NCAA Indoor Women's Day 1 Recap - Brittany Sheffey's Heroics Give Vols Another DMR Victory

By LetsRun.com
March 12, 2010

After a thrilling DMR ended the men's day 1, the women's DMR was even more exciting, as Jordan Hasay and Brittany Sheffey put on a great show on the anchor leg. Read our event recaps below.

Women's DMR - Unbelievable Race Comes Down To Hasay And Tennessee's Sheffey ...
Tennessee built a huge lead thanks to a brilliant opening leg by Phoebe Wright (who will almost certainly win the 800m tomorrow). Tennessee's 400 runner, if anything, extended the lead and handed off to none other than 800m star Chanelle Price. Price opened up an even bigger gap and Tennessee was left with about a 35m lead over Oregon with Jordan Hasay and Georgetown's Emily Infeld on the anchor. Hasay and Infeld were the only girls that had a shot at catching Tennessee and even they had a very big gap to close.

We Were Wondering - What Was Tennessee Mid-D Coach J.J. Clark Thinking?
With Phoebe Wright and Chanelle Price available, how could legendary Tennessee coach J.J. Clark not put one of those two on the anchor of the DMR? As Tennessee's anchor Brittany Sheffey, runner-up at the SEC indoor mile this year, ran around the track seemingly hung out to dry with a huge lead being gobbled up by true miler Hasay, we couldn't understand it. Of all the Tennessee runners, we knew the least about this girl. In our predictions, we thought Tennessee would finish 3rd because they didn't have a great miler to close it. Wright, who crushed the 1,200 and has run 2:01 this season, simply isn't a miler and already ran an 800 today. Price is not a great miler. But we at least assumed one of the "big names" would anchor it.

Video: Lady Vols after their unexpected DMR win.

We were wrong and Clark clearly knew what he was doing. Tactically, Sheffey was brilliant. She ran steady but not super-fast. Hasay and Infeld had to work hard to catch Sheffey by 800m. At that point, Hasay passed Sheffey but Sheffey hung on to the 3-woman pack. When it came down to crunch time, Sheffey rallied, passed Hasay, and then held off repeated attempts by Hasay to pass. First she held off Hasay on the outside going into the last turn. Then, Hasay tucked in an made another push in the final straight. Sheffey just kept pouring it on until Hasay literally broke with 15m left and stumbled towards the finish. A great effort from both girls and from Georgetown's Emily Infeld, who ran 4:33 on the anchor to bring the Hoyas home 3rd.

On the video we were watching, it looked like Phoebe Wright was crying as she hugged her lesser-known teammate, who just won Tennessee another relay national title by holding off one of the greatest young milers in American history. A great moment.
Boards: Jordan 4:32.5 split and loses!
*Box Quad Payout? LRC Picks Top 4 Women's DMR Teams We were bold in picking the top 4 seeds to finish in the top 4.

Place	Team Name	Time				PTS	Heat(PL)
1 Tennessee 10:58.37 10 1(1)   Chanelle Price (SO) 3:22.21 Ellen Wortham (SO) 54.07 Phoebe Wright (SR) 2:06.12 Brittany Sheffey (SO) 4:35.98
2 Oregon 10:58.96 8 1(2)   Anne Kesselring (FR) 3:24.34 Michele Williams (JR) 53.87 Zoe Buckman (JR) 2:08.21 Jordan Hasay (FR) 4:32.55
3 Georgetown 11:01.40 6 1(3)   Renee Tomlin (SR) 3:26.14 Abigail Johnson (SR) 52.65 Rachel Schneider (FR) 2:09.31 Emily Infeld (SO) 4:33.32
4 Villanova 11:09.16 5 1(4)   Bogdana Mimic (FR) 3:28.51 Christie Verdier (SO) 55.69 Ariann Neutts (FR) 2:08.91 Sheila Reid (JR) 4:36.06

 

Video: LIsa Koll on how she has gotten back in monster shape.

Women's 5,000 - Lisa Koll Dominates While Oregon's Point-Scoring Hope Nicole Blood Falls And DNFs
Iowa State's NCAA record-holding Lisa Koll won her first NCAA indoor title after coming in with the top time in the NCAA by over 20 seconds. Koll put the race away and won by a wide margin (we're still waiting to see results) over West Virginia's Marie Louise Asselin. Nicole Blood of Oregon fell during the race and did not finish, a serious blow to the Ducks' team title hopes, as Blood was the #2-ranked 5,000 runner in the NCAA coming in.

Place	Athlete Name	Yr	Affiliation	Time		Pts				Heat(PL)
1	Lisa Koll	SR	Iowa State	15:39.65		10				1(1)
2	Marie Louise Asselin	JR	West Virginia	15:50.53		8				1(2)
3	Jackie Areson	SR	Tennessee	15:53.12		6				1(3)
4	Bridget Franek	SR	Penn State	15:58.02		5				1(4)
5	Alex Becker	SR	Tulsa	15:58.53		4				1(5)
6	Megan Duwell	SR	Minnesota	15:59.23		3				1(6)
7	Kimberly Ruck	SO	Clemson	16:01.24		2				1(7)
8	Felicity Milton	JR	Oklahoma State	16:01.90		1				1(8)
9	Amanda Goetschius	JR	Charlotte	16:06.92						1(9)
10	Beverly Ramos	SR	Kansas State	16:08.60						1(10)
11	Clara Grandt	SR	West Virginia	16:14.09						1(11)
12	Janet Jesang	SR	Western Kentucky	16:17.56						1(12)
13	Rebecca Lowe	SO	Florida	16:19.32						1(13)
14	Holly Van Dalen	SO	Stony Brook	16:39.37						1(14)
15	Mattie Bridgmon	SR	Oregon	16:51.48						1(15)
DNF	Deborah Maier	SO	California							1
DNF	Nicole Blood	SR	Oregon							1

Women's Mile Semis - Hasay Advances In Mile Warmup
Jordan Hasay finished 3rd in a blanket finish in the first heat to make the final along with Katie Follett and Keri Bland. In the 2nd heat, form chart leaders Charlotte Browning and Pilar McShine also booked spots. Hasay's 4:41 would not be her fastest mile of the day, as she came back a few hours later to run about 4:34 (4:32 1,600 split).

Heat 1			[View Splits]
Pl	Athlete Name	Affiliation	Time
1	Katie Follett	Washington	4:41.84	Q
2	Keri Bland	West Virginia	4:41.87	Q
3	Jordan Hasay	Oregon	4:41.89	Q
4	Mihaela Susa	Oklahoma State	4:42.03	Q
5	Dina Nosenko	Wake Forest	4:43.61	q
6	Heidi Gregson	Iona	4:46.05	q
7	Amanda Winslow	Florida State	4:52.99
8	Ashley Miller	Nebraska	4:54.47

Heat 2			[View Splits]
Pl	Athlete Name	Affiliation	Time
1	Charlotte Browning	Florida	4:43.35	Q
2	Anne Kesselring	Oregon	4:43.38	Q
3	Pilar McShine	Florida State	4:44.23	Q
4	Caroline Karunde	Texas Tech	4:44.45	Q
5	Kristie Krueger	Georgia	4:46.25
6	Kaylyn Christopher	West Virginia	4:46.76
7	Nicole Schappert	Villanova	4:47.46
8	Purity Biwott	Texas Tech	4:50.12
9	Sharla Manuele	Southern Utah	4:54.15

Women's 800m Semis - All 4 LetsRun.com Favorites Advance
There were no surprises here, as Tennessee's Phoebe Wright and Chanelle Price advanced along with LSU's LaTavia Thomas and BYU's Lacey Cramer. Wright was absolutely dominant in the 1,200m leg of the DMR and she remains our big favorite to take the final ... but there's no event less predictable than the final round of an 800 at a championship.

Heat 1			[View Splits]
Pl	Athlete Name	Affiliation	Time
1	Phoebe Wright	Tennessee	2:04.55	Q
2	Lea Wallace	Sacramento St.	2:05.27	Q
3	Sofie Persson	Mississippi	2:05.27	q
4	Nachelle Stewart	BYU	2:06.62
5	Renisha Robinson	Sacramento St.	2:08.71

Heat 2			[View Splits]
Pl	Athlete Name	Affiliation	Time
1	LaTavia Thomas	LSU	2:05.75	Q
2	Stephanie Brown	Arkansas	2:05.89	Q
3	Shannon Leinert	Missouri	2:07.06
4	Christina Rodgers	Arizona	2:07.48
5	Jaime Watson	Liberty	2:08.49
6	Zoe Buckman	Oregon	2:10.35

Heat 3			[View Splits]
Pl	Athlete Name	Affiliation	Time
1	Molly Beckwith	Indiana	2:04.61	Q
2	Chanelle Price	Tennessee	2:04.68	Q
3	Lacey Cramer	BYU	2:04.83	q
4	Erica Moore	Indiana State	2:06.09
5	Cori Moore	Portland	2:06.62
6	Angela Wagner	BYU	2:06.65

Women's Long Jump - Meet Record For Blessing Okagbare
In our non-distance coverage of the day, we wanted to mention Blessing Okagbare of UTEP, who broke the meet record in the long jump when she jumped 6.87m or 22'6". Okagbare had to be on the top of her game, as 2nd-place was a very solid 21'11" by Mindy McClurkin of BYU.

Event Records

Record	Mark		Athlete	Affiliation	Date
American	7.13m	23-4 ¾	Jackie Joyner-Kersee		March 5 1994
Collegiate	6.91m	22-8	Elva Goulbourne	Auburn	February 23 2002
NCAA Meet	6.81m	22-4 ¼	Elva Goulbourne	Auburn	March 14 2003
Facility	6.91m	22-8	Elva Goulbourne	Auburn	February 23 2002

 

Place	Athlete Name	Yr	Affiliation	Mark			PTS
1	Blessing Okagbare	SR	UTEP	6.87m	22-6 ½		10	MR
2	Mindy McClurkin	SR	BYU	6.69m	21-11 ½		8
3	Shara Proctor	SR	Florida	6.64m	21-9 ½		6
4	Karoline Koehler	SR	San Diego St.	6.59m	21-7 ½		5
5	Kimberly Williams	JR	Florida State	6.46m	21-2 ½		4

 

Team Scores After Day 1 - Nothing Has Been Decided

Team Scores				6 of 17 Events Scores

Rank	Team	Score
1	Auburn	18
2	Tennessee	16
3	Arizona	15.5
4	Oregon	13
5	Penn State	11
6	Iowa State	10
6	UTEP	10
6	Louisville	10

 

 

 

 

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