Syracuse track: Hayles and Henderson advance at NCAA East Preliminaries

They will be back on the track on Friday trying to advance to Eugene

The Syracuse Orange track team had five men competing in the NCAA East Preliminaries at Indiana yesterday. Weather ended up moving the schedule around as events were pushed up and then the meet went into a weather delay towards the end of the schedule.

The changes didn’t stop Jaheem Hayles and Nathan Henderson from advancing to the next round of qualifying. Hayles ran a personal-best time of 13.57 in the 110m hurdles taking 2nd in his heat and getting an automatic qualifier into the next round. His time was the 7th-fastest of the round and he’ll be in the first heat on Friday evening. There will be three heats of the 110m hurdles and the top three finishers in each heat plus the next three fastest times will head to Eugene. Three athletes in Hayles’ heat have faster times which could work to his benefit as it will be a competitive heat which often produces more qualifying times.

Nathan Henderson was considered a long shot in the 1500m but after taking 2nd in his heat he is one of 24 runners to advance to the next round on Friday. Henderson’s time of 3:46.37 was the 16th-fastest of the qualifying round. He’ll be in the 2nd of two heats on Friday. The top five in each heat plus the next two fastest times will advance so Henderson gets the advantage of knowing what he needs to run and if he needs to get into the top five or if top seven will be good enough.

The other Orange runners didn’t fare as well in the 10000m. The event that was moved up, then delayed saw Joe Dragon finish 41st, Matt Scrape 42nd and JP Trojan did not finish. For Dragon and Trojan this culminates their Syracuse careers and the duo have led the Orange distance group the last three seasons and it’s now time for the next group to step up in the fall.

Hayles and Henderson are back in action on Friday but Abigail Spiers will be competing tomorrow in the women’s 10000m.