News27 May 2012


NCAA Regionals round-up

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Fast dash for Kimberlyn Duncan in Austin (© Kirby Lee)

Approximately 4000 athletes gathered in Jacksonville, Florida and Austin, Texas, on 24-26 May to compete for places in the two final rounds of this year's NCAA championships, to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, from 6-9 June.

The objective of each athlete was to finish in the first 12 in his or her event, and thus qualify for Des Moines. That made for widely varying quality of results. More than a few top field event athletes took one or two jumps or throws and passed the rest, confident of making the cut.

Perhaps the biggest news of the two meetings was that Jeff Demps of Florida, favored to win the men's 100m in the East, did not run. Two weeks ago Demps scratched from the Southeastern Conference because one of his hamstring was bothering him; apparently this second withdrawal was more of the same. Demps, who ran 10.01 as a high school senior four years ago, has been one of the favorites to make the U.S. Olympic team. Now we'll have to wait and see if (and how well) he runs at the NCAAs.

Even without Demps, the sprints produced the best performances, while the distance races were largely jog-and-kick affairs, and the field events ranged from excellent to mundane.

Sprints (times wind-legal unless noted)

East Men - Florida State dominated the 100m, with Kemar Hyman first in 10.11 and Maurice Mitchell second in 10.15. In the 200m, Mitchell's 20.13 was three metres better than anyone else. Emerging star David Verburg of George Mason won the 400m in 45.08 (just off his 45.06 PB), with five others running under 46 flat.

West Men - Jamaican hurdler Andy Riley of Illinois surprised with a windy 10.03, while Texas A&M's Ameer Webb ran a wind-legal 10.17 in the heats but had only the 19th fastest time in the second round. Webb came back to lead the 200m in 20.29w after a 20.20w heat (both +2.4). In the 400m, Mike Berry of Oregon stomped the field with a 44.86 PB, five metres faster than anyone else.

East Women - Louisiana State junior Kimberlyn Duncan won both the 100m (11.18) and the 200m (22.22), if anyone needed convincing that she's ready for the NCAA and the Trials. Haitian Marlena Wesh of Clemson won the 400m in 51.59, with only two others under 52 flat.

West Women - Oregon's English Gardner, concentrating on the 100m, won in 11.06 (+2.3) while coasting the last 30 metres. Texas A&M's Dominique Duncan led the 200m qualifiers with a rare wind-legal 22.95. In the 400m, Kansas sophomore Diamond Dixon led in 51.71 with no-one near her.

Middle Distances

East Men - The three 800m heats were won by Aaron Evans of Georgia in 1:47.11, Casimor Loxsom of Penn State in 1:47.69, and (!) decathlete Curtis Beach of Duke in 1:47.75. Similarly, nobody was giving anything away in the 1500m, where the fastest time was a 3:45.44 by Indiana junior Andrew Bayer and the slowest was 3:48.99.

West Men - Missouri junior Ricky West kept things honest with a 1:46.65 800m, while Texas A&M's twosome of Oscar Ramirez and Michael Preble did not qualify. In the 1500m, Rob Finnerty pushed the pace in his heat and won in 3:42.93, while the slowest qualifier ran 3:48.98 (see preceding paragraph).

East Women - Tennessee's Chanelle Price, who usually runs in front, did so here and posted a good 2:02.64 to lead the 800m qualifiers. Princeton junior Greta Feldman led the 1500m qualifiers in 4:15.00.

West Women - In the 800, another front-runner, Nachelle Mackie of Brigham Young, equaled Price's 2:02.64, while Oregon junior Jordan Hasay led the 1500m in 4:16.29.

Distances

East Men - Three Kenyans won their races: Paul Chelimo, the 5000m in 14:00.51, Paul Katam the 10,000m in 30:05.74 (both from North Carolina/Greensboro) and Ben Torotich of Eastern Kentucky the 3000m Steeplechase in a relatively better 8:37.03, with the slowest qualifier at 8:47.

West Men - Cameron Levins of Southern Utah won both the 5000m and 10,000m easily in 14:04.75 and 29:58.44. In the steeplechase, Kenyans Henry Lelei of Texas A&M (8:48.99) and Anthony Rotich of Texas-El Paso (8:49.42) led the qualifiers.

East Women - All three events were won in modest times with no casualties among the NCAA leaders.

West Women - The best women's performance was by Megan Goethals of Washington, with a 15:46.82 5000m, with the 10,000m and steeplechase both being jog-and-kick races which didn't eliminate any runners of note.

Relays

East Men - In the 4x100m, Florida State's 39.03 led eight other teams under 40 flat. The 4x400m was even more impressive, with Louisiana State's 3:03.20 leading five other teams which ran faster than 3:05.

West Men - Texas A&M led the 4x100m qualifiers with 39.11 and all 12 under 40.00. Arkansas led the 4x400m in 3:03.56, with four more under 3:06.00.

East Women - Louisiana State sizzled to a 43.26 4x100m to win by a good seven metres, and followed it up with a 3:30.05 4x400m.

West Women - In the 4x100m, Texas A&M's 43.34 led three others who ran under 44 flat. In the 4x400m, Oregon, with 800m qualifiers Laura Roesler and Phyllis Francis running the final two legs, produced the day's fastest (East or West) with 3:29.43.

Jumps

East Men - All 12 high jumpers had to clear 2.19m to qualify. In the Pole Vault, nine men cleared 5.32m; ten others cleared 5.27m, but only three of them qualified (no ties allowed, says the NCAA). Florida freshman Marquis Dendy led the Long Jump with 7.81m, while Duke decathlete Curtis Beach (also an 800m qualifier) was third with a windy 7.60m. The Triple Jump was led by Florida's Omar Craddock with a good 16.55m; third in 15.95m was Mississippi's 2.29m high jumper, Ricky Robertson.

West Men - Arkansas' Long Jump standout Raymond Higgs (BAH) took one jump, 8.23m (+3.6), and called it a day; it took 7.69m to advance, and all but one of the top 12 marks was wind-aided. Chris Benard of Arizona State led the Triple jJump quals with 16.73m (+4.2). NCAA High Jump favorite Erik Kynard of Kansas State was one of five who cleared 2.20m, with seven more over 2.17m. The Pole Vault was similar, with 5.35m needed to qualify.

East Women - Ukrainian Ganna Demydova of Southern Mississippi led the triple jumpers with a good 13.99m (+1.3), and Chelsea Hayes of Louisiana Tech led the long jump with an equally good 6.60m (-0.7). Ten high jumpers cleared 1.81m, and nine pole vaulters cleared 4.10m to lead qualifiers in their events.

West Women - Kansas junior Andrea Geubelle needed only one Triple Jump - 14.17m (+2.9) to establish herself as one of the favorites for Des Moines. All the expected qualifiers in the other three jumps - including Brigetta Barrett in the High Jump and Tina Sutej (SLO) in the vault -- advanced.

Throws

East Men - Things were pretty formful here, with Joe Kovacs of Penn State and Stephen Saenz of Auburn leading the way in the shot put at 19.91m, Lonnie Pugh of Michigan State topping the discus at 58.39m, Princeton's Conor McCullough leading the hammer with 72.30m and Florida's Stipe Zinic (CRO) leading the javelin at 74.06m.

West Men - Just as formfully, Hayden Baillio of Texas led the shot with 19.92m, Luke Bryant of Oklahoma the discus with 60.24m, UCLA's soph Alex Faldemeyer the hammer with 67.04m, and Texas A&M junior Sam Humphreys leading the javelin at 77.94m to the 76.70m of Oregon frosh Sam Crouser and the 75.13m of 2011 champion Tim Glover of Illinois State.

East Women -- The leaders' marks were all ordinary, not surprising since all they were trying was to finish in the top 12. Khadija Abdullah of Louisville led the shot with 17.12m, Emily Pendleton of Michigan the discus with 55.08m, Nikola Lomnicka (SVK) the hammer with 64.20m, and Lauren Kenny of Penn State the javelin with a modest 49.65m.

West Women -- Favored Tia Brooks of Oklahoma led the shot put with 18.37m; Anna Jelmini led the discus with 57.49m; Amanda Bingson of UNLV with a good 71.04m; and Melissa Fraser of DePaul topped the javelin with 52.96m.

James Dunaway for the IAAF
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