Daryl Bachmann, Yoran Kabengele-Kabala, Olamipo Ladipo, and Keldrick Turner will represent the University of New Orleans in four events at the NCAA East Regional this week in Lexington, Kentucky, according to a May 26 announcement.
Turner is set to become the first Privateer since Ismael Kone in 2022 to compete in three events at an NCAA regional. He will participate in both the 200-meter and 400-meter preliminaries on Wednesday night and join the 4×100-meter relay team on Friday evening. Turner qualified for the 200 meters after running a personal-best time of 20.61 seconds and earning a bronze medal at this season’s Southland Outdoor Championships. This mark ranks third in the Southland Conference this season and No. 45 in the East Region.
Turner also qualified for the 400 meters by breaking his own school record three times during the season, finishing with a time of 45.19 seconds that earned him a Southland Conference gold medal. His performance ranks as the third-fastest ever by a Southland student-athlete, No. 10 in the East Region, and No. 16 nationally. Turner is also noted as being UNO’s first student-athlete to compete at an NCAA regional meet for the 400 meters.
Kabengele-Kabala qualified for the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.197 seconds recorded at this season’s Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays—a result that places him fifth on UNO’s all-time list and gives him entry into regionals with this year’s No. 40 mark from Eastern schools.
Bachmann and Ladipo will join Turner and Kabengele-Kabala on Friday afternoon for men’s 4×100-meter semifinals after setting a new school record of 39.40 seconds while earning silver medals at this year’s Southland Outdoor Championships; their relay time stands as No. 20 among eligible teams from eastern schools after duplicate entries are removed.
The preliminary races begin tomorrow evening: The men’s 100 meters starts at 6 p.m., followed by the 200 meters at 6:25 p.m., then the 400 meters at 7:25 p.m.; top finishers advance to Friday’s semifinals or directly to NCAA Championships depending on event results.
