconds (+1.5 m/s) personal best to win the men’s 100m title and break the long-standing Aztec Invitational meeting of 10.23, set in 1983 by Ron Brown.
Johnnie Blockburger of Arizona who won section one of the event in 10.28 was second overall with USC’s Eric Allen Jr. who was second to him in the heat in 10.33 getting third overall.
Nairne, Bouchereau, Rieker Daniel, and Williams had warmed up for the individual events at the beginning of the schedule with a 39.02 seconds performance to win the 4x100m relay ahead of USC (39.26) and Arizona (39.82).
Wind Costs Nelson Aztec Invitational Record
Meanwhile, Kemba Nelson finished atop of the women’s 200m list after she ran a wind-aided 22.79 seconds to win the first heat with the best time overall.
The winning time posted by Jamaican was quicker than the meeting record of 22.98 seconds by former University of Oregon standout Jenna Prandini, but her time on Saturday was aided by a positive 2.5 m/s wind.
Nelson crossed the finishing line ahead of Kaelin Roberts of USC who ran 22.99 for second place, while her Trojans teammates Kyra Constantine (23.25) and Lanae-Tava Thomas (23.32), and Nicole Yeargin (23.34) followed next.
Danyel White led a 1-2 finish for Oregon in the women’s 100m after running the same time of 11.36 as her teammate Jasmin Reed. White picked up the victory in heat three while Reed was the winner of the first heat. Morgan Smalls of USC was third overall with 11.44.
The team of Jan’Taijah Ford, Bailey Lear, Thomas, and Yeargin clocked 44.07 to win the wins 4x100m as Oregon was disqualified.
Elsewhere at the 42nd Annual Aztec Invitational this past weekend, Ducks jumper Ben Milligan cleared 2.25m to win the men’s high jump, USC senior transfer Jordan Scott of Jamaica jumped 16.55m (+2.3 m/s) to take the men’s triple jump, while Anna Cockrell of USC matched the meeting record with a 13.10 (-1.3 m/s) performance to win the women’s 100m hurdles and Alexa Hokanson of Grand Canyon took the women’s 800m with 2:09.86.
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