Collegians at the Pan Am Games Preview – Tuesday

NEW ORLEANS – Raise your hand if you though this year’s NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships were a blast. Keep your hand raised if you want to see rematches of some of the championships’ top showdowns.

Now, put your hand back down and keep scrolling as we detail some of the biggest collegiate match-ups ( and potential match-ups) at this week’s Pan American Games in Toronto, Ontario, Canada – starting with Tuesday’s opening action.

Action on the track and in the field gets underway today (Tuesday) and runs through Saturday, with live coverage on the ESPN family of broadcast platforms. Here’s a full schedule of events, with links to live results.

TUESDAY

Men’s Pole Vault (10:15am ET)

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Bowerman Trophy finalist/indoor college record holder/indoor-outdoor NCAA champion Shawn Barber of Akron (Canada) will take on American Jake Blankenship of Tennessee. Blankenship finished runner-up at the NCAA Indoor Championships and is the only other collegian to have surpassed 19 feet this outdoor season.

Men’s 100 Meters – Round 1 (11:10am ET)

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What will breakout sprints star Andre De Grasse of Southern California (Canada) do this weekend?

His summer has already been very eventful with historically fast (albeit wind-aided) NCAA titles at both 100 and 200 meters last month, and he followed that with the Canadian title at 100 meters three weeks later.

This is his first of potentially three events (100, 200, and 4×100), and we could see him each of the five days of athletics action. He’s in the first section of round one on Tuesday.

He’s not the only Trojan in the field. Teammate Beejay Lee, coming off a breakthrough sub-10 USATF Outdoor Championships, will run in the second heat of Round 1.

Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles – Semifinals (12:05pm ET)

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No collegian has been as prominent on the world stage this season as Texas A&M’s Shamier LIttle (United States) in the 400-meter hurdles. Not only is she now a two-time NCAA Champion in the event, she also has international credentials as the current world leader and the only woman in 2015 to run a pair of sub-54 performances.

With her 53.74 to win the NCAA title this year, she became the youngest woman in the history of the world to break the 54 second barrier. She won’t need that much speed to get through to Wednesday’s final, and shouldn’t have a problem advancing through semifinal heat two.

Joining her in pursuit of a finals berth will be fellow sophomore Sage Watson of Florida State (Canada), who finished fourth at the NCAA Championships. She’ll be in heat one.

More Collegiate Champions to Watch:

Men’s Shot Put (6:10pm ET): Upset NCAA Division I champion Jon Jones of Buffalo (United States) will battle with the best NJCAA has to offer in indoor/outdoor winner Eldred Henry of Central Arizona College (British Virgin Islands).

Women’s 100-Meter Hurdles – Semifinals & Final (6:16pm ET & 8:50pm ET): Akela Jones of Kansas State (Barbados) isn’t the NCAA Champion in this event, but it looks like she will be using this event and a couple others to prepare for a World Championships run in her new primary event, the heptathlon.

After scoring 6371 points to win June’s NCAA heptathlon title in just her second career attempt in the event, she’ll be contesting this hurdles race along with the high jump and long jump.

Women’s Hammer Throw (7:35pm ET): DeAnna Price of Southern Illinois (United States) was the dominant winner at the NCAA Championships and came within a heroic last-round throw by Amanda Bingson of claiming the USATF Outdoor title. Her last two competitions have seen her notch the fourth- and 10th-best throws in college history (in or out of the college season); what can she do for an encore here?

Here’s the full list of collegians competing on Tuesday.