Men's 3k: The Rest Of The NCAA Surrenders To Galen Rupp
Words can not describe how impressive Galen Rupp's weekend was at the NCAA indoor meet. Friday night he pulled of the unprecedented 5k win and DMR anchor double. Saturday night he on paper appeared to be the class of the 3k field. At the very least, one would think he would be tired from his double and face a possible challenge. Think again. Rupp
immediately went to the front and by the 400 mark (61.01) he was more than a second up on the field. The field then raised the white flag of surrender and began racing for 2nd. Rupp blasted through 800 in 2:02.7 and the 1,600 in 4:08.09. Perhaps he had gone out too fast?
Again, think again. Rupp continued on the same basic pace the rest of the way. He never went under 32 seconds a lap until the final lap when he paused to celebrate and take in his mastery as he won in 7:48.94. PAC-10 rivals Michael Coe and Stanford's Elliott Heath battled it out for 2nd on the final lap with Coe coming out ahead. True frosh Chris Derrick finished 5th after scoring in the 5k on Friday night.
Rupp's performance this weekend was simply, truly amazing. Totally
unprecedented. Henry Rono's string of world records in 1978 is the only thing for sure more impressive in the NCAA. Rupp talked to the Oregonian about his win: "People expected me to just hang around and kick, because that is what I did in the mile and the 5K. But I figured, hey, what the heck? This is my last meet indoors in college. I've got the strength to do it. I'm just going to work
them. Make sure I bend them until they break."
1 | Galen RUPP | JR | Oregon | 7:48.94 | (FR) | 10.00 | |||
2 | Michael COE | SO | California | 7:54.42 | (FR) | 8.00 | |||
3 | Elliott HEATH | FR | Stanford | 7:54.59 | (FR) | 6.00 | |||
4 | Hassan MEAD | SO | Minnesota | 7:56.15 | (FR) | 5.00 | |||
5 | Chris DERRICK | FR | Stanford | 7:56.31 | (FR) | 4.00 | |||
6 | Matt LEEDER | SO | Florida State | 7:59.16 | 3.00 | ||||
7 | Chris ROMBOUGH | JR | Minnesota | 8:00.37 | 2.00 | ||||
8 | Patrick SMYTH | SR | Notre Dame | 8:01.65 | 1.00 | ||||
9 | Dorian ULREY | JR | Arkansas | 8:03.26 | |||||
10 | Emmanuel BOR | JR | Alabama | 8:03.73 | |||||
11 | Shadrack BIWOTT | SR | Oregon | 8:06.12 | |||||
12 | Matthew CENTROWITZ | SO | Oregon | 8:10.73 | |||||
FS | John KOSGEI | JR | Oklahoma State | FS | |||||
DNS | Shawn FORREST | SR | Arkansas | DNS |
Last Lap Men's Mile
Men's Mile: Meet Lee Emanuel
Track and field fans, let us introduce you to Lee Emanuel.
Prior to Saturday, Emanuel was a good, but basically unheard of miler. He had run 3:40 and 3:57. Nice marks but nothing to write home about. Now he's an NCAA champion in dominating fashion.
The mile went out at a modest pace (61.44 after 2+ laps and 1:32.40 3+ laps) but then slowed tremendously the 4th 200 (33.88 for that lap). The pack was 2:06.28 with Michigan's Justin Switzer in the lead. Everyone bunched up on the backstretch and then New Mexico's Emanuel went to the front and started his push. The pace quickened to 31.04 over the 2nd half of that lap and would get faster all the way to the finish. Wisconsin's Craig Miller was the only runner to stay close and with 3 laps to go, they were more than a half second clear of the field. Emanuel would ratchet the pace down each of the remaining laps, going 28.17 and 27.59 to reach the bell in 3:33.15 with Miller still on his heels in 3:33.34. They were clear of the rest of the field. Miller challenged Emanuel with 100m to go, but Emanuel was not done as he saved his best for last. He went 27.22 the final 200m to get a convincing win in 4:00.36 to Miller's 4:01.34. Dorian Ulrey of Arkansas, one of the pre-race favorites, came up for a distant third (4:02.19).
Well done, Lee.
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Lee Emanuel, NCAA Champ (2:10) |
Men's 800: Jacob Hernandez Is Back
Last Lap Men's 800
The men's 800m featured a stacked field. The headliners were Andrew Wheating, the kid wonder who in 2008 went from a total unknown to the US Olympic team at 800m, Jacob Hernadez, the NCAA outdoor champion from Texas, who defeated Wheating in a thrilling duel at NCAAs, and Tyler Mulder, the NCAA indoor champ. Texas' Tevan Everett took it out in a fast 24.87 and still led at the quarter in 52.44. Hernandez took over and was leading at the bell, chased by UConn's Mike Rutt, but there was no stopping Hernandez.
Down the final stretch it was all Hernandez. He powered home to a convincing win in 1:48.04. Andrew Wheating made his customary late charge, but this is indoor track, not outdoor, and he was too far back coming off the final turn (4th place) to get anywhere near to Hernandez.
Hernandez seemed to struggle in the 800m prelims on Friday night as he was the last guy to qualify for the finals, but he then ran the best opening leg on the DMR Friday night and got the convincing win on Saturday. He had very little time to celebrate, as he immediately had to hop in the car to drive to his sister's wedding in Houston. NCAA indoors were in the state of Texas for the first time, but none of Hernandez's relatives could attend as they were all at his sister's wedding.
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Jacob Hernandez (2:44) |
Video:
Thankfully the NCAA is way ahead of many other meets and lets online organizations have 3 minutes of highlights just like traditional media. So we'll do a better job in the future but we've got our 3 minutes of video from Saturday below. Rupp and Barringer were so dominating they don't make the cut
Last Lap Men's 800 |
Last Lap Men's Mile |
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