2004 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Coverage Day
2 The highlight of Day 2 was the men's and women's 10k finals.
Men's 10k: Results
here As expected Alistair
Cragg and Robert Cheseret made this a 2 man
race. Arkansas' Cragg blew open the race and the pack
with 30 second 200 meters to hit the 5k mark in 15:11.
The only runner able to go with him was Robert Cheseret
of Arizona who won the 1500, 5k, and 10k at the Pac
10 champs, and is the brother of World Champion 1500m
silver medallist Bernard Lagat.
Cragg
ran a series of laps under 70 seconds but then the pace
settled back down to 70 plus second laps from mile 4
to 5.5. Cragg led the entire time with Cheseret on his
heels. Then with under 600m to go Cragg threw down the
hammer to open a 5 meter lead at the bell. The penultimate
lap was in 63.4 and Cragg continued on to the
finish running his final lap in under 61 seconds for
a comfortable win over Cheseret. For a lap by lap recap
of the race click
here. Wisconsin's Simon
Bairu was 3rd throughout the race and ended up there
at the finish.
Going into the race, everyone in the
stadium knew that collegiate record holder
Alicia Craig of Stanford would
win. The question was by how much and when would she
make her move. Craig pounced with 1500 meters
to go and her 72.65 lap was decisive (with all of it
coming in the final 300). She breezed a final
1600 of 5:03.64 to win in a new stadium record of 33:58.27.
BYU's Laura Turner made things
interesting early by running way out in front and led early over the entire
pack for the first 13 laps. Her lead over the field
grew as large as 8.98 seconds as 3200 meters but her lead wilted quick in the heat of
Austin, Texas where the weather is pleasant for spectators
at night but way too hot (and humid) for the distance runners.
Turner
was caught by the field at 5200 and a lap later she
was in 7th, which is where she'd finish - a much deserved
All-American for trying to make the race happen. The
race in the 2nd half became a 4 woman race between Craig,
Vicky Gill of Florida State, Jamie Krzyminski of
Michigan State, and Princeton's Emily Kroshus who
tried her best to stay onto the lead pack.
After
Craig
broke open the race with 1500m to go, Gill and Kryzminski would battle to the finish
for the runner up spot with Gill edging Kryzminski by
.09 by running the last lap in 73.13 (37.76 and 35.37).
Women's 1500m Results Top
4 in each heat and next 4 times for the final. Heat
1: Tiffany McWilliams, the class of the field,
was in heat 1 and the other runners basically ignored
her as she opened up a huge lead on the 1st lap and
coasted to the win. Williams was 64, 2:11.8,
3:19. Hilary Edmondson of Wisconsin put on a burst to
distance herself from the field easily the final 200m.
Kerry Meagher of Notre Dame and Erin Donohue of
UNC would get the final 2 automatic qualifiers. Heat
2: Londa Bevins of Arkansas led lap one
in 67.0,
Lindsey Gallo of Michigan led at 800 (2:17.4). Marina Muncan
of Villanova took over at 1200 and would go on to win
in 4:14.91 as Treniere Clement of Georgetown
would move up well the final 200m for the 2nd spot with
Gallo and USC's Iryna Vashchuk getting
the final automatic qualifying spots. Londa Bevins would
qualify on time.
Men's 1500m Defending
champ Grant Robison dropped out with 200m to
go when the pace heated up and will not make the final.
Indoor champ Sean Jefferson failed to qualify
as well. Results Top
4 in each heat and next 4 times for the final. Heat
1: This heat was much stronger than the 2nd one as it
had the defending champ Grant Robison, the indoor
champ Sean Jefferson of Indiana, 2002 champ
Don Sage, and USATF indoor champ Rob Myers.
Notre Dame's Kurt Benninger led the
opening lap of 62 and the pedestrian 800 of 2:07.4.
Montana's Scott McGowan led at the bell in 2:52.6.
Things really heated up at 200m to go as Stanford's
Don Sage took the lead. At this point Stanford's Grant Robison was
near the back of the back and dropped out. Sage led
onto the home stretch but that is when Rob Myers surged
to the front and comfortably took the win. McGowan moved
back up for 2nd, Sage 3rd, Brendan Mahoney 4th.
Plus 3 more would qualify from time in this heat. Indoor
champ Jefferson had nothing over the final 200m and
coasted in in last in 3:57. Heat 2: This
heat had a very slow start. An open quarter of 63.4
and 800 in 2:06.8 where Nathan Robison of
BYU led. They were 2:51.2 at the bell and 3:04.8 at
1200m. Arkansas' Said Ahmed took the lead with
200m and pushed for him, and then out of no where a
very relaxed Chris Mulvaney who has won an indoor
title, stormed to the front and easily took the win
ahead of Ahmed. Nathan Robison and Josh Spiker
got the last automatic qualifying spots with Tom Parlapiano
of Villanova a time qualifier for the final.
Women's 800m Indoor
champ Nicole Cook failed to advance to the finals. Recap
of each heat below. Results 3
Heats- Winner of Each Heat and Then Next 5 Fastest Times
Advanced to Finals Heat 1 Tennessee's
Kameisha Bennett dominated
the heat leading from gun to tape. She split 60.0 at
400m and pulled away the last 200m to win easily in
2:03.82. Nicole Petty and Aneita Denton
would not know it at the time but they would qualify
for the final on time at 2:05.81 and 2:06:51 respectively. Heat
2 Brooke Patterson of Kentucky led for much of
the race splitting 61.4 and 1:34 but Beata Rudzinska
of Akron would come up to edge her at the wire for the
only automatic qualifying spot. Patterson would qualify
on time 2:05.68 behind Rudzinska's 2:05.52. Heat
3 After an opening 60.0 quarter, LSU's
Neisha Bernard-Thomas took the lead on the
backstretch and powered home for the win in 2:04.21.
Nikeya Green of Wake Forest (2:05.36) and
Carlene Robinson of Illinois (2:06.30) would qualify
for the final on time. Heat 4 This was
the most interesting heat as it featured indoor champ
Nicole Cook of Tennessee and 2 time defending
outdoor champ Alice Schmidt of UNC with only
one automatic qualifier for the final. Cook led early
on (28.3 for 200m), but Schmidt came up on her at the
400m mark (60.8) to take the lead. Schmidt would
pull away over the final 200m to win in surprisingly
the slowest winning time of the day 2:06.03 as Cook
finished 2nd in 2:07.01 and did not advance to the
final.
Men's 800m No
big surprises but Sherridan Kirk of Auburn didn't qualify
for the final. Results 3
Heats- Top 2 in each Heat and Then Next 2 Fastest
Times Advanced to Finals Heat
1 Kent State's Mike
Inge led the opening 400m of 51.37 (24.5 at 200m).
Jesse O'Connell of Georgetown took over by 600m
and would hold on for the win (1:46.78)as Michigan's
Andrew Ellerton look comfortable to in securing
the final automatic qualifying spot in 1:47.10. Moise
Joseph of Florida would finish 3rd in 1:48.03. Heat
2 Jonathon Johnson of Texas Tech (3rd at last
year's USATF meet, 2nd at 2003 NCAAs) led wire to wire
for the win although he made it interesting. His opening
200m was 24.5 and opening 400 was 51.5. Nebraska's
Dmitijs Milkevics would move up on Johnson down
the home stretch but then Johnson must have had something
in reserve as he put on another slight burst to secure
the win as Oral Roberts Prince Momba came up
to edge Milkevics for the final automatic qualifying
spot. But Momba and Tennessee's Marc Sylvester
would qualify on time. Heat 3 Sherridan
Kirk of Auburn led through the opening 400 in 52.04.
Arkansas' James Hatch would fight
for the lead on the backstretch and battled Tennessee's
Paul Cross (1:47.99) down the final stretch.
Cross got the win, and Hatch got the final qualifying
spot (1:48:16) for the final.
Men's 100m Results No
big surprises in the qualifying for the finals after
yesterday's 1st round was cancelled due to rain. Auburn's
Marc Burns led the way with a 9.99 with a big
wind behind his back.
Women's 100m Results Miami's
Lauryn Williams had the fastest time in the
world this year under any conditions. Texas Freshman
Marshevet Hooker had a 11.14 pr to become the
3rd fastest qualifier and could get Texas some extra
points in the final as she was only seeded 7th coming
in.
Women's 4*400 The
Texas women are so good they set a NCAA meet record
in qualifying for the final.
Women's Heptathlon Arizona
State freshman Jacquelyn Johnson defeated defending
champ Hyleas Fountain of Georgia.
Men's 4*100m Results Florida
State had the fastest time of the day, which tied for the
NCAA lead in the event. All the major favorites advanced to the final
on Saturday.
Day
1- Wednesday Rain was the
story of the day. As a deluge of rain (Austin
has gotten nearly 9 inches in 3 days)
cancelled every event except the women's 4*100
1st round, Heptathlon Day 1, and javelin. The
weather was perfect later on (10pm) for distance
races but the decision had been made. In the
women's 4*100, originally it was believed that
UCLA's women's team failed to
advance which would hurt the Bruins which are
in a 3-way battle for the team crown. But
then nearly 8 hours later it was announced the Texas women were
DQd and UCLA was in the final which hurts Texas team title hopes. The NCAA
released a revised schedule which cancels
the heats of the 5000, and the rounds of events
that were scheduled to have 3 rounds inluding
the 800 and 400.
