Goule, Hester Shine at NCAA Championships

CLEMSON, S.C. — Tevin Hester qualified for the finals of both short sprints and Natoya Goule led wire to wire in a women’s 800 semifinal to highlight day one at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, held at Tyson Track Complex in Fayetteville, Ark. Hester will compete in the 60 and 200 on Saturday, while Goule looks to defend her 2013 indoor crown in the 800.

Hester ran 6.61 in the 60 dash semifinals, getting in on time. He qualified for the 60 final for the third time in three seasons at Clemson. He then waited a little over half an hour to return to action, where he recorded a second straight personal best in the 200. He ran a time of 20.77, besting his ACC gold medal effort of 20.84. He is the first Tiger to qualify for the indoor 200 final since Shawn Crawford won the event in 2000. Hester runs at 8:10 and 8:50 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Goule follows Hester in the 60 at 8:20 after leading from the start in Friday’s second semifinal. The 2013 champion of the 800 meters at LSU, Goule raced to another ACC record time of 2:02.77. She had the fastest time of all 16 runners Friday, becoming Clemson’s first NCAA Indoor qualifier for the final since Karen Hartmann in 1992.

In other action, Samantha Elliott competed in the 60 hurdles. She ran a time of 8.22 and finished 11^th overall, capping a brilliant indoor season for the Johnson C. Smith postgraduate transfer.

Also competing Saturday will be Shai Carpenter and Iana Amsterdam in the men’s and women’s triple jump, respectively, as well as the women’s 4×400 relay.