AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) - Auburn track and field will be making an appearance at the 2018 Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships with six athletes and one relay.
The men's side includes Nathon Allen (400m), Akeem Bloomfield (400m), and Raheem Chambers (60m). The men's 4x400m relay consists of Allen, Bloomfield, as well as Randall Ceneus, Joshua Burks, and alternate Xavier Coakley.
This 4x400m relay team finished fourth at SEC Indoors with a time of 3:06.09, the second-fastest time in school history. They will come into the championships seeded 14th.
Being the SEC Champion at 400m, Bloomfield is the first Auburn 400m runner to qualify for NCAA indoors in back-to-back years since Sanjay Are in 2002-03.
Allen was the runner-up at NCAA Outdoors in the 400m in 2017. He qualified for nationals after clocking a time of 46.03 to receive a third-place finish at SEC's.
Tying at sixth nationally in the men's 60m dash, Chambers ran a time of 6.60 at the Tyson Invitational. This marks the eighth time in the last 10 years an Auburn sprinter has qualified for 60m at nationals.
The women's qualifiers include Joinelle Smith and Natalliah Whyte in the 60m, as well as Jakayla Hand in the triple jump. This will be the first appearance for all three in the NCAA Indoor Championships.
With a time of 7.18, Smith is tied for third nationally in the 60m. She is the No. 2 all-time performer at Auburn in the event.
Whyte is the fastest freshman in the country and ranks fifth with 7.19. Her indoor season has resulted in breaking freshman school marks in 60m and 200m.
Hand, a senior from Opelika, Alabama, is ranked nationally in the triple jump. She made a leap of 13.03m at the SEC Championship last weekend, giving her a fourth-place finish.
The Championships will be held on March 9-10th in College Station, Texas. ESPN3 will stream the meet live on March 9 form 5:30-9:15 p.m. CT and March 10 from 4-7 p.m. CT.
