Texas Tech University Athletics
Tech Duo Advances to NCAA Track Championships
June 21, 1999 | Outdoor Track
May 29, 1998
LUBBOCK, Texas -- Texas Tech's men's track and field team will send two representatives to the 1998 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships June 3-6 at the State University of New York - Buffalo. Sophomore Desmond Johnson (New Orleans, La.) made the list in the 400 meters and junior Michael Njenga (Nairobi, Kenya) qualified in the 5,000 meters.
Held at the UB Stadium in Buffalo, New York, the meet will mark the 77th running of the mens championships and the 17th for the women. Both Johnson and Njenga enter as the 16th seed in their respective events after qualifying provisionally in meets earlier this season. Johnson clocked a time of 46.01 seconds in the 400 at the Georgia Tech-Reebok Invitational on May 23 in his fastest time this season. Njengas time of 13:57.93 in the 5,000 was set in April at the Mt. SAC Relays. Semifinals of the mens 400 will be held on Thursday, June 4, with finals of both the 400 and 5,000 taking place on Saturday, June 6.
Johnson will make his second appearance at the outdoor national championships. As a freshman he was a two-time outdoor All-American, competing in both the 400 and 4x100 relay at the 1997 NCAA meet in Indianapolis. His time of 46.90 in the 400 was one of the top times by an American, earning him All-America honors. He ran the anchor leg of the 4x100 relay, recording a 4th place finish and an All-America performance. Johnson also earned All-America honors at the 1997 NCAA Indoor Championships, finishing seventh in the 400. During the 1998 indoor season, Johnson had set a provisional qualifying time in the 400, but did not make the final list.
Njenga will make his first trip to the NCAA Division I Championships. The transfer from Butler County Community College competed at the 1996 NJCAA indoor track championships, and the 1995 and 1996 NJCAA cross country championships. He was named to the All-NJCAA indoor track team for his performance with the distance medley relay team. Njenga provisionally qualified in the 3,000 during the indoor track season, but did not advance.
Several additional Red Raiders achieved provisional qualification marks during the 1998 outdoor season, but will not be competing at the NCAA championships: Dion Miller, Crystal Harlan, Evette Turner, Kaneshia Polk, and the mens 4x100 relay team. The NCAA meet will conclude the 1998 Texas Tech track and field season.
