Track & Field | 6/8/2023 11:58:00 PM
AUSTIN, TEXAS – Paula Salmon has one more race. Graduate Paula Salmon will return to the NCAA championship final in the 100-meter hurdle after putting together a season-best performance on Thursday night.
During the second night of the 2023 NCAA Track and Field Championships and the first night for women's competition, Salmon ran a 12.91 for her third straight 100H competition under 13 seconds, the first with wind help. As a result, she will run in the final, attempting to win her first career national championship and her second first-team All-American honor after finishing fourth nationally last season.
There were three semifinal 100H heats on Thursday. The top two finishers in each heat automatically advanced to the final, along with the next three fastest times. Salmon did not automatically qualify after finishing third in the second heat. But she did make the final by running the ninth-fastest semifinal time.
Salmon outlasted Tennessee's Charisma Taylor by three-hundredths of a second to earn the ninth and final spot in the championship final. If Salmon finishes in the top-8 on Saturday, she will become the program's first two-time first-team female All-American in the 100H and the first three-time 100H All-American after earning second-team accolades in 2021.
Saturday's 100H race begins at 9:42 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.
Graduate Jada Griffin does not have another collegiate race. Griffin competed for the last time as a collegiate after finishing with the 17th-fastest time in the 400 meters despite running a personal-best 51.69. Griffin finished sixth in Thursday's sixth heat, finishing outside the top-9 competitors who made it to Saturday's final.
Griffin will come away with honorable mention All-American honors from the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Griffin's first and only season as an Aggie after transferring from North Carolina State University (NCSU) yielded significant results.
She claimed Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) indoor titles in the 400 and 200m, earning outstanding women's performer after the meet. Griffin was also named CAA women's track athlete of the Year. At the outdoor conference championship meet, Griffin collected CAA outstanding women's performer after winning the 400, 200 and 4x400.
A&T will compete once on Friday as Reheem Hayles goes for the men's 400m national title. The Aggies have had a first or second-team All-American in the 400m every season since 2017, winning the event national title in 2021 and 2022. Hayles will run at 10:02 p.m.
