DELAWARE, Ohio — Chancise Watkins began the bid for his first national championship with a record-breaking performance in the 200 meters prelim at the 2014 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championships on Thursday.

Watkins, who had come into the meet ranked third in the 200 meters, clocked a school- and stadium-record 20.99 seconds running into a 0.2 m/s headwind to win the first heat and grabbed the top seed in the final.

In his first event of the day, Watkins ran the anchor leg of the men's 4x100m relay team. The team of Nick Gonsalves, James Francis, Robert Oshodin and Watkins combined to run a season-best 40.81 to qualify for the final.

Watkins will stay busy the rest of the weekend. Tomorrow, he will run the 400 meters prelim at 7:15 p.m. EST/4:15 p.m. PST and should be qualify for the event, Watkins will run in three final events on Saturday.

The men's 4x100 relay final is slated to begin at 1:50 p.m. EDT/10:50 a.m. PDT, the 400 meters final will start at 3:05 p.m./12:05 p.m. and the 200 meters final is scheduled at 4:35 p.m./1:35 p.m.