EUGENE, Ore. — University of New Mexico track & field athlete Josh Kerr advanced to the finals of the men’s 1,500-meter run Wednesday as the Lobos opened the 2018 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Kerr, a junior from Edinburgh, Scotland, won his semifinal-round heat of the men’s 1,500 with a time of 3 minutes, 47.47 seconds as he qualified to Friday’s final of the event at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
He was one of three Lobos that competed on the first day of the four-day meet, with Ian Crowe-Wright and Carlos Salcido also seeing action in the opening day of the men’s championship.
Kerr easily secured his spot in the metric mile finals as he claimed the top-five finish required for an automatic bid to the final round.
The defending NCAA champion and the NCAA record holder in the event, Kerr opened his prelim heat near the middle of the 12-athlete field. He surged to the front of the pack with about 600 meter remaining, posting a race-best split of 1:00.65 over the penultimate lap.
He then moved into the lead during the bell lap en route to registering his 12th straight top-two finish in a 1500-meter race as a Lobo.
The 10th-place finisher in this event in 2016, Kerr is the first Lobo ever to make the finals of the 1500 in back-to-back-to-back years. He also extends UNM’s streak of a finalist in the event to five years with Peter Callahan making the finals in 2014 and 2015.
Kerr will run the finals of the 1500 at 6:42 p.m. MT on Friday.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Crowe-Wright and Salcido both competed in the semifinals of their events.
Crowe-Wright ran alongside Kerr in the 1500, but couldn’t keep pace over the final lap. Crowe-Wright finished ninth in his heat and overall with a time of 3:48.65 that fell just .64 seconds out of an at-large bid to the finals.
The top five finishers from each heat plus next best two times advance to the finals of the 1500.
Salcido clocked a time of 46.39 in the semifinals of the 400, placing seventh in his heat and 20th overall. Racing in the heat that included USC’s Michael Norman, the pending world record holder in the indoor 400, Salcido posted a solid finish to his race, but couldn’t nab the top-two finish needed to advanced.
The Lobos will return to action Thursday with Charlotte Prouse running the semifinals of the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase and Alice Wright running the finals of the 10,000-meter run.
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