Rios Leads Men's Track on Day 1

(05/24/12)


PUEBLO, COLORADO – Junior Sergio Rios (Brownsville/James Pace HS) led the Texas A&M-Kingsville men’s track and field contingent on the first day of the NCAA Division II National Championships hosted by CSU-Pueblo at the Neta and Eddie DeRose Thunderbowl on Thursday.

After a slow start to the 2012 national championship meet, Rios got the Javelinas back on track with a solid performance in the 400-meter hurdles. He won his heat in a time of 51.60 and has a chance to win his second national championship in two weeks on Saturday night. He won the Mexico national championship on May 13 with a time of 51.15. He is the second seed heading into the finals behind Lincoln’s Sabiel Anderson who won the second heat in a time of 51.34. Rios earned All-America honors in the 400-meter hurdles in 2011.

Sophomore Tim Price (Corpus Christi/Carroll HS) advanced to the finals in the 100-meter dash after clocking a 10.36 in his preliminary heat. Price, an All-American in the indoor 200-meter dash in 2012, is making his first appearance in the NCAA Division II 100-meter dash finals. He will also be running in the 200-meter dash preliminaries on Friday night.

Sophomore C.J. Griggs (Cedar Lane/Van Vleck HS) was the first Javelina to compete on Thursday. In the long jump he had three jumps over 7.00 meters, but did not make the finals. His longest jump was 23-6.25. He will be competing in the triple jump on Saturday.

The Friday schedule for the Javelinas includes Avery Griffin (West Columbia/Van Vleck HS) and Andrew Wells (Unionville, Ont./Unionville HS) in the discus, Price and Jonathan Woodson (Missouri City/Marshall HS) in the 200-meter dash and the 4x400-meter relay.
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