Tobi Amusan claims national title in 100m hurdles for UTEP
UTEP hurdler Tobi Amusan won the NCAA outdoor national title in the 100m hurdles on Saturday with a time of 12.57 seconds.
The sophomore placed second last year in the same event, but was able to improve upon that finish with a gold medal at the outdoor championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Amusan, a native of Nigeria, claimed the second individual national championship for UTEP this weekend, following in the footsteps of Emmanuel Korir, who took gold in the men’s 800-meter run Friday.
The last time that multiple UTEP athletes won national outdoor championships in the same year was 1978.
Korir claimed the gold in a controversial race the night before, after teammate Michael Saruni fell down while in the lead with approximately 200 meters to go in the race.
Officials reviewed that incident after the race, but determined Korir did not interfere.
Asmun is UTEP’s second NCAA champion this season and it is the first time since 1978 that UTEP had multiple individual NCAA champions.
In discus, senior thrower Samantha Hall finished her collegiate career narrowly missing out of the finals. Hall threw 179-feet and 4-inches but she finished in 10 th -place in the two flights when only the top nine qualify for the final event. Junior Lucia Mokrasova, UTEP’s heptathlon athlete, finished 17 th overall as she racked up a total of 728 points.
