Alva Review-Courier -

KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Rogers State Track & Field team opened up the NCAA Championships on Thursday with the preliminary rounds of the 4x100-meter relay and the 100-meter dash.

Alfred Thomas had a strong showing in the 100-meter dash, but fell fractions short of qualifying for the finals after running a 10.438 to finish third in his heat. Thomas' time finished 11th overall out of 21 competitors, but missed the finals by .017 seconds.

The relay team of Mikel Stone, Quintin Powell, D'Jiron Lilley and Alfred Thomas failed to finish the 4x100-meter relay despite a school record time of 40.35 coming in to the event, which had the Hillcats seeded sixth overall.

"Our 4x100 was considered one of the contenders," said head coach Chris McCormick, "I am proud of their effort but it just wasn't their day. They have achieved a lot this year and the three seniors have ended with great careers.

Rogers State was running strong but failed to finish the exchange between the second and third runners within the exchange zone. The Hillcats seed time would have been second fastest in preliminaries.

"Now our focus turns to Alfred who has run strong this season and root for him tonight in the 200," said McCormick, "We hope for a strong showing to secure a spot in tomorrow's finals."

Rogers State will be back in action this evening at the NCAA Championships, as Thomas runs in the 200-meter preliminaries. Thomas will run in lane four of heat 3. The first heat is expected to get underway at 5:50 p.m.