Elijah Greer and Natoya Goule Win NCAA Title #1; Emma Coburn Adds The Mile Title To Her Résumé

by LetsRun.com
March 10, 2013
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Women’s Mile: Emma Coburn Comes Through After A Spirited Challenge From Amanda Winslow

Colorado senior Emma Coburn, a 2012 US Olympian, came into the mile final tonight as the prohibitive favorite. In the end, she emerged as the 2013 NCAA mile champion but only after having to fight off a spirited challenge from Florida State’s Amanda Winslow.

Coburn and Winslow went out side by side for the first 200 and then for the rest of the race until the last lap it was Coburn running just in front of Winslow. They opening splits were 67.32 and 2:16.60 for the quarter and half-way. At the mid-point, the top six competitors were clear of the rest of the field.

Amanda Winslow Hangs Close (Photo Gallery Here)

A lap later, this was a two-lady race. With a quarter mile left (3:24.36), Winslow was still hanging tough. On the backstretch she actually tried to pass Coburn but Coburn accelerated to hold her off with 300 meters remaining. A lap later, on the backstretrch, Coburn finally got some daylight. At first it was just or three meters but heading into the final turn it was five and she was on her way to a 4:29.91 victory as Winslow ended up second in 3:31.08.

The surprise third-place finisher was Florida junior Agata Strausa, who was just third at the SEC meet here a few weeks ago.

Quick Take #1: Coburn just missed her pb of 4:29.86 with no help from any rabbits. She ran a negative split as she went 2:16.60-2:13.31. Each of her final five laps was faster than the previous one as she went 34.46, 33.92, 33.48, 32.67, 32.43.

Quick Take #2: Our hats go off to Amanda Winslow who ran fantastic and had a big 2.04 second pb on the biggest stage. She came in with a 4:33.22 pb (4:13.02 pb) and left with a 4:31.08 pb.

Quick Take #3: Oregon’s Anne Kesselring, who we thought might be a factor in the final given her 2:02.15 800 pb, was a total non-factor and finished last for the second year in a row. In the end, the Ducks still rallied for the team title.

Results below. *Lap by lap splits here.

Event 21  Women 1 Mile
=======================================================================      
 Two heats.  Top 4 plus next 2 fastest advance to Final.                     
 2 waterfall start, 2 turn stagger. (5,3), Final: (7,3)                      
 Prelim: Random draw. Final: Top 3 outside, random.                          
    American: A 4:20.5h  2/19/1982   Mary Slaney                             
  Collegiate: C 4:25.91  2/28/2009   Jenny Barringer, Colorado               
   NCAA Meet: M 4:29.72  3/14/2009   Sarah Bowman, Tennessee                 
    Facility: F 4:27.18  2/15/2008   Christin Wurth-Thomas, Nike             
    Name                    Year School                  Finals  Points      
=======================================================================      
Finals                                                                       
  1 Emma Coburn               SR Colorado               4:29.91   10         
  2 Amanda Winslow            SR Florida State          4:31.08    8         
  3 Agata Strausa             JR Florida                4:36.91    6         
  4 Carly Hamilton            SO Georgia                4:38.44    5         
  5 Amanda Mergaert           SR Utah                   4:38.88    4         
  6 Becca Friday              SR Oregon                 4:39.23    3         
  7 Kelly Williams            FR West Virginia          4:39.30    2         
  8 Rebecca Tracy             SR Notre Dame             4:39.48    1         
  9 Rachel Schneider          SR Georgetown             4:43.84              
 10 Anne Kesselring           SR Oregon                 4:50.77

Men’s 800: Elijah Greer Holds Off Casimir Loxsom To Win NCAA Title #1

At the end of spirited battle between the two 1:45 low Americans vying for their first NCAA titles, Oregon senior Elijah Greer emerged victorious in 1:47.13 over Penn State senior Casimir Loxsom‘s 1:47.23.

Loxsom and Greer got in the top two positions of this race once the two turn stagger was over and never gave them up as the opening splits were 25.73 and 53.15 with Loxsom in the lead. 500 meters into the race, they had 2-3 meters on Loyola’s Declan Murray who tried to give himself a chance.

Greer went to the lead just before the bell (1:19.95 to Loxsom’s 1:20.06) and never relinquished. When Greer went to the front he went hard on purpose as he said afterwards he purposely was trying to blow by Loxsom. It did take Loxsom a little bit to respond but Loxsom went after Greer on the backstretch. Would he get him?

Not quite, but this one was in doubt nearly all the way to the finish. A very tight battle as both men closed in basically the same time (27.19 for Greer, 27.18 for Loxsom).

Murray ended up a well-deserved third in 1:47.60.

SEC Champion Sean Obinwa went from sixth to fourth over the final lap to give the Gators’ team chances a momentary boost as eventual winner Arkansas lost points on the last lap here. Razorback Patrick Rono went from fifth to seventh on the last lap and his teammate, Chilean indoor record holder Tomas Squella was sixth meaning both teams scored five points here.

Quick Take #1: Greer, who ran 1:47.68 as a junior in high school, deserves a lot of credit for his rise to the top of the collegiate ranks as it by no means has been instant gratification. After running 1:47.68 as a junior, he ran 1:48.97 as a senior. Freshman year at Oregon, he improved to 1:46.99 but was overshadowed by fellow frosh Robby Andrews (NCAA indoor title, 1:45.54 outdoors and world junior bronze) and Loxsom (1:46.57 sb and world junior silver).

Quick Take #2: Loxsom (interview below) said he never gave up hoping on the last lap that he’d catch Greer. That being said, the 2010 world junior silver medallist, was relatively satisfied with his second place showing as it was his best NCAA showing ever indoor or out. Indoors, he never made the final during his first three years.

Women’s 800: An LSU Tiger Wins – But Maybe Not The One You Thought

LSU came into the women’s 800 final with the top two seeds and the heat winners from yesterday in Charlene Lipsey (2:02.48), last year’s 800 runner-up outdoors,  and junior college transfer Natoya Goule (2:03.08).

Natoya Goule of LSU Surprised

So an LSU victory was certainly not expected by the name of the victor and the ease in which it came was.

Natoya Goule took this race by the horns at the start as she took the lead from the first step and ended up winning in a new indoor pr and 2013 collegiate leader of 2:02.00. After a quick opening 200 of 27.30, Goule led Lipsey by .63. At 400 (58.95), she led by 1.07. The lead was still one full second at 600 (1:30.89), and both Lipsey and Oregon’s Laura Roesler would close down on Goule a bit on the last lap but never enough to put the race in jeopardy. In the end. Roesler, who was fourth at NCAAs outdoors last spring, ended up in second in 2:02.32 to Lipsey’s 2:02.47.

Quick Take #1: The victory of Goule over Lispey wasn’t as big of a shock win as it may have seemed. Goule came to LSU from South Plains incredibly decorated as the 21-year old Jamaican ran 2:01.45 at the Jamaican outdoor champs 2011. Plus she had defeated Goule earlier this year at 800 on this same track on January 26 (2:03.49 to 2:03.76).

Quick Take #2: Roesler came in with a 2:04.66 indoor pb so this was a big improvement for her although her outdoor pb is 2:02:09.

Saturday NCAA Photo Gallery