 "Photo: Harry Cabluck")
Leo Manzano and Jacob Hernandez both headed into this week's NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships ranked first in their respective events. On Thursday, the second day of the championships, the two moved one step closer to winning NCAA Championships.
Both Hernandez and Manzano, along with the Longhorns' 4-by-400 relay team, qualified for the finals on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. Hernandez finished second in his semifinal heat, running 1 minute, 47.18 seconds in the 800-meters, the event he won at the Big 12 and Midwest Regional championships last month.
"This is the last race of the season for a lot of the guys out there, so I was running as hard as I could to make sure I got to the final," Hernandez said. "I thought I ran a good race, and I'm happy with that performance. The final is going to have a competitive field. I'm just going to give it my best."
Manzano, a three-time NCAA Champion, won his 1500-meter heat with a 3:41.70, moving him into Saturday's finals where he will look for his first NCAA Outdoor title.
"There was a lot of bumping out there today," Manzano said. "It was a battle. I got boxed in, and I knew I had to get out of there. The guys at the front were running a good pace, so I wanted to get up there and run with them.."
The crowded race that Manzano overcame left fellow Longhorn Darren Brown on the track. The bumping knocked him down with just over a lap to go. Brown couldn't make up for the fall, failing to qualify for the final. While Kyle Miller remained upright the whole race, he failed to join Manzano in Saturday's final, just missing qualifying by 0.02 seconds.
Hernandez also helped the Longhorns 4-by-400-meter relay team move into the finals, earning the eighth and final spot in Saturday's final - the final race of the NCAA Championships. The Longhorns' relay team of Hernandez, Tevan, Tevas Everett and Danzell Fortson ran a 3:05.09, nudging out TCU by 0.1 seconds for the last spot in the finals setting up a Texas laden affair on Saturday.
The 4-by-400 relay will showcase all four of the Texas schools in the Big 12, with Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas A&M also qualifying. While Texas qualified eighth for Saturday's final, the others secured the top-three times.
"I'm happy for the guys that advanced to the finals, but they know they still have work to do," Texas men's head coach Bubba Thornton said.
