Guervil advances to finals in 100 meters at NCAA Championship

Tusculum's Widchard Guervil finished second in his heat and fifth overall in the 100-meter dash to advance to Saturday's final of the NCAA II National Championship (photo courtesy of Josh Manck).
Tusculum's Widchard Guervil finished second in his heat and fifth overall in the 100-meter dash to advance to Saturday's final of the NCAA II National Championship (photo courtesy of Josh Manck).

CHARLOTTE, N.C. --- Tusculum freshman Widchard Guervil advanced to the finals of the men's 100-meter dash during preliminaries at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championship Thursday evening at the Irwin Belk Complex on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University.

Guervil finished fifth overall and automatically advanced to Saturday's finals by placing second in his heat with a time of 10.45 seconds. By qualifying for the finals, Guervil earns All-America honors for the second time this season following his fourth-place finish in the 60-meter dash at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships in March. Earlier this week, Guervil was named the Division II Southeast Region Men's Track Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Guervil also ran the anchor leg of Tusculum's all-freshman 4x100-meter relay team, which failed to advance after finishing 11th overall and seventh in its heat with a season-best time of 40.56 seconds. Joining Guervil in the relay were Jacob Acklin, Kedar Ashford and Xavier Billups, who missed advancing to the finals by .07 seconds.

On Friday, Guervil will return to action when he runs in the trials of the men's 200 meters at 5:35 p.m. On Saturday, junior Yannick Rosalie will compete in the finals of the men's triple jump at 12:45 p.m., followed by the men's 100-meter finals at 4:45 p.m. and the 200-meter finals at 5:50 p.m.