American university track athletes to watch

other than the Arkansas sprinters i mentioned earlier in the thread, there are very few White men making a splash in the sprints in the SEC these days ...

the most notable White sprinter in the SECis LSU's super sophomore, Barrett Nugent. one of the nation's elite hurdlers, and the top 110-meter man in the SEC, Nugent has a season-best of 13.58, which is the fastest in the SEC this year. Nugent, who has impressive flat speed as well (10.46 100-meter personal best), also runs on the 4x100 relay for LSU (he was the lead-off leg on last year's team that took runner-up at the Outdoor National Championships). the 4x1 currently has the third-fastest time in the SEC this season, 39.43.


Barrett Nugent

LSU has a freshman that we should keep an eye on, as well. Ben Guarisco. Guarisco has personal bests of 10.60 (100-meters) and a windy 21.36 200 (he ran a best of 21.97 Indoors this spring).

the only other short sprinter of note i spottedin the SEC who hasn't been mentioned is Arkansas sophomore Andrew Pennington. Pennington ran a personal best in the 110-meter hurdles this season in 14.36, which is the eighth-fastest in the conference.

well, i said earlier unless i was mistaken i'd found the fastest White sprinter at a US college ... i missed someone.

Ronald Arajs is a 22-year old senior at Texas-El Paso, and he ran a10.31100-meters on April 10. it was at altitude. so, apparently, the official adjustment makes it a 10.34, which is still smoking.

he also ran a 21.11 (21.15 adjusted for altitude) 200-meters on March 27 into a slightly negative wind.

Arajs is from Latvia and holds their national junior record in the 100 (10.40).



Edited by: Jimmy Chitwood

Jimmy should be commended for his hard work. Some of these guys that I think will continue to shine on his list are the following:

Michael LeBlanc SR

Stephen Michel FR

Marek Niit

Shane Crawford JR

Josh Hembrough SO

Kevin Borlee JR

Keven Steinberg JR

Brandon Byram JR

Ronald Arajs SR

Barrett Nugent SO

Martynas Jurgalas SO

Many of the other men and women on this list may rise up and shock some people as well. Josh Hembrough is a very good hurdler but B.Nugent is even better. This guy has talent to possible go pro in a few years with a little more development.

LeBlanc and Crawford have the potential. Borlee will be running for a living unless he suffers a major injury.

It will be interesting to see how these guys do in their regionals and if any of them make the NCAA Nat'l Champs.

You guys probably have already got him on your radars but saw Phil
Ferguson from Akron run 21.21 at Jesse Owens Classic. Only a soph.

Martynas Jurgilas leads all qualifiers at the Big 12 championships with a 10.33 100m in his heat.
Hope he can win the Big 12 title!

Excellent time by Martynas. Shane Crawford is battling injuries. He may not ever have much of a track career because his body cannot seem to stay healthy. What a shame. Shane ran that time back in high school and could have been a huge talent if he continued to progress. He does have one year of college left so may Shane can get it together before he graduates.

Jurgilas has some good wheels on him. I hope he can pull the upset tommorow!Edited by: white lightning

Shane ran in the Big 10 Championships, but did not look good, and hasn't for th past few weeks. It must be injuries, as you mentioned. He his time in the prelims was only 10.87, and he did not qualify for the finals.

Martynas Jurgilas came up just short today in the Big 12 Finals, finishing .02 out of the medals. he ran a 10.37 in the Finals, and was the only White man to make the final eight.

also today in the Big 12:

3 of the top 5 110-meter hurdlers were White men, with Nebraska's Lehann Fourie taking second place in 13.44. two youngsters from KSU that i've mentioned before came in fourth and fifth, soph Jeffrey Julmis (13.62) and frosh Balazs Baji (13.81).

Nebraska took the top spot in the 4x100 relay with two White sprinters (seniors Lukas Hulett and Dan Christensen) and Kansas State took second place with an all-White quartet (junior Jason Coniglio, aforementioned soph Julmis, and freshmen Baji and Grant Loescher).

Barrett Nugent won the SEC 110m high hurdles championship.
His time was 13.56, and he is only a sophomore, so hopefully more good things to come from this kid.

In the NCAA West Prelims there were 10 white sprinters by my count. There's probably another one or two if I would have googled a few of the iffy white or black names. These seem to be considerably higher numbers than in years past. What's more encouraging is that the majority I googled were all underclassmen, including numerous freshman. All but 2 ran in the 10.60-10.90 range, but Jason Coniglio and Ronalds Arajs both qualified for the quarterfinals with a 10.51 and 10.40 respectively. One freshman to watch and I don't know if he's been mentioned before is Adam Hebert who's a Texan and ran 10.60 in the prelims, just missing the cut. At the moment he's 6'1" and only 160 pounds. Micheal Leblanc also qualified for the quarters in the Eastern division.

Ronald Arajswins aagain.He ran a 10.37 in the semi finals. Good luck to him tommorow as well as Brandon Byram out west in the 200 meters. Edited by: white lightning

<H1 id=title>Arajs Heading to NCAA Championships in 2 Events</H1>
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<DIV =credit>By Beau Bagley - Sports Anchor/Reporter
<DIV =date>Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - 2:20pm


Wednesday, June 2: Ronalds Arajs is a UTEP Senior sprinter heading to the NCAA Championships. Arajs advanced in the 4 X 100M relay and in the 100M. A total of 14 Miners earned a trip to the national meet after the conclusion of the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships West Preliminary on last weekend in Austin, Texas. "Our relays ran decent races and I'm happy with both performances, but I also know that we can run better in both. We're doing everything we're supposed to be doing and we're going to the national meet."Â￾


The quartet of Suji Adeniyan, Anderson Mutegi, Curtis Kock and Ronalds Arajs secured their spot in the men's 4x100m relay finishing first in their heat with a time of 39.72. Arajs is the anchor leg for the relay team, but in the 100M, he has had to overcome injury and three years of working too hard. Head Coach Bob Kitchens said, "I think the main thing is that he has done different this is is that he finally started to understand his training a lot better. Every year up until this year he has been hurt, mainly because he overtrained. It's not because of a lack of work, it's because he has worked too hard." Ronalds Arajs added, "I'm hoping to make the finals in the 100M, because if I run my race and stay with the race plan and execute it, I'm good enough to make it to the finals so I really hope to make finals."

Well Arajs didn't run his best, and didn't qualify for the final.
However, hurdlers Barrett Nugent and Lehann Fourie both won their heats and will be in the finals of the 110m hurdles.
Also Brandon Byram qualified for the 200m finals, but just barely.
And Kevin Borlee qualified for the 400m finals.

All good news with the exception of Arajs. I think that Byram is saving himself for the final. He is way too talented to run that type of time. He knows he will need the race of his life to beat his teammate for the national championship. At worst, Im hoping for a new p.b. for Byram. Borlee has a legit chance to win as do the hurdlers.

jacknyc said:

Well Arajs didn't run his best, and didn't qualify for the final.
However, hurdlers Barrett Nugent and Lehann Fourie both won their heats and will be in the finals of the 110m hurdles.
Also Brandon Byram qualified for the 200m finals, but just barely.
And Kevin Borlee qualified for the 400m finals.

Click to expand...

Brandon Byram got 3rd in the final of the 200m, and Barrett Nugent almost won the hurdles, but took 2nd.
Borlee was not a factor in the 400m.

All of these kids are All Americans and for that they should be applauded. Nugent was a few inches from winning. He ran a really nice race. Not sure why Bryam didn't run a little faster. Maybe it was nerves or he wasn't feeling well. He is capable of so much more but he still is the 3rd fastest 200 man in the ncaa! Congrats to all of them.

Nugent ran a 10.46 in high school. Anyone know what he runs now? His profile doesn't say anything about that.

I'm not sure abour Nugent but I would guess it's probably a little faster with his added strength.

I forgot to mention. Brandon Byram ran a 20.53 out of lane 1! You guys have no idea how hard it is to run in that lane so the 3rd place finish is actually even better! It's too bad he didn't have a better race in the semi final so he could have gotten an inside lane. In track, lanes 3, 4, 5 and 6 are where most of the winners come from.

Hello, long time viewer, first time poster. Just wanted to let everyone know that Byram will be competing at the NACAC U23 meet this weekend. Lets hope Limeitre's good fortune will carry over to Byram.

Welcome to the board manor777. I wasn't aware of that race. Thanks for letting us know.We will have to keep an eye out to see what kind of time he can put up. Lemaitre was amazing today. Glad to have another member here who enjoys track.