2013 NCAA 1,500 Meter Semifinal Recaps: Undefeated Pat Casey Squeaks Into Final
by LetsRun.com
June 6, 2013
Eugene, OR – 24 people advanced to the finals of the 2013 NCAA outdoor track and field championships in the men’s and women’s 1500. We recap the 1500 semis for you below.
Men’s 1500 – Favorite Patrick Casey Squeaks In
Six guys came into the semifinals of the NCAA with a seasonal best time under 3:41:00 and three of them were sent home as Wisconsin’s Alex Hatz (#2 at 3:39.87), Boston University’s Rich Peters (#4 at 3:40.05), Tyler Stutzman (#6 at 3:40.43) all failed to move on.
But to be honest, given the parity in the men’s 1500, that could have been expected as so many guys came in with seasonal bests within a few seconds of each other (26 guys in the NCAA this year have run between 3:39.50 and 3:42.50). The biggest surprise was that the NCAA favorite in our estimation, Oklahoma Pat Casey, who hasn’t lost a 1,500 or mile all year including indoors barely scraped into the final as the last of the two time qualifiers.
Heat #1
This was a high quality affair where it was very hard to separate the top 7 as they all ran between 3:41.21 and 3:41.93. All seven would advance on time.
Quick Take (QT) #1: After the race, we caught up with NC State’s Ryan Hill who only started racing in May after suffering a stress reaction indoors. Hill said he was surprised he was the final auto qualifier but refused to use the injury as an excuse. He said he’s been running for 2.5 months now and has no excuses. He also commented that in men’s 1500 racing, where it’s often tactical, everyone has similar PBs and everyone can kick, it’s hard to say there is a favorite. We certainly think that was a very wise statement which is often true no matter what the level is. Anyone remember last year’s Olympic 1500?
QT #2: Oregon’s Mac Fleet got the win in this heat to the delight of the hometown crowd. Fleet said he tried to go back to what he used to be known for – sitting in the pack and kicking. When asked if he was nervous, Fleet said that the bigger the meet, the less nervous he is. He said he was a nervous wreck at the Arkansas-Oregon dual meet but loves running at NCAAs or Penn Relays.
QT #3: Casey thought tactical errors cost him and said he’d try to put it behind him and get ready for the final. When we pointed that he was undefeated for the year and asked if he was confident as a result, he didn’t sound like he was very confident. Let’s see if he can rebound in 48 hours as he’s a bit beaten down right now.
Post-race interviews with Casey, Hill, and Fleet are embedded below the results.
Heat 1 Preliminaries 1 Mac Fleet JR Oregon 3:41.21Q 2 Sam McEntee SO Villanova 3:41.32Q 3 Zach Perkins SO Air Force 3:41.46Q 4 Austin Mudd SO Wisconsin 3:41.47Q 5 Ryan Hill SR NC State 3:41.53Q 6 John Simons JR Minnesota 3:41.73q 7 Patrick Casey SR Oklahoma 3:41.93q 8 Chad Noelle SO Oregon 3:42.80 9 Matt Hillenbrand JR Kentucky 3:44.48 3:44.475 10 Christopher Fallon SR Ohio State 3:44.62 11 Rich Peters SR Boston U. 3:44.85 12 Isaac Wendland SR Liberty 4:00.78
Heat 2
After watching his teammate almost go out in heat one, Riley Masters of Oklahoma got the win in heat two as last year’s NCAA champ Andrew Bayer of Indiana was second. Wisconsin sophomore Alex Hatz, who technically was the #2 seed overall, didn’t advance.
Post-race interviews with Masters and Robby Creese below.
Quick Take #1: With Casey looking poor tonight, good luck picking a favorite for the final. Ryan Hill was right. You might as well flip a coin.
Heat 2 Preliminaries 1 Riley Masters SR Oklahoma 3:42.84Q 2 Andrew Bayer SR Indiana 3:43.00Q 3 Jeremy Rae SR Notre Dame 3:43.19Q 4 Robby Creese SO Penn State 3:43.55Q 5 Patrick McGregor SR Texas 3:44.15Q 6 Alex Hatz SO Wisconsin 3:44.48 3:44.476 7 Nathan Weitz FR Northern Arizona 3:44.56 8 Robert Denault FR Villanova 3:44.65 9 Grant Pollock JR Virginia Tech 3:45.34 10 Tyler Stutzman JR Stanford 3:45.48 11 Patrick Todd SR Oregon 3:46.95 12 James Shirvell JR Yale 3:50.91 ===================================================================
Women’s 1500: Piliusina Emerges as Favorite
Coming in, there were just four other women within four seconds of NCAA leader Natalja Piliusina (4:09.57 this year). Two of them didn’t advance to the final (Missouri’s Laura Roxberg and Florida’s Agata Strausa). The other two did advance in Florida State’s Amanda Winslow and Florida’s Cory McGee.
Post-race interviews with Piliusina, Oregon’s Anne Kesselring appear, Arizona State’s Shelby Houlihan, and Oregon’s Becca Friday appear below the results.
Quick Take #1: We said coming in this was the one women’s mid-d or distance event where it was hard to predict the winner. After seeing Oklahoma State’s Piliusina win her heat, we are picking her. Last year, she came in with the season’s best time 4:09.54 (versus 4:09.57 this year) and faltered as the favorite. She talks about learning from that experience in her interview below.
We’re not going to be scared off by last year’s failure, because as a freshman, Piliusina stepped up big time and nearly won the NCAA 800 title – just .01 off Oregon’s Anne Kesselring.
QT #2: Strausa not advancing wasn’t a big shock despite her seed time as she was only seventh at the SEC meet in the 1500.
Heat 1 Preliminaries 1 Natalja Piliusina JR Oklahoma State 4:14.39Q 2 Shelby Houlihan SO Arizona State 4:14.61Q 3 Anne Kesselring SR Oregon 4:14.74Q 4 Cory McGee JR Florida 4:14.87Q 5 Amanda Mergaert SR Utah 4:14.89Q 6 Linden Hall SO Florida State 4:15.51q 7 Amanda Eccleston SR Michigan 4:16.29q 8 Charlotte Arter JR New Mexico 4:19.27 9 Chloe Anderson JR New Mexico 4:19.82 10 Josephine Adams JR North Texas 4:20.52 11 Laura Roxberg SR Missouri 4:21.52 12 Lianne Farber JR North Carolina 4:23.18 Heat 2 Preliminaries 1 Stephanie Brown JR Arkansas 4:16.41Q 2 Amanda Winslow SR Florida State 4:16.59Q 3 Emily Lipari JR Villanova 4:16.96Q 4 Becca Friday SR Oregon 4:17.46Q 5 Rebecca Tracy SR Notre Dame 4:17.70Q 6 Greta Feldman SR Princeton 4:18.25 7 Julia Zrinyi FR Connecticut 4:21.17 8 Damajeria Dubose SR UC Riverside 4:24.30 9 Agata Strausa JR Florida 4:24.90 10 Kelly Curran JR Notre Dame 4:28.20 11 Rebecca Addison SR Michigan 4:28.89 12 Josephine Moultrie SR New Mexico 4:31.86