The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA Outdoor Championships
No. 4/7 Track and Field open NCAA Outdoor Championships
06.09.2021 | Track & Field / Cross Country
The Longhorns scored 12 points behind efforts in the shot put and long jump competitions on Wednesday.
EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 4/7 Texas Track and Field team opened the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships with men's competition at historic Hayward Field on Wednesday. Texas scored 12 points in the long jump and shot put competitions to sit in fourth after the meet's opening day.
Tripp Piperi was Texas' biggest scorer of the day, tallying eight points behind a second-place effort in the shot put. Piperi, the 2019 NCAA Outdoor champion, threw the shot a season-best 20.71m/67-11.5 to cap an incredible comeback from injury. The Woodlands, Texas native missed two months of action due to an ankle injury he suffered prior to the NCAA Indoor Championships, and returned to competition just one month ago at the Big 12 Championships in Manhattan, Kan.
Steffin McCarter tallied Texas' other four points on Wednesday, doing so with a fifth-place mark in the long jump. McCarter jumped 7.84m/25-8.75 to score at the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the first time in his career. A finalist at the World Championships in 2019, McCarter concludes his Texas career as one of only three Longhorns to break the 27-foot barrier in the long jump outdoors.
Texas advanced five entries to Friday's finals, with four individuals and one relay team making up the quintet of Longhorns moving on. UT's five advancements is tied for the third-most of any program on Wednesday.
The Longhorns' 4x100-meter relay team, made up by Daniel Garland, Steffin McCarter, Caleb Hulbin and Micaiah Harris, clocked 39.09 to move into the final. Their time is tied for the fifth-fastest in school history, and Texas' second-best time of the season. The only time faster run this season by a Longhorn quartet was a 39.08 by O'Brien Wasome, McCarter, Hulbin and Harris at the Texas Relays in March.
Yusuf Bizimana and Crayton Carrozza both qualified for the 800-meter run final, with Bizimana posting the fastest time of any competitor in the semifinals. The London, England native clocked 1:46.90 in the two-lap race, a time that is tied for the eighth-fastest on Texas record. Right behind him, Carrozza finished the race in 1:47.46 thanks to a strong closing kick. His time ranks as the 10th-fastest in school history and made UT the only school in the country to advance two into the 800-meter final.
Charles Brockman III and Micaiah Harris were the final two Longhorns to advance in their respective events, with Brockman doing so in the 400-meter hurdles and Harris in the 200-meter dash. Brockman clocked 49.59 to win his heat and earn an automatic advancement to the final, while Harris sped to a time of 20.21 and earned an automatic bid to the final as a top-two finisher in his heat. Harris' time is tied for the fourth-fastest in school history and he now holds the top-five times on Texas record.
Leo Neugebauer rounded out the opening day of the NCAA Championships for Texas with a strong first half of the decathlon. Neugebauer stands in fifth place with 4,105 points on his ledger through five events.
The German international opened Wednesday with an 830-point effort in the 100-meter dash, clocking 11.14 into a -0.6 headwind. He followed it by scoring 847 points in the long jump (7.14m/23-5.25) and a 799-point throw in the shot put (15.15m/49-8.5). His marks in the first three competition helped him climb into the top five of the leaderboard, going from 15th to 11th to fifth.
Neugebauer added a personal-best clearance of 2.04m/6-8.25 in the high jump to score another 840 points. He closed out the decathlon's opening day by clocking a 50.56 in the 400-meter dash, adding another 789 points to his score.
The Texas women are set to take center stage on Thursday at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in addition to the conclusion of the men's decathlon. Action kicks off with the decathlon 110-meter hurdles at 11:30 a.m. CT. The entirety of the NCAA Outdoor Championships will have live coverage on the ESPN family of networks.
NCAA Outdoor Championships Scorers
Men's Long Jump: Steffin McCarter (4 pts / 5th place)
Men's Shot Put: Tripp Piperi (8 pts / 2nd place)
Players Mentioned
