NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State junior sprinter James Taylor will compete in the 200 meter dash this Friday night at the 2013 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship in Fayetteville, Ark.
The semifinal heats of the 200m will begin at 7:45 p.m. Central time (8:45 Eastern) on Friday night at the Randal Tyson Track Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas. The finals are slated for 8:40 p.m. CT (9:40 ET) the same evening.
Taylor ran a time of 21.22 seconds in winning the 200 meters at last month’s MEAC Indoor Championships. That time was converted to a banked-track 20.85 mark, which ranks him 12th among the field of 16 athletes who will run in this week’s championship. He also ran a time of 20.92 at Penn State in January.
This will mark Taylor’s first time running in an NCAA national championship meet. Last spring, he qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Round in the 200 but was disqualified for running out of his lane.
Taylor is the second Spartan in as many years to compete in the 200m at the indoor national meet. Last year, Sean Holston places sixth in the same event to earn first-team All-America honors in Idaho. In Taylor, the Spartans have at least one NCAA Indoor Championships qualifier for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
Taylor has yet to lose a race this indoor season. He won the 60 meters all four times he entered the event, in competitions at Penn State, North Carolina and Christopher Newport in addition to taking gold at the MEAC Indoor Championships. Taylor was also 2-for-2 in the 200 meters with wins at Penn State and the MEAC Championship, and also won the 400 meters at Virginia Tech.
ESPN3 will stream the meet live on Friday from 6:30-10:30 p.m. ET. A tape delay broadcast of the championship will air Sunday, March 17 from 7-9 p.m. ET on ESPNU. Live results will be available through www.ncaa.com and www.flashresults.com.
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