Blazing Bromell Headlines Collegiate Day 1 Efforts at USATF Outdoors

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Forget Trayvon Bromell being good for a collegian, or for a teenager.

After his Thursday at the USATF Outdoor Championships at historic Hayward Field in Eugene Oregon, we can all agree he’s flat-out great and flat-out fast.

Haunted by the ghosts of upsets past on this very track – he was dethroned as the NCAA 100-meter champion just two weeks ago and upset at the World Junior Championships almost a year ago – Bromell blazed to a wind-legal 9.84 (+1.3m/s) to make all sorts of history.

With that performance the 19-year-old entered a three-way tie at the No. 10 spot on the all-time world performers list with former world record holder Donovan Bailey of Canada (1996) and Bruny Surin of Canada (1999). If he had run this time two decades ago, he’d have broken Leroy Burrell’s 1994 world record by a hundredth of a second.

He may have joined the world’s all-time elite, but he now stands alone among collegians. No man, inside or out of the collegiate season (ends with the NCAA Championships) has ever run faster with legal winds. Only six performances under any conditions (i.e. winds of more than +2.0m/s) have been faster.

Ngoni Makusha of Florida State holds the in-season record at 9.89, while the out-of season mark had been an identical 9.89 by Richard Thompson of LSU at the 2008 Olympic Games – an effort that won him an Olympic silver medal.

Bromell looks good after round one, but two more races remain if he’s to represent the United States at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing on August 22-30. Remontay McClain clocked a very windy 9.82 (+4.9m/s) in the same heat as Tyson Gay’s 9.85, while Isiah Young ran a more comparable 9.85 with a +2.1m/s tailwind.

He’ll need to go just as fast or faster tomorrow if he wants to book his ticket to Beijing – where a possible rematch with NCAA Champion Andre De Grasse, representing Canada, potentially awaits.

You won’t want to miss the semifinals at 8:15pm ET/5:15pm PT and the final at 10:30pm ET/7:30pm PT. The semifinals will be on USATF.tv, and the final will be on NBC Sports Network.

This will be appointment viewing. You’ve been warned.

P.S. – It must have been the shorts.

Can't find Trayvon Bromell? Check lane 1. Not wearing his signature "short" shorts, but instead compression shorts

— USTFCCCA (@USTFCCCA) June 26, 2015

Collegians Making Team USA for the World Championships (Top Three)

Men’s Long Jump – Marquis Dendy, Florida

Full Results

If not for Bromell, Dendy would have been the story of the day – of the entire day, forget about the collegiate perspective. Fresh off winning his sixth and seventh career national titles on this runway two weeks ago with historic performances in both the long and triple jumps, Dendy picked right back up on Thursday where he left off.

On his very first jump, he leapt an astounding – albeit windy – 28-5¾ (8.68m) for the world’s farthest jump under any conditions in 2015 and the No. 7 spot on the all-time, all-conditions U.S. performers list.

Though he’s exhausted his collegiate eligibility, he jumped one last time in his Florida orange, black and blue, and ended up with the third-farthest jump under all conditions in collegiate history, inside or out of the collegiate season. Only Erik Walder and – you might have heard of him – Carl Lewis have jumped farther.

Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas, Cameron Burrell of Houston and Damarcus Simpson of NCAA DII Chadron State are all back on the collegiate scene next year, and they finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

Men’s Hammer Throw – Conor McCullough, Southern California

Full Results

After winning the NCAA title here two weeks ago, McCullough came back and finished runner-up in his return trip to Hayward Field. The Trojan – by way of Princeton earlier in his collegiate career – threw 249-7 (76.09m) on his fifth attempt to finish less than a meter behind U.S. Champ Kibwe Johnson (252-5/76.95m) and just eight centimeters ahead of third-place A.G. Kruger, the 2013 American Champion.

McCullough already has the IAAF standard of 76.00m, and will be going to Beijing if he so chooses.

He wasn’t the only collegian to perform well. Matthias Tayala of Kent State, the 2014 NCAA Champion, was fifth at 236-0 (71.94m), and Michael Lihrman of Wisconsin was eighth at 233-5 (71.16m).

Men’s Javelin – Sam Crouser, Oregon

Full Results

Crouser finished third with a throw of 249-1 (75.93m) to secure the opportunity to go to Beijing, but this one comes with a caveat. Unlike Dendy and McCullough, the Oregon thrower does not have the IAAF standard to compete at worlds. His season-best of 259-10 (79.19m) to win the NCAA title is shy of the 269-0 (82.00m) standard set by track & field’s international governing body.

He has until August 10 to add just less than three meters to his season’s best. His career best of 265-1 (80.80m) came back in 2012.

Men’s Discus Throw – Rodney Brown, LSU

Full Results

Hayward Field hasn’t been kind to Brown the past two weeks. He finished ninth at NCAAs two weeks ago after entering as the collegiate leader, and today finished just one centimeter shy of that all-important third place slot. He took fourth with an opening throw of 208-10 (63.66m), only to be surpassed two rounds later by Andrew Evans at 208-10 (63.67m).

However, only he and winner Jared Schuurmans currently have the IAAF standard of 2-13-3 (65.00m).If neither runner-up Russ Winger or Evans fail to meet that by August 10, Brown is in position at the moment to be among those taken based on the 2015 world descending order list at No. 17. He also has until August 10 to improve his mark.

Tavis Bailey of Tennessee was fifth, while NCAA Champ Sam Mattis of Penn was eighth.