FROM STAFF REPORTS

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Texas Tech coach Wes Kittley took a chance, and the Tech men’s 1,600-meter relay team lived to run another day.

Tech advanced to the finals of the 1,600-meter relay at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships, finishing second in its heat during Thursday night’s preliminaries. The Red Raiders did it without No. 1 runner Gil Roberts, who was rested to save his legs.

“It was kind of a gamble, I guess, if you want to say that,’’ Kittley said. “We felt if those guys would just run, we would be fine.’’

Earlier Thursday, senior D’Andra Carter survived a scary start to advance to the finals of the discus, an event in which she’s finished sixth and third the last two years at the NCAA outdoor meet. The season ended for senior Asia Diaz in the women’s 800-meter semifinals and for junior Gladys Kipsang in the women’s 1,500 preliminaries.

On Friday, Tech has junior Darrell Roddick competing in the triple-jump prelims, sophomore Gilbert Limo in the steeplechase finals and Roberts in the semifinals of the 400 meters, the event in which he’s ranked second.

The star sophomore was withheld from the relay Thursday night because, over four days, there are two rounds in that event and three in the 400.

“That would have been five 400s. That’s just too much,’’ Kittley said. “We just told the (other) guys, ‘You’ve got to get it done.’ ’’

Sophomore Brandon Washington, senior Rodney Mims, junior Tim Foster and sophomore Lamont Adams ran a time of 3:05.11, second in their heat to Florida and the sixth-best qualifying time out of three heats.

The 1,600 relay finals are at 1:45 p.m. Saturday. Friday’s events are scheduled to be on CBS College Sports (Suddenlink Cable channel 320 digital cable) from 6-9 p.m., and Saturday’s events are scheduled to be televised from noon-2 p.m. by CBS (channel 13; Suddenlink Cable channel 7).

Tech went into this week ranked third in the 1,600 relay after clocking a 3:02.75 with Roberts anchoring in the Midwest Regional. Adams took Roberts’ spot on the anchor leg, and Foster, inserted as an alternate to run the third leg, clocked the second-fastest split, Kittley said.

Foster ran on the team that finished sixth in last year’s outdoor final, but he dropped the baton this year during the NCAA indoor meet in College Station and again during the Big 12 outdoor in Lubbock.

“He’s kind of been snakebit,’’ Kittley said. “It was really good to see him run well and get the stick around.’’

Carter advanced out of the women’s discus prelims Thursday morning by throwing 174 feet, 5 inches, third best out of a field of 28. But that was after she fouled on her first two attempts, twice throwing out of bounds.

At that point, she had one chance left.

“She almost gave us cardiac arrest,’’ Kittley said. “(Assistant coach) Cliff Felkins called her aside and told her to relax and moved her in the ring just slightly. She was just a little bit off on opening up her hips a little too soon. Anyway, she fixed it on her third one.’’

The women’s discus finals are at noon Saturday.

Had Carter not advanced, it would have capped a perfectly miserable week for the Tech throwers. On Wednesday, shot putters Harrison Benjamin and Patience Knight and hammer thrower Ozie Okolie failed to make it out of prelims after each entered with top-10 national rankings.

Benjamin was coming off a pair of personal bests in the conference and regional meets, and Knight had performed well in past national meets.

“I wish I could say differently, but I was pretty devastated (Wednesday),’’ Kittley said. “I really thought those two would make the finals and score for us. They just did not have a good meet. You have three throws, and you have to be ready on those throws. For whatever reason, they didn’t get the job done.’’

Diaz ran a personal record 2:05.60 on Wednesday to make the 800 semis, then didn’t have enough left in the tank. She finished seventh in her heat and 14th overall in 2:06.16. Kipsang ran 4:22.47 in the 1,500, finishing sixth in her heat and 20th overall.