The spotlight continues to shine on Chadron State long jumper Damarcus Simpson.
 
After earning the silver medal at the NCAA Division II National Indoor Championships in March and winning the gold medal at the Outdoor Championships in May, he placed seventh among the nation's best long jumpers, most of them now professionals, at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Nationals at the University of Oregon last Thursday.
 
A freshman at CSC this past year, Simpson went 26-4 ¼ on his first jump, adding a half inch to the school record he set while winning the Division II national championship.
 
He's just the second Chadron State athlete to ever qualify for the USA Nationals and the first to place.  Joel Duffield qualified in the 400 in 2006.
 
While placing seventh among the nation's best long jumpers, some of them seven years older than him, was exhilarating, he also had some disappointment.
 
He scratched on four of his six jumps.                   
 
"I scratched by not even a centimeter on my second and third jumps and both were over 27 feet," he said.  "It was hard.  I was happy with my first jump because it was my best ever, but know I had better ones. They were really good jumps. I was kind of down on myself after that and didn't do as well in the finals."
 
Simpson also fouled on his first and last jumps in the finals.  In between, he had a mark of 25-10 ¼.  
 
With his 22^nd birthday coming up on July 14, Simpson was the second youngest, the least experienced and also the smallest of the jumpers.
 
"I was the shortest by quite a margin," he stated with a chuckle during a telephone conversation.  He's 5-foot-7 and weighs about 140 pounds.  
 
All but two of the other top eight finishers have expended their collegiate eligibility. Jarrion Lawson, who will be a senior at the University of Arkansas in 2015-16, placed fifth. Cameron Burrell, who was sixth, was a sophomore at the University of Houston this spring, but he redshirted during the outdoor season because of an injury he sustained near the end of the indoor season and competed unattached at the USA Meet.
 
The winner, Marquis Dendy, who jumped 28-5 ¾ to win by 9 ½ inches, completed his eligibility this spring at the University of Florida. He won his sixth and seventh collegiate national titles in the jumps two weeks ago at the NCAA Division I Championships.    
 
It's anticipated that Simpson's performance will pave the way for more elite competition.  The top three finishers are expected to advance to the World Championships in Beijing in August.  The next three will probably be invited to the Pan American Games in Toronto on July 18-25 and three more will represent the U.S. at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Championships in Costa Rico on Aug. 7-9.
 
Simpson, a native of Lafayette, Ga., who was out of school two years before enrolling at Chadron State last fall, is expected to know his next destination soon.  Brad Gamble, the CSC track and field coach, was in Eugene with Simpson.  Chadron State paid their airfare.
 
Simpson noted that since Marquise Goodwin, who placed fourth at Eugene, is a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills, it is anticipated he will concentrate on football from now on.  If that happens, Simpson would probably be the third U.S. jumper invited to the Pan American Games
 
Injuries also factor in on who receives which invitations.
 
Following are brief bios on the others who finished in the top eight:
 
1, Marquis Dendy, 22, 6-3, 165 pounds, a native of Delaware who completed his career at Florida by winning both the long jump (27-8) and triple jump (58-1 ¼ ) at the Division I Championships, also in Eugene, and was named the Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year. Last week, he launched the winning mark of 28-5 ¾ on his first jump and also went 28-¼.
 
2, Jeffery Henderson, 26, 5-10, 160 pounds, an Arkansas native who attended Stillman College in Alabama. He also had his best mark of 27-8 ¼ on his first jump and had another of 27-6 ¾. His career best is 27-10 ¾ this spring.  Two years ago he won the NCAA II championship by going 25-7 ½ at Colorado at CSU-Pueblo and he won the USA Championships last year. He admits that he's "training for Rio," where the 2016 Olympic Games will take place.  He's sponsored by the National Athletics Institute.
 
3, Michael Hartfield, a Connecticut native, he broke Jessie Owens' 77-year-old long jump record at Ohio State his senior year in 2013 by going 26-9. He's a five-time Big 10 Conference long and triple jump champion and has run the 100 meters in 10.59 seconds.  He earned the bronze medal at the USA Nationals on his last jump of 27-7 ½. He's sponsored by Adidas. No height, weight or age could be found.
 
4, Marquise Goodwin, 24, 5-9, 179 pounds. He both long jumped and played football at the University of Texas. He's billed as the Buffalo Bills' speed receiver and caught 17 passes in 2013, but only one last season. It's reported that while playing basketball recently he decided he could still long jump well despite adding considerable muscle since he was in college. He went 27-5 ½ to claim fourth place while competing unattached. All six of his jumps were at least 26-3.
 
5, Jarrion Lawson, the Arkansas senior-to-be, went 27-5 ¼ during his last jump at Eugene.  It was his outdoor best. He was the 2014 Indoor DI National Meet long jump winner. He's 6-2.  
 
6, Cameron Burrell, 21, 5-8, 155 pounds. He's about Simpson's size and is 14 months younger. He competed unattached and went 26-9 ¾ on his third jump. His father, LeRoy Burrell, is the head track coach at the University of Houston. Both his dad and his mom, Michelle Finn Burrell, won Olympic gold medals while running on relays.  His father set the NCAA long jump record of 27-5 ½ in 1989, set the 100 meters world record of 9.90 seconds in 1991 and later ran it in 9.85. Young Burrell had a high school best of 24-11 ½ in the long jump and has run the 60 meters in 6.54 seconds. Simpson said Olympic champion Carl Lewis, who set the USA Outdoor Nationals long jump record of 28-10 ¼ in 1983, was helping coach Burrell during Thursday's competition.  "That almost didn't seem fair," Simpson noted.   
 
8, Jeremy Hicks. He'll be 29 in September and competed unattached.  He concluded his collegiate career at LSU in 2009 after winning All-American honors three times. He went 26-3 ¾ on his first jump in Eugene and squeezed into the finals because he had a better second jump than Mikese Morse, a 27-year-old who competed at South Florida and Miami during his collegiate days.     
 
Simpson said his favorite competitor at the USA Nationals was Ashton Eaton, the world record-holder in the decathlon. "He's already qualified for the World Championships (in the decathlon) and was fun to be around," the remarkable CSC athlete said.  Eaton jumped 25-8 ¾ and was 14^th in the final standings.