Sacramento, Calif. –Starting off the first race of the 86th annual NCAA Track and Field Championships with a bang, South Carolina’s women’s 4x100m relay advanced to the finals with the fastest time of the day at 43.12.

USC advanced seven athletes to the semi-finals. In addition, the women’s 4x100m relay and Jason Richardson advanced to the finals in the 110m hurdles.

“Great day. I just feel for Ronnetta who was ready to go and hit that eighth hurdle. That was crushing for us. We have enough people competing to still have a top five finish,” said USC Curtis Frye, in his 10th year at Carolina. “Everyone advanced today that we needed to except Ronnetta. I am disappointed for her because she had high expectations and she was giving 110% effort.”

The relay of Natasha Hastings, Amberly Nesbitt, Faraign Giles and Shalonda Solomon passed the stick smoothly to run a season best and tying the third-fastest time ever in school history. The finals will be run as the first event of the day on Friday at 4 pm local time.

“Going in with the No. 1 time could make you nervous because I like to run as the underdog,” said Nesbit of Greenville, S.C. “You know people will be gunning for you so you have to be on your game. The speed is there for our relay – we just have to hit our hand-offs. The conditions today were good, we knew we needed to win the heat and it all worked out. There is a lot of room for improvement on the speed, but our handoffs were good. We’ve been running together since Penn Relays and it helps to get the reps. Natasha broke it off well (opening leg).”

Precious Akins, the East Region champion, threw 175′ 11 to advance to the semi-finals of the discus’ on Friday (3:45 pm local). The Charleston, S.C. natives toss puts her in third place entering the finals, less than two feet out of second place. The top 12 start with a clean slate in the finals (three throws and then cut to nine and they get three more throws).

“An outstanding day. I am not surprised though. I knew she could do it,” said USC throws coach Mike Sergent. “I would say we are both relieved, but she has been saying this week she didn’t the nervousness or the stress she had at regionals. She was probably the most consistent thrower in the meet. She was real solid.”

Shay Shelton advanced to the semi-finals of the 800m running a season-best 2:06.44 when she finished fourth in her heat. She advances with the 13th fastest time – the top 10 will advance to the finals – with the semis run on Thursday. Shelton won the SEC indoor title in the 800m.

Shalonda Solomon, who entered the meet with the NCAA’s top time in the 200m, won her race with the fastest time of the day at 22.81. Also running the 200m prelims, on the men’s side, Leroy Dixon was fourth in his heat and advanced to the semi-finals with a time of 20.88. He has the 13th fastest time entering the semis. Both will run the semis on Friday.

Jason Richardson won his heat of the 110m hurdles prelims, hitting 13.64 with a wind of -1.3. It was the second fastest time of the prelims. Richardson later won his heat of the semi-finals to advance to the finals with a time of 13.60 – the second fastest time of the semi-finals. He ran his race into a wind of -1.7. The finals are on Friday.

Ronnetta Alexander ran the fourth-fastest time of the prelims when she finished second in her heat at 13.20 into a headwind of -0.1. Alexander later ran in the semi-finals, finishing seventh when running a 13.27 next to USC’s Virginia Powell who ran a 12.55 to set the NCAA record (and run the fastest time in the world this year). She finishes 11th overall. Chiquita Martin ran a 13.59 to finish seventh in her heat and did not advance.

Natasha Hastings ran a 52.10 to win her heat smoothly running in the 400m and advanced to the semi-finals. Advancing to the semifinals on Friday, her time was the third-fastest of the prelims.

Stephanie Smith ran a 54.41 in the 400m and did not advance to the semi-finals. She finished fifth in her heat.