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NCAA post-meet notes women - updatedJun 22nd 2009, 10:14am
NCAA post-meet notes menJun 18th 2009, 5:44am
Pac-10 Predictions - MenMay 14th 2009, 4:18am
Pac-10 predictions - womenMay 14th 2009, 2:18am
Oregon vs UCLA dualApr 16th 2009, 12:49am
 

 

NCAA post-meet notes women - updated

Published by
Adam Schneider   Jun 22nd 2009, 10:14am
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100 - senior Alexandria Anderson of Texas has had a spectacular career with 20 all-American awards culminating with a 100 meter title (first individual) and a 4x400 meter relay victory where she ran the fastest leg of the entire field (50.9) to open the race up and give breathing room to her 17-year old sophomore teammate from the Virgin Islands, Chantel Malone.  This was her 2nd and 3rd titles to go with the 4x100 meter title from 2006.  In the heats she moved to #5 all-time among collegians with her 11.02 time.  She is now #3 on the world list and #2 on the US list.  She ran a pr 22.60 in the semis of the 200 and finished third in the final at 22.88.  Everyone had expected these results as a freshman when she was considered to be the top incoming freshman.  In 2006 she won the US junior meet in 11.12.  She has the frame to be an incredible runner and maybe the 200 is a better race for her in the long run. 

At the interview she seemed more relaxed and relieved than excited that she won her first NCAA individual title.

Texas A&M junior Porscha Lucas and sophomore Gabby Mayo were fourth and fifth respectively and were talking about 8 races down and just two more to go.  But they were confident that they had the strength to keep going and would perform well the next day.  They were both still excited about the collegiate record 4x100 meter relay that broke the record by running 42.36 as Texas A&M won for the third straight year.  Last year they had run on the team that had become third all-time at 42.59 in winning the NCAA title.  Lucas had a similar schedule indoors when she ran the 60, 200, and 4x400 relay.

200 - Porscha Lucas was happy to get her first title after finishing second last year and second indoors this year.  In the first two rounds the '08 OT semifinalist ran prs 22.52 and 22.38 (#4 all-time collegian) to dominate by time but in the final the heavy schedule slowed her to 22.81, just ahead of Charonda Williams of ASU in 22.84.  She now had her 15th all-American award with a year to go.  She is ranked 2nd in the world and US, .04 behind Lauryn Williams.  If Lucas can save some energy in the heats and not double she has a good chance to make the US team.

Charonda Williams of Arizona State did not want to talk.  She seemed to be under the strain of running so many races to triple and help the Arizona State team possibly win.  She had been great at the Pac-10 meet.  But seem to have trouble with so many races.  She looked like she was slow to recover under the eight race toll. Indoors she helped the ASU 4x400 relay team to a runner-up finish at the NCAA indoor but didn't run outdoors.  Outdoors she finished a below expected sixth in the 100 at 11.37 and was second in the 200 at 22.84 after running a pr 22.71 in the semis.  Both finals were run into head-winds.  If she limits her race schedule she will probably be more successful at the US championships. 

400- Joanna Atkins of Auburn surprised herself with her win.  She did not expect to win, she just focused on her own race out in lane 8 where she could see no one.  The sophomore was fourth indoors.  She ran 50.39 (#2 US and world this year) to move to fifth all-time among collegians.  She beat pre-race favorites Jessica Beard of Texas A&M (50.56) (#4 US and World this year) who moved to sixth all-time among collegians and NCAA indoor champion Francina McCrory of Hampton in 50.58 (#5 US, #6 world this year) who moved to eighth all-time.  Those were the fastest times ever for 2nd and 3rd at an NCAA championships. 

Duck Keshia Baker finished fifth in a school record 51.29 and she praised god and her coach, Robert Johnson for guiding her. She said she will use this experience to help the younger sprinters on Oregon's team, Amber Purvis and Mandy White for next year's NCAA championship to be held in Eugene. 

800 - Geena Gall of Michigan came into college the top 800 runner and ended her career as the top.  She had gained strength from the 1500 training and this year was a doing a lot more speed. Early in the bad part of the year in Michigan she had run a 55 second quarter-mile.  She ran 2:00.80 for a 1.5 second pr (OT in '08) and feels that could have been faster if she had not run wire-to-wire. 

Laura Hermanson of North Dakota State ran 2:06 in 2007 and then ran 2:03.37 in LA last year and had some good performances.  She has had great training this year and ran a pr 2:03.19 in the semis and 2:01.37 in the final.  She was very excited with her quick development and looks forward to racing some more. 

Phoebe Wright of Tennessee won the indoor 800, was part of the DMR win and looked great until the final.  She won her heat in  2:04.86 and semi in 2:02.56 but couldn't answer in the final as she had all year long.  She ran 2:03.57 for fifth.  I expect she will run very well at the US championships if she is healthy. 

1,500 - Susan Kuiken of Florida State really wanted her first outdoor title.  In 2008 she had won the NCAA indoor 3k title but to get an outdoor title meant a lot to her.  She had battled against the top runners but was confident she could get the win.  She pulled away from everyone, not like last year when she couldn't follow her teammate's (HAnnah England) move. She won in 4:13.05.

Brenda Martinez of Cal Riverside had outkicked everyone and had recently taken down all of the list leaders with a great kick in this, her senior year.  Indoors she was just 7th (pr 4:39) but her speed and a great training season indicated she could have a great track season.  At conference she ran a 2:03.05 800 to indicate her great condition and speed and she ran 2:02.34 last year.  She had raced 1,500s all season to gain race experience.  Kuiken still finished faster and MArtinez was second in 4:13.97.  Her coach said she will run the 800 meters at the US championship because it is a change and they would like to see what she would do since they only ran one 800 meters and that was at the conference meet where she doubled. 

Steeple -  Colorado's Jenny Barringer has looked tremendous all year.  She hasn't lost to an American of collegian all year long.  At Prefontaine she surprised her whole team by announcing at a team meeting before the race that she would run the 1,500.  She ran 3:59.90 collegiate record after winning the indoor 3k in a collegiate record and beating multiple NCAA champion in the mile indoors at the Big 12 championship, then set a 5k outdoors.  At the NCAA championship she broke the in-season collegiate record in the steeplechase at 9:25.54.  She seemed disappointed and it seemed she was heavy-legged.  The heavy schedule may have slowed her.  She mentioned how she had a list of all of the collegiate distance records on the wall and crossed them off as she broke the records and said her records are also meant to be crossed off

Freshman Mel Lawrence Washington - she seemed a little overwhelmed by the attention.  She was happy with the performance to get third.  She had been given confidence by her coach that she would do well.

5,000 meters - Angela Bizzari of Illinois did not to seem to have confidence that she would do well even though she was the top returner.  She said she was not aware of who was around her and was just racing. 

Nicole Blood of Oregon - was happy to get eight points for the team.  She thought she was still in the race to win with 200 to go.   When she heard the crowd noise she responded to run as fast as she could to hold off Koons and Sanakiewich who were chasing her. 

10,000 meters - Danette Doetzel fo Providence said this year's entire plan was to run the 10,000 even though she had the top 5,000 meter time.  Her coach had given her confidence to have success here. 

Mattie Bridgmon of Oregon was seventh.  She knew she had to score so she pushed the pace.  She was very happy to contribute two points to the team effort.  She had missed two weeks after Pepsi due to soreness in her foot that had been bugging her a little after her Stanford 10k. 

100 hurdles - Tiffany Ofili of Michigan was relieved to win after losing the semifinal and had no idea of the rarity of winning three NCAA 100 hurdles titles.  She admitted her strength was due to cross training in the heptathlon.  Long jump and 200 training has halped her with her development

Texas A&M's Gabby Mayo was 4th after winning her semifinal.  She seemed tired and seemed to have strained something (or just tired) after the race.  Teammate Vashti Thomas did not finish and the Aggies did not get the advantage of having an extra competitor to help with the team race.

400 hurdles - Nicole Leach of UCLA had been hurt early in the year and her coach, Janette Bolden, admitted to starting her season slowly.  At the west region meet Bolden was hopeful of her success at the NCAA meet.

4x100 meter relay - Texas A&M was not called for a pass out of zone in the final during their collegiate record 42.36.  The first exchange was passed out of zone but because the official had not raised a flag, the NCAA could not disqualify them although four teams protested. 

4x400 meter relay - Texas used Alexandria Anderson on the third leg and she was the only person in the final to break 51 seconds.  That allowed their 17 year-old sophomore Chantel Malone to finish off the relay to get them the win.  Anderson earned her 20th all-American award.  Very few competitors have gotten 20 a-a awards. 

HJ - Destinee Hooker of Texas won her third title to get into rare company.  She will compete at the US championships but if she makes the world championship team she will train for volleyball at the same time and try to squeeze in high jump workouts.  She mentioned she would like to high jump and play volleyball at the Olympics.  If their is a schedule conflict she would drop high jump.  She said the technique she has most improved at Texas is her in air/over-the-bar technique. 

Runner-up Liz Patterson was frustrated at not winning.  She is happy she has an Arizona teammate, Jasmin Day, that is in her corner and that they push each other in practice. 

Long Jump - Kim Williams of Florida State said this was just an extra event.  She praise her coach, Dennis Nobles, and mentioned how good he was and his previous history of coaching world record holder Jonathon Edwards.     

Jameesha Youngblood of Oregon was disappointed she couldn't get first place points because she had tied for the top jump but was third due to her second best jump.  She admits her improved speed is good but bad at the same time because it is hard to handle.  She says she does not look at her mark unless it is her third jump and she needs a good jump.  She also said she is inconsistent on the runway because she is inconsistent with her speed.  She said she was done even though she still had the triple jump.

Triple Jump - Kim Williams of Florida State is just a sophomore and won the triple jump with the best jump ever at 47-2 1/4 but was wind-aided by a 2.1 m/s wind.  The jump would have been the collegiate record if it was only 2.0 m/s wind-aided. 

Shot Put - Mariam Kekhhishvili of Florida was disappointed with her prelim performance because she said she wasn't fired up.  For the final she was but in warm-ups she pulled her hamstring.  She won though

Sarah Stevens of Arizona State was not happy about losing but happy about scoring points for the team.  She said she will put shot at US championships and not throwing Discus will help because that "throws off her technique in the shot put."

Discus - D'Andra Carter joined her sister Michelle and father Michael winning NCAA championships.  She was happy to be rid of the pressure and is happy to chear on her sister at the US championships. 

Hammer Throw - Sarah Stevens is happy with her progress in the event and the seconds in the shot and discus and third place finish here scored 22 for the team.  The most for any field athlete.  She will throw the hammer at the US championships

Javelin Throw - Rachel Yurkovich of Oregon was mad going into the last three throws.  After prelims she wanted to get things going.  She ended up beating her goal of 59 meters and she did it three times with her best throw of 59.62, 195-7, a school record.  All three throws over 195 are now the 7th, 8th, and 9th best collegiate throws ever (still #6 collegian) . Patterson of Purdue couldn't respnd but did have her best throw with her fourth throw, 57.96m, 190-2. 

Heptathlon - Oregon's Brianne Thiesen seemed a little worn after the first day with the tough competition.  On the second day she improved by 16 feet on her third throw of the javelin throw to take the lead.  She was then in range of 6100 points to make the World championship A standard and she needed to run 2:13.7 to get that.  The first thing she told Dan Steele at the end of the race was, "I'm so disappointed. Just 14 points off."  Steele had to tell her, "be happy, you're an NCAA champion as a sophomore."  Under Steele's training she has lost 2  pounds but has gotten stronger.  Her improved speed is a big reason for her improved performance this year.

 

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