2013 NCAA Women’s 800: Natoya Goule Completes Undefeated Season and Pulls Five Others To Lifetime PRs

by Letsrun.com
June 7, 2013

Eugene, OR – LSU junior Natoya Goule’s finished off her her inaugural NCAA season in style, with a wire to win and PR of 2:00.06 in the women’s 800 to complete an undefeated outdoor season.

Heading into tonight’s final on day three of the 2013 NCAA outdoor track and field championships, everyone knew what the speedy Goule was going to do – take it out hard and see if anyone could beat her. Even though tonight was the windiest so far of the championships, Goule stuck to her plan and went out very hard. With the adrenaline pumping, she probably went out too hard for the first 100, but Goule backed off a little the next 100 as her lead at 200 was probably slightly less than it was at 100.

Natoya Goule Celebrates the NCAA Title

Goule’s 27.6 opening split was followed up by a 30.3, giving her an opening 400 of 57.93. At the bell, she was followed closely by Duke’s Cydney Ross (58.11), who was the sixth placer indoors.  A few meters behind Ross was the indoor runner-up, Oregon’s Laura Roesler (58.64).

At 600 (if you know the split, please email us as we missed it in the crowd noise), Goule, Ross and Roesler were still 1-2-3 with Goule about two meters ahead of Ross and Ross about two meters ahead of Roesler.

On the turn, Goule started to pull away and Ross started to fade back. In the end, Ross would fade all the way back to seventh in 2:02.48. A little bit past halfway on the turn, Roesler went by Ross and moved into second. At 700, Roesler was only about 5 meters behind. With the hometown crowd cheering loudly, could she catch Goule?

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Nope. Despite the ambitious start to the race, Goule never faltered on the way home.

Behind Goule’s 2:00.06 win, the fourth fastest time in NCAA history, Roesler ended up second in a new pb of 2:00.98 (previous pb 2:01.75). Stanford senior Justine Fedronic, who had never before scored at an NCAA meet, ended her collegiate outdoor career with a massive near two-second PR of 2:01.67 (previous pb 2:03.54) to finish third.

Results, quick takes and post-race interviews below.

Quik Take (QT) #1: Goule, a South Plains junior college grad, came to LSU very much hyped as her PB was 2:01.45 from 2011. It turned out that she more than lived up to the hype with two NCAA crowns, including an undefeated outdoor campaign.

We caught up with Goule after the race (interviews embedded below the results) and she admitted she wanted the sub-2 clocking today. When asked if she would trade the win for a sub-2 clocking, Goule said it was a difficult question but that she would rather win as she’s confident she can run sub-2 later this summer in a rabbitted race and the points for the win today are important for LSU in the team competition. She’s hoping to run Worlds in Moscow for Jamaica.

QT #2: Second place isn’t anything for Laura Roesler to hang her head about. She’s had a fine 2013 campaign with two NCAA runner-up showings.

Roesler, who ran 2:03.08 as a prep and was an Olympic Trials semifinalist in high school in 2008, has progressed nicely the last two years. After running that 2:03.08 in tenth grade, she didn’t PR again until last year, but she’s done a great job recently of figuring out a way to get better in her early 20s after years of stagnation.

Laura Roesler’s Seasonal Bests Since 2008
2008  2:03.08
2009  2:06.2h
2010  2:04.34
2011  2:03.12
2012  2:02.09
2013  2:00.98

Roesler was disappointed she didn’t win but was pleased to have PRd and gotten a step closer to the 2:00.00 barrier which is a goal of hers as well.

QT #3: The biggest breakthrough on the night came from Stanford’s Fedronic in third. While she ran a near two-second pb, she got third by doing something she’s done before – stay within .75 of Roesler. At Pac 12s, Fedronic was .72 behind Roesler. Tonight, the margin between them two of them was nearly the same – .69.

When asked if she’d keep running after college, Fedronic said she definitely wants to as she always said she won’t quit until she at least gets under two flat, and is open to continuing even after that. As for the immediate future, Fedronic says that USAs is definitely out of the question as she’s not a US citizen. Fedronic who moved to the US at age 6 is a dual citizen of Hungary and France. She said she’s got to figure out who she wants to run for in the coming months and if she wants to become a US citizen which she said is “most likely” the case. While she was a senior for outdoor track, she’s going to return to run cross country and indoor for Stanford next year.

QT #4: Lots of others PRd as well. In fact six of the eight in the field PRd. Behind the top three PRs, the following people PRd:

Illinois’ Samantha Murphy at 2:02.10 (previous pb 2:03.88)
Duke’s Cydney Ross at 2:02.48 (previous pb of 2:03.62 in semis)
UC Davis’ Lauren Wallace at 2:02.91 (previous pb of 2:03.39)

The only two who didn’t PR were Stanford freshman Amy Weissenbach who ran 2:02.29 in HS and LSU’s Charlene Lipsey who ran 2:01.40 last year but both of them came within .3 of their PBs.

Initially, we were thinking that Ross’s bid for glory as a senior probably cost her a few spots at the end but it’s hard to say she got her tactics wrong when she PRd by so much.

Record Athlete/Team Time Date
American Jearl Miles-Clark – Reebok 1:56.40 8/11/1999
College Best Suzy Favor – Wisconsin 1:59.11 6/1/1990
NCAA Meet Suzy Favor – Wisconsin 1:59.11 6/1/1990
Place Name Affiliation Time 400m 800m
1 Natoya Goule LSU 2:00.06 57.93 (57.93) 2:00.06 (1:02.14)
2 Laura Roesler UO 2:00.98 58.64 (58.64) 2:00.98 (1:02.34)
3 Justine Fedronic STAN 2:01.67 59.17 (59.17) 2:01.67 (1:02.51)
4 Charlene Lipsey LSU 2:01.70 58.96 (58.96) 2:01.70 (1:02.75)
5 Samantha Murphy ILL 2:02.10 59.37 (59.37) 2:02.10 (1:02.73)
6 Amy Weissenbach STAN 2:02.29 59.06 (59.06) 2:02.29 (1:03.24)
7 Cydney Ross DUKE 2:02.48 58.11 (58.11) 2:02.48 (1:04.37)
8 Lauren Wallace UCD 2:02.91 59.60 (59.60) 2:02.91 (1:03.31)

1st Placer Natoya Goule

2nd Placer Laura Roessler


3rd Placer Justine Fedronic

 
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