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LetsRun.com's Recap of Thursday's Round 1 of 1500s, Men's Steeple We recap those races in this separate article. Below we recap the first round of the men's and women's 1500 and the men's steeplechase. All the favorites advanced but we have interviews with some of the key players and blow by blow recaps.
Women's 1500 Quarterfinals: Favorites Advance Overall there were no big surprises in the women's 1,500 as only 5 were eliminated and all four who have the Olympic A easily moved on. Managing to advance were both high school entrants, Christine Babcock and Jordan Hasay. Used to leading in their high school races, neither was shy about taking the lead here as Babcock led the first heat through in 68.6 and Hasay took her heat out in 68.9 and maintained the lead through about 1200 meters, coming through in 3:40.5. The advancement formula was top 6 and next 6 times and both high schoolers finished in 7th but were easily able to make it to the semis based on time. Key players Sara Hall, Treniere Clement, Tiffany McWillians, Mary Jane Reeves, and Carrie Tollefson were among the others that advanced easily.
HEAT ONE: The fastest of the three heats, the biggest news in this race was NCAA star Brie Felnagle of UNC dropping out just past the 1200 meter mark. Christin Wurth looked to be on a mission, taking the lead at 600 in the first heat and cruising to victory in 4:13.40. Felnagle was distraught after the race and only briefly spoke to the press as it was clear she was going to break into tears. She said she was "tired." She looked fine through the first two laps (which were run in 68 pace) before fading through the pack and then dropping out with 280 to go. McWilliams, Reeves, Amy Mortimer and Morgan Uceny all went with Thomas on her decisive 65 second third lap and put themselves in position to easily advance to the final. Uceny was the only one that seemed to really shut it down in the last 100. Considering this was only the 7th 1,500 of her life, she was surprisingly savvy about knowing when to shut down to save energy for the next round. High Schooler Christine Babcock
Heat 1 Preliminaries
Shannon Rowbury ran a 45.4 final 300 to pull training-mate Erin Donohue to a 1-2 finish. As mentioned, Hasay led most of the way and fought back hard after the more experienced collegiate and professionals kicked by her. We caught up with Donohue after the race and she gave a great interview as she had some harsh words for UNC continuing to employ self-admitted drug cheat Antonio Pettigrew: "It's not good for the sport. It's not good for our program to have people like that around." She also admitted her talented team at North Carolina often underperformed in college. "I think it's a really cool thing to think how many talented people were on that team. We didn't always do great in college when we were all there together but now it's really cool that we've all continued running and continued to put in the work to get better and better". As
for the race, Donohue was also full of praise for the high schooler
Hasay, saying she's got to "giver her a lot of credit" for not being
scared of the competition. Donohue said that she and Rowbury "got
through this round with as little as effort as possible." Erin Donohue
Heat 2 Preliminaries
1 Shannon Rowbury Nike 4:16.13Q
HEAT THREE: Lindsay Gallo ran a patient race to run to victory in the final heat, coming to the lead for the first-time in the final straight-away. Tollefson led early before giving way to Dacia Barr, who took the group through 800 at a pedestrian 2:19. Treniere Clement, the winner of USAs the last 3 years, took over at 1100 and looked better than she has in some of her other early-season races. We caught up with her after the race and she said she had been training through her early season races as she and coach JJ Clark were taking "a different approach" with her training this year and that she still feels "confident" about her prospects (interview below) Sarah Bowman was always in contention and looked like she may be a player in future rounds.
Heat 3 Preliminaries 10 Amanda Miller Washington 4:24.45
Men's 1500 Quarterfinals: Webb is Back? All the Favorites Advance Jon Rankin Heat 1 Preliminaries Heat 2: Lomong Wags His Finger, Manzano a Pro
Heat 2 Preliminaries Heat 3: Webb and Lagat Run 2 Very Different Races, but Both Impress Standing next to Webb in the interview area was Said Ahmed. With the commotion around Webb and no one paying attention to Ahmed, Ahmed remarked that he felt like a "statue". So we talked to him. Ahmed has been off everyone's radar this year but has opened up faster than ever before and reveals that he has been training in Kenya with teen 800 sensation Kaki.
1 Alan Webb Nike 3:41.27Q
Men's Steeple Prelims: Favorites Advance, Fam Reappears Heat 1 Steve Slattery on His New Training Group With Ian Dobson and Ryan Hall Heat 1 Preliminaries
Heat 2:
Heat 2 Preliminaries 1 Benjamin Bruce unattached 8:32.57Q 2 Kyle Alcorn Arizona State 8:32.70Q 3 Jordan Desilets unattached 8:34.74Q 4 Jacques Sallberg Run With Us 8:34.83Q 5 Michael Spence IBR / Asics 8:34.84q 6 Brian Olinger Reebok 8:35.89q 7 Thomas Brooks OTC/Nike 8:38.63 8 Max King Oregon TC Elite 8:38.86 9 Lyle Weese unattached 8:41.78 10 Lucas Meyer Oregon TC Elite 8:46.53 11 Jonathan Pierce ZAP Fitness 9:00.88 -- Aaron Aguayo Nike DNS
*More LRC Thursday Coverage Anna Willard's American record in the 3k steeplechase, LaShawn Merritt remains undefeated over Jeremy Wariner in 2008
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