Javonte Harding of North Carolina A&T captured the men’s 200 meters, while defending champion Matthew Boling was disqualified from the event on Day Two at the NCAA DI Indoor Championships 2022 at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday (12).
Boling entered the weekend as the world leader and then backed that position up by qualifying from the semi-finals with the fastest time on Friday night. Read more: Order of events at the NCAA DI Indoor Championships 2022: Day 2
However, the Georgia junior was well beaten in the final by Harding, who pulled away from the 2021 champion down the straightaway to win the national title with a time of 20.46 seconds. Boling, initially had crossed the finish line second in 20.76, but was later disqualified for stepping out of his lane when going around the final curve.
His disqualification means heat one winner Robert Gregory of TCU 20.77 moved up to second place, while his teammate Tinotenda Matiyenga, who clocked 20.84 for second in heat one, secured third place overall.
It wasn’t the championships that many had predicted for Boling, who came into the meeting as the national leader in the long jump and 200m and had high hopes for the 60m. Competing in four events in such a short duration wasn’t ideal for him and it was quite evident in the 200m and then in the 4x400m relay.
The Texas Longhorns won its first men’s NCAA Indoor Championships team title after scoring 47 points over the two days to beat North Carolina A&T (36) and Tennessee (31). Cross Country national champion Northern Arizona impressively used three three athletes to score 29 points and finished fourth in the points standings, while Texas A&M (26) and Princeton (26) rounded out the top five.
