Army West Point Athletics
Friday, May 27
Bloomington, IN
Army West Point
vs
NCAA East Regionals
Gibson, Young Secure Spots At The NCAA Championships
May 27, 2022 | Men's Track and Field
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Jamir Gibson (discus throw) and Justin Young (400m hurdles) both qualified for the 2022 NCAA Championships in their respective events on the final day of the men's portion of the NCAA East Regional Preliminaries on Friday.
The top 12 in the final of each event qualifies for the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.
Gibson bounced back after not scoring in the shot put on Wednesday with a discus throw that landed him ninth overall. His 56.20m toss on his first attempt was all he needed to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Coach's Corner
"I am really proud of what we did today. We only had two competitors in the meet today and the results they achieved were historic for our program. If there was a sure thing this week it was Jamir Gibson in the discus and on his first throw he became only the 4th discus thrower from Army to ever advance to the NCAA outdoor track and field championship joining Larry hart 1968, Travis Pendleton 2002 and Mike Renard 2019. Watching Jamir in warm ups I was a little concerned because he kept releasing the discus down the right sector and fouling the throws. But those were only warm ups and when the time came to throw for real he took care of business on throw number 1. It wasn't the best throw of his career, it wasn't the best throw of his season. But it was a good throw. There was a tailwind that was knocking the discus down and all of the guys were struggling to match their seasonal bests. That first attempt put him in third. There were 16 guys in his flight so we knew that anything could happen but his mark kept holding up and eventually there he was sitting ninth with only a couple of throws left. He was the 9th ranked man coming in and that is where he finished. I have lauded his accomplishments all year as he has rewritten our record books in the throws. But today it was only about the discus. It is his favorite event. It is his best event, and it brings a level of violence that might intimidate the uninitiated. Some men can overpower the implement with brute strength. Most discus men are built like NFL tight ends. They are tall (6' 5 - 6' 8) they have long levers and they easily weigh 260-290 lbs. Jamir is 6' 255 lbs so what he lacks in size he makes up for in athleticism. He can easily dunk a basketball and he has catlike reflexes. In the ring he is explosive and is a great technician. He was easily the smallest man in the final flight of 16 but he came up large on the scoreboard and that is all that mattered today. Today he did what he set out to do way back in August and we will get to watch him compete one more time against some of the best in the world.
In 1952 Ed White of Army ran the 400 intermediate hurdles at the NCAA championships. He was the first Black Knight to contest that event at an NCAA meet and in the ensuing 70 years no Army athlete has qualified in that event for the NCAA championships. Until today. Justin Young ran the race of his life today. When I recruited Justin I knew we were getting an elite athlete. He was one of the best hurdlers in the country and when you beat out the Big 12 and SEC schools to get a kid you can be pretty certain that you are recruiting the right pedigree. It takes a lot more than physical tools to succeed at this level because everybody at this meet is good. What Justin has that separates him from almost everyone else is a nasty competitive streak that is scary if you don't know what you are seeing. He is blinded by competition and able to focus singularly on a goal or objective in a way that seems criminal in its intent. He knew he needed to run a lifetime best to advance to the NCAA meet. He was seeded 7th of 8 based on personal bests in the first heat of three. He blasted through hurdles 1,2,3,4 and held the lead into hurdle 5. He was pretty clean to that point and then had a bit of a stutter at hurdle 7 but was able to maintain his rhythm going into the final 100. He faded only slightly going to the line and the result (50.90) was good enough for 5th in his heat and held up to be 10th overall and secure him a spot in the NCAA final. His time today broke the oldest school record at Army taking down the 51.00 run by Ivory Carson in 1976. Justin had been second best at Army for 4 years; a statistic that burned him if it was mentioned. Now he is the best ever. All of this almost didn't happen. Justin almost didn't make it to this meet. He was 50th on the list going into declarations with his seasonal best 52.10 and we were not sure he would make it. But there were 4 scratches and he slipped in. Ranked 46 going into the meet and number 10 on the way out. Not a bad outcome for the newly commissioned 2LT from Abilene, Texas.
That makes three individual qualifiers for Army to the 2022 NCAA Championships. To be clear there are many teams and programs that regularly qualify to the NCAA meet. But for us this is a long time coming. The last time we qualified three to the NCAA outdoor meet was 1997. It isn't an easy thing to do. As I have said before, the NCAA outdoor meet is the third best meet in the world in most years behind only the World Championships/Olympic games and the USA Championships. So getting to the meet is an accomplishment in itself. Now the task becomes, "can we score points at the meet?" The top 8 in Eugene will score team points and we will have 2 opportunities on the men's side and one on the women's side." – Mike Smith
Up Next
Justin Young and Jamir Gibson will head to Eugene, Ore. to compete in the NCAA Championships. Young will run on Wednesday, June 8 and Gibson will compete in the discus on Thursday, June 9.
For complete coverage of Army West Point cross country and track and field, follow the Black Knights on Twitter (ArmyWP_TrackXC) and Instagram (goarmytrack) and online at www.goarmywestpoint.com.
The top 12 in the final of each event qualifies for the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.
Gibson bounced back after not scoring in the shot put on Wednesday with a discus throw that landed him ninth overall. His 56.20m toss on his first attempt was all he needed to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Young advanced to the final round of the 400m hurdles after placing fourth in his heat and 16th overall with a then-personal-best time of 51.24 on Wednesday. Young set a personal-record time on Friday, running the 400m hurdles in 50.90 to place 10th overall to claim a spot in the NCAA Championships.????????????????????
— Army Track & XC (@ArmyWP_TrackXC) May 27, 2022
Jamir Gibson will compete in the @NCAATrackField Championships in the discus (56.20m).#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/LvlRAddhEf
Justin Young has punched his ?? to the @NCAATrackField Championships in the 400m hurdles after posting a personal-best time (50.90)??#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/Jz5k24oEQ1
— Army Track & XC (@ArmyWP_TrackXC) May 28, 2022
Coach's Corner
"I am really proud of what we did today. We only had two competitors in the meet today and the results they achieved were historic for our program. If there was a sure thing this week it was Jamir Gibson in the discus and on his first throw he became only the 4th discus thrower from Army to ever advance to the NCAA outdoor track and field championship joining Larry hart 1968, Travis Pendleton 2002 and Mike Renard 2019. Watching Jamir in warm ups I was a little concerned because he kept releasing the discus down the right sector and fouling the throws. But those were only warm ups and when the time came to throw for real he took care of business on throw number 1. It wasn't the best throw of his career, it wasn't the best throw of his season. But it was a good throw. There was a tailwind that was knocking the discus down and all of the guys were struggling to match their seasonal bests. That first attempt put him in third. There were 16 guys in his flight so we knew that anything could happen but his mark kept holding up and eventually there he was sitting ninth with only a couple of throws left. He was the 9th ranked man coming in and that is where he finished. I have lauded his accomplishments all year as he has rewritten our record books in the throws. But today it was only about the discus. It is his favorite event. It is his best event, and it brings a level of violence that might intimidate the uninitiated. Some men can overpower the implement with brute strength. Most discus men are built like NFL tight ends. They are tall (6' 5 - 6' 8) they have long levers and they easily weigh 260-290 lbs. Jamir is 6' 255 lbs so what he lacks in size he makes up for in athleticism. He can easily dunk a basketball and he has catlike reflexes. In the ring he is explosive and is a great technician. He was easily the smallest man in the final flight of 16 but he came up large on the scoreboard and that is all that mattered today. Today he did what he set out to do way back in August and we will get to watch him compete one more time against some of the best in the world.
In 1952 Ed White of Army ran the 400 intermediate hurdles at the NCAA championships. He was the first Black Knight to contest that event at an NCAA meet and in the ensuing 70 years no Army athlete has qualified in that event for the NCAA championships. Until today. Justin Young ran the race of his life today. When I recruited Justin I knew we were getting an elite athlete. He was one of the best hurdlers in the country and when you beat out the Big 12 and SEC schools to get a kid you can be pretty certain that you are recruiting the right pedigree. It takes a lot more than physical tools to succeed at this level because everybody at this meet is good. What Justin has that separates him from almost everyone else is a nasty competitive streak that is scary if you don't know what you are seeing. He is blinded by competition and able to focus singularly on a goal or objective in a way that seems criminal in its intent. He knew he needed to run a lifetime best to advance to the NCAA meet. He was seeded 7th of 8 based on personal bests in the first heat of three. He blasted through hurdles 1,2,3,4 and held the lead into hurdle 5. He was pretty clean to that point and then had a bit of a stutter at hurdle 7 but was able to maintain his rhythm going into the final 100. He faded only slightly going to the line and the result (50.90) was good enough for 5th in his heat and held up to be 10th overall and secure him a spot in the NCAA final. His time today broke the oldest school record at Army taking down the 51.00 run by Ivory Carson in 1976. Justin had been second best at Army for 4 years; a statistic that burned him if it was mentioned. Now he is the best ever. All of this almost didn't happen. Justin almost didn't make it to this meet. He was 50th on the list going into declarations with his seasonal best 52.10 and we were not sure he would make it. But there were 4 scratches and he slipped in. Ranked 46 going into the meet and number 10 on the way out. Not a bad outcome for the newly commissioned 2LT from Abilene, Texas.
That makes three individual qualifiers for Army to the 2022 NCAA Championships. To be clear there are many teams and programs that regularly qualify to the NCAA meet. But for us this is a long time coming. The last time we qualified three to the NCAA outdoor meet was 1997. It isn't an easy thing to do. As I have said before, the NCAA outdoor meet is the third best meet in the world in most years behind only the World Championships/Olympic games and the USA Championships. So getting to the meet is an accomplishment in itself. Now the task becomes, "can we score points at the meet?" The top 8 in Eugene will score team points and we will have 2 opportunities on the men's side and one on the women's side." – Mike Smith
Up Next
Justin Young and Jamir Gibson will head to Eugene, Ore. to compete in the NCAA Championships. Young will run on Wednesday, June 8 and Gibson will compete in the discus on Thursday, June 9.
For complete coverage of Army West Point cross country and track and field, follow the Black Knights on Twitter (ArmyWP_TrackXC) and Instagram (goarmytrack) and online at www.goarmywestpoint.com.
Players Mentioned
Throws
/ Men's Track and Field
Sprints/Hurdles
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