Women’s 800 Heats: Laura Roesler Remains The Heavy, Heavy Favorite Going Into The 800 Final
by LetsRun.com
March 14, 2014
Albuquerque, NM – The women’s 800 has probably one of the biggest favorites in any of the distance events in Oregon’s Laura Roesler and she made it through the heats comfortably here as Andrew Keklak won the first heat and Savannah Camacho the second. Roesler is an even bigger favorite in the final as the #2-4 seeds coming into the meet went out.
Heat 1:
| Place | Name | Affiliation | Time |
| 1 | Andrea Keklak | GTWN | 2:07.13 Q |
| 2 | Amanda Smith | VT | 2:07.57 Q |
| 3 | Kaela Edwards | OKST | 2:07.77 Q |
| 4 | Ejiroghene Okoro | IAST | 2:07.93 |
| 5 | Sabrina Southerland | GTWN | 2:08.73 |
| 6 | Megan Malasarte | UGA | 2:08.89 |
| 7 | Nikita Tracey | LSU | 2:10.41 |
| 8 | Kelsey Margey | NOVA | 2:12.53 |
Andrea Keklak took over during the second lap and led to the end winning 2:07.13 as Amanda Smith and Kaela Edwards took the other two auto spots.
Quick Thought #1: The #2 and #3 seed coming into the meet went out in this heat. Ejiroghene Okoro (the #3 seed) just missed getting the top 3 here as she was 4th. #2 seed Megan Malasarte was well beaten in 6th place.
Heat 2:
| Place | Name | Affiliation | Time |
| 1 | Savannah Camacho | OKST | 2:06.17 Q |
| 2 | Alena Brooks | MINN | 2:06.25 Q |
| 3 | Laura Roesler | UO | 2:06.35 Q |
| 4 | Nicky Akande | NOVA | 2:07.03 q |
| 5 | Megan Krumpoch | DART | 2:07.17 q |
| 6 | Alexis Panisse | TENN | 2:09.66 |
| 7 | Erika Veidis | HARV | 2:11.03 |
| 8 | Yanique Malcolm | BAMA | 2:11.93 |
Yanique Malcolm lead through a 60.80 first 400, but was past after that by Alena Brooks and during the last lap there was a clear top 3 in Brooks, Savannah Camacho and Laura Roesler. Camacho won the heat in 2:06.17 as Brooks was second and Roesler coasted in for 3rd. The two time qualifiers came from this heat as Nicky Akande and Megan Krumpoch were 4th and 5th.
Quick Thought #1: The #2 and #3 seeds went out in the first heat and the #4 seed Malcolm went out here as she was dead last. Could this get any easier for Laura Roesler? Roesler has now ran 2.81 seconds faster this year than anyone else in the final. (Krumpoch is the next fastest behind Roesler’s 2:01.32 with 2:04.13.) Saturday should be an easy win for her, but then again, we did say the same thing about Lawi Lalang in the 5K.
Interviews:
Laura Roesler
Savannah Camacho