Staff report
Salisbury’s Romar Morris appeared to come up short in qualifying, but his roller-coaster afternoon ended with a medal that confirmed his status as an All-American.
Morris finished sixth in the 100 meters at the Nike Outdoor Nationals on Friday in Greensboro. He ran a personal-best 10.72 seconds and posted the 10th-fastest time during the preliminary round.
Only eight runners were supposed to advance to the final, but miscommunication involving the qualifying process led officials to push 14 athletes to the next round. Morris, a 2A state champion in both the 100 and 200 as a Salisbury sophomore, completed Friday’s final in 10.85 seconds to secure the sixth and final All-America spot.
“He’s such a hard worker, and the fact he got sixth, he was so happy,” coach Darius Bryson said. “The main reason I wanted him to come to this meet was so he could run against people faster than him. He hasn’t been pushed all year, and we wanted to see how he’d respond. It was good for him to get pushed.”
Dentarius Locke of Tampa, Fla., ran a 10.41 in the prelims and won the final with a 10.59. The final featured two sections, and Morris took third in a first heat that had six runners. Matthew Terrell, who finished seventh overall, competed in the second heat and registered a 10.86.
Morris is slated to begin competition in the 200 today at noon, and North Rowan’s Teaunna Cuthbertson is scheduled to participate in the long jump at 4:30 p.m.
Cuthbertson finished eighth in the triple jump Friday with a personal-best effort of 39 feet, 33/4 inches. The mark came on the second of six attempts.
Andrea Geubelle, who is from the state of Washington, won the competition with a jump of 42-101/4.