June 4, 1998

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Texas Tech sophomore Desmond Johnson (New Orleans) finished the 1998 outdoor collegiate season Thursday at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Buffalo, New York. Johnson recorded a time of 46.69 seconds in the men's 400 meter dash in the preliminaries, but was not fast enough to advance to Saturday's final heat.

The winners of the three heats, plus the next five best times advanced to the final round: Milton Campbell (North Carolina), Clement Chukwu (Eastern Michigan), Jerome Davis (Southern California), Randy Melbourne (Kansas State), Brandon Couts (Baylor), Dennis Darling (Houston), Darrick Ingram (East Carolina) and Davian Clarke (Miami). Chukwu clocked the fastest time in the event at 45.64 seconds.

Johnson attended his second NCAA outdoor championship. He is a three-time All-America, earning honors in the outdoor 400 and 4x100 relay and indoor 400 last year. He provisionally qualified for this year's outdoor meet at the Georgia Tech-Reebok Invitational in May with a time of 46.01. To conclude his 1998 outdoor season, Johnson will travel to his home town of New Orleans to compete at the 1998 U.S. Outdoor Championships June 17-21.