Piperi, Dohmann put Men's Track & Field on board at NCAA Championships

Wednesday, June 6

Eugene, Ore.

2:30 p.m. CT

University of Texas

NCAA Outdoor Championships

Piperi, Dohmann put Men's Track & Field on board at NCAA Championships

06.07.2018 | Track & Field / Cross Country

Throwers open national meet with statement performances.

Television Schedule
Thursday: Women's Day 1: 11:50 am - 9:45 pm ESPN3 | 6-9:30 pm - ESPN2
Friday: Men's Championship Day: 2:20-9:30 pm - ESPN3 | 7:30-10 pm - ESPN
Saturday: Women's Championship Day: 1:20-7:15 pm - ESPN3 | 5:30-8 pm - ESPN

EUGENE, Ore. – Day 1 of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships featured the start of the men's events and the Texas Longhorns put on a show scoring seven points in a pair of field events and advancing three of five runners through semifinals and into Friday's finals.

Freshman Tripp Piperi put the first points on the board for Texas in the shot put. After the first three rounds of throws, he stood in sixth place with a mark of 19.77 meters. But he would slip down to seventh after Round 4 and then ninth following the next round of throws.

With his back against the wall and threatening not to make the podium or score points in ninth place, Piperi heaved the shot out to a distance of 20.41m (66-11.50) on his final throw to catapult himself into fourth place. That mark tied his PR set at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds to give him three straight meets with a PR to close the season.

"It was a good day and I'm really proud of myself. I really competed," Piperi said. "It just felt great to get back to that mentality where I can come in and clutch it and come through in the end and my coaches and teammates can rely on me."

Also scoring two points for Texas on Wednesday night was senior Fabian Dohmann in the javelin. His first throw of 70.58m (231-7) was enough to put him on the podium in his final meet as a Longhorn after battling multiple injuries the last three years.

Dohmann said finishing in the top eight and earning All-America status in his last meet was the perfect ending.

"Life always gives you a second opportunity and this was it for me and I'm very glad and very thankful to the University of Texas for all the support through all the years," Dohmann said. "I feel like I'm closing the circle and I just needed this (trophy). I feel like I'm closing the circle up at the top."

On the track, freshman Sam Worley was the first Longhorn to move onto the final as he crossed the finish line fourth in his heat of the 1,500 meters to grab an automatic spot on Friday night. His time of 3:47.48 ranked fourth in the field.

Junior Alex Rogers ran a solid time of 3:48.67 to rank 10^th in the field of the 1,500, but it was not enough to get one of the two available spots based on time.

Texas distance runners continued to make their impact on the national championship meet in the next event on the track with John Rice cutting three seconds off his personal best time to advance to the final in the 3,000m steeplechase. Rice finished fourth in his heat for an automatics spot and timed in at 8:40.22 to rank fourth overall in the semifinals.

Two-sport star John Burt ran stride for stride in the lane next to the top hurdler in the NCAA this season to move onto Friday's final in the 110m hurdles. Burt ran a wind-aided 13.46 seconds, just .04 behind Florida's Grant Holloway.

The final runner of the night for Texas was freshman Micaiah Harris. He clocked 20.91 seconds in his heat of the 200m to finish in 21^st place overall.

Big 12 champion Steele Wasik was also in action in the decathlon. He started the day for Texas and fought through a nagging injury over the first four events. Wasik tallied 3,030 points from the 100m, long jump, shot put and high jump but elected to withdraw following the high jump.

Thursday's action will see the completion of the men's decathlon and the women get their first crack at the competition at the national meet. Women's field events start at 1:30 p.m. Pacific (3:30 Central) and the running semifinals fire off at 4:02.

Fans can keep up with the action live online with live results provided by FlashResults.com. Updates on the Longhorns can be found on the team's official Twitter account @TexasTFXC. The NCAA also will be updating the meet on @NCAATrackField. Fans also are encouraged to follow and interact with the meet using the hashtag #NCAATF.

ESPN will again provide extensive coverage of the event with both live TV slots on ESPN and ESPN2 along with online feeds via ESPN3.com and the ESPN app for smartphones and tablets. Check your local listings for TV times and channels. Links to online feeds can be found at ESPN3.com and TexasSports.com. ESPN will also have exclusive live feeds for most of the field events on ESPN3.com.