NC State
NCAA Indoor Championships
Graham 11th in 60 Meters at NCAAs
3/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Track
March 11, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - NC State sophomore T.J. Graham ran one of the fastest times of his track career in the 60-meter dash Friday night at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, covering the distance in 6.67 seconds, but narrowly missed advancing to Saturday's final in the event.
However, under new NCAA guidelines, he will earn second-team All-America honors for being among the top 16 runners, which will be official after Saturday's final race is completed.
Graham's disappointment of the first day of the championship meet, however, was being disqualified in the 200-meter dash, after posting the sixth-best time of 20.89 seconds among the three preliminary heats. After being posted as a qualifier for the finals, Graham's start was reviewed by meet officials on videotape. They ruled Graham took too many steps on the starting line and disqualified him from the race.
"It took a long time to find out what happened," NC State head coach Rollie Geiger said. "He was on his way out for the finals when it was posted that he had been disqualified. From our vantage point, we had no idea there was a problem."
Graham sat out the finals of the event, which was won by Oklahoma junior Rakieem Salaam in 20.39 seconds, a new facility record for Texas A&M's Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.
"It was disappointing for a couple of reasons, because those are team points we could've earned and making it to the finals would have made T.J. a first-team All-American," Geiger said.
In the 60-meter dash, Graham was third in his heat with a time of 6.67 seconds. He was one of four runners vying for the last spot in Saturday's finals. LSU's Horatio Williams earned that spot based on his fractional time of 6.652 seconds.
Saturday, NC State sophomore Ryan Hill competes in the 3,000 meters, which is scheduled to begin at 7:55 p.m. The race will be part of ESPN3's live coverage, which is available via this link.
