byLarry EderWe asked James Dunaway, the editor of American Track & Field, to give Runblogrun.com the benefit of his visits to the NCAA Indoor. This is his column for the first day of the 2013 NCAA Indoor!
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2013 NCAA INDOOR Fayetteville, March 8 – Sprinters of both sexes dominated the first day of the NCAA’s Division One Track and Field Championships. Best of all was Brianna Rollins’ meet record in the women’s 60-meter hurdles. The Clemson junior broke Ginny Powell’s old mark of 7.84 with a dazzling 7.82, winning by more than two meters – and that was only in the heats.. LSU senior Kimberlyn Duncan won her third straight women’s 200-meter title handily in 22.58 to Aurieyall Scott’s 22.71. But Scott, a Central Florida junior, led the qualifiers for tomorrow’s 60-meter final with a swift 7.15, a few thousandths ahead of Oregon’s English Gardner’s 7.15 and a few inches faster than UCF teammate’s Octavious Freeman’s 7.17, presaging a hot final. The women’s 400 heats were hot, too. Georgia freshman Shaunae Miller led the heats with a blazing 51.14, as Illinois sophomore Ashley Spencer (51.55) and Arkansas’s favored Regina George (51.73) also bettered 52 seconds. The men’s 200 was won by Texas A&M’s Jameer Webb in 22.42 after a 20.37 qualifier. Mississippi State’s D’Angelo Cherry led the 60 qualifiers with an impressive 6.53, just 0.02 off the meet record. The 400 heats were led by Texas A&M’s Deon Lendore in 45.36, with four others under 46 seconds. In the hurdles, Florida junior Eddie Lovett just missed the meet record in leading the heats with a 7.53 performance. There was plenty of quality in the field events. Florida sophomore Marquis Dendy won the men’s long jump with a world-class 8.28m (27-2) and had another 27-footer (8.23) as well. Arkansas soph Andrew Irvin beat a strong field in the pole vault with a clearance of 18-8 ¼ (5.70) as three others jumped 18-4 ½ (5.60). Arizona State senior Jordan Clarke won the shot put convincingly with a put of 20.50 (67-3 ¼ ). Felisha Johnson of Indiana State was just as convincing in winning the women’s weight throw, winning by four feet with a throw of 23.52 (77-2). The best distance performance was Kennedy Kithuka’s gun-to-tape victory in the men’s 5,000. The Texas Tech senior’s 13:25.38 just missed the meet record of 13:25.11. Other winners included Brigetta Barrett, Arizona State’s Olympic silver medalist, with a 1.95 (6-4) clearance in the high jump; a 6.55 (21-6) long jump by Andrea Geubelle of K-State, who needed a second-best jump of 6.53 to win from Christabel Nettey’s 6.55; and a 15:28.11 5,000-meters by Dartmouth’s Abbey D’Agostino, who kicked away from Betsy Saina over the final two laps to win by more thsan30 meters. Ten-eventer Kevin Lazas got Arkansas off to a good start by setting personal bests to win the 60-meter dash (6.90 seconds) and shot put (15.00/49-2 ½); he leads the heptathlon with 3449 points after the first day’s four events. |
