WAVERLY, Iowa – Senior Mitchell Black will run for his fourth NCAA 800 meter title on Saturday after qualifying for the finals on Friday by winning the second of three heats at the NCAA Outdoor Championships hosted by Wartburg College at Walston Hoover Stadium.
Classmate Veer Bhalla was also running in the second heat, but failed to qualify for Saturday's final.
Black entered Friday's preliminaries at the top seed in the race with a time of 1:48.60, which he ran at the Larry Ellis Invitational hosted by Princeton on April 22. He started the race in the middle of the pack and stayed there for most of the first lap. He then surged to the front of the pack and built a sizable lead before laying off a bit at the end and coasting to a win of his heat. His time was 1:50.42.
Cyrus Mason of Wisconsin La Crosse ended up with the fastest time in the preliminaries as his time of 1:49.81 won the third heat. After Black, the next fastest time was Michael Twist of Elizabethtown who ran a 1:51.07.
Bhalla finished in the second heat with a time of 1:54.32, which did not allow him to move on to the final. He was looking to make up for a disappointing fall during the 800 race at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March. He finished eighth in that race, which earned him All-American accolades.
Black will now look to win his fourth 800 championship on Saturday, with the 800 final scheduled for 3:50 pm ET. No one broke 1:50 in today's preliminaries and Black's time of 1:48.60 puts him in a good position to win that fourth straight 800 title tomorrow.
Also in action tomorrow for the Tufts men will be junior Luke O'Connor who will run in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. O'Connor was just 0.12 away from the top time in the preliminaries on Thursday. His 9:12.66 was fourth in the fast first heat. Jared Schatz from Messiah won the heat in 9:12.54. Adam Togami from Wabash (9:12.57) and Lukas Mees from Emory (9:12.63) were also in front of O'Connor in the heat. The top five from each of the two heats plus the next four best time advance for a 14-man final on Saturday at 1:30 pm ET. O'Connor had qualified for the NCAA race with a 9:04.53 time which was 11th on the performance list.
The Jumbos already have three team points at the meet as junior Tim Nichols finished in sixth place in the 10K, earning All-American honors for his top eight finish. Black and O'Connor will look to add to those points on Saturday.
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