Union Struggles at Nationals
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - The early disqualification of the men's 4x400 relay team was just a foreshadowing for Union College throughout the rest of the 2010 NAIA National Championships.
The first event Union took part in was the men's 4x400 relay where the Bulldogs were disqualified in the preliminaries. The men's 4x400 relay team looked poised to leave their mark amongst the country's best as they entered nationals with the 18th fastest qualifying time at 3:22.42.
The rest of the championships did not see any Union Bulldog qualify for an event final.
Senior Armond Smith (Stone Mountain, Ga.) ran in three individual events and improved on his fastest 200m time of the year. He stopped the clocks at 21.93 in the prelims which bests his qualifying time (22.21) for nationals. Smith made it to the semifinals of the 60m hurdles, but missed qualifying for the finals by .09 seconds. He recorded a time of 8.20.
Smith also missed qualifying for the 60m dash semifinals by .02 seconds as he clocked a time of 6.96 in the preliminaries.
Sophomore James Fowler (Dallas, Texas) improved on both of his individual event best times as he crossed the finish line in the 60m dash with a time of 6.94 in the preliminaries and tallied a 200m time of 21.98 in the preliminaries. Fowler qualified for nationals in the 60m dash with a time of 7.00 and in the 200m with a time of 22.21.