By Christopher Hunt
photos by wingedfootfotos.com
Tynisha McMillian watched her hands shaking. She felt her body quivering and she couldn’t stop it.
“I was so nervous because I knew what I had to do,” the University of Connecticut junior said.
She had to win. McMillian didn’t just have to win, she expected to win and everyone else expected her too. But the nervousness tormented her at first. They wouldn’t let her settle down, wouldn’t let her focus and she was struggling through her first three attempts in the shot put.
“I knew I had to just get away,” McMillian said. “I had to calm down and get myself together.”
So she left. She walked away from the throwing cage and even outside of the track at the New Balance Track and Field Center. McMillian found a space where she could be alone and simply breathe away from the stifling air of competition. Apparently, she must have left all her nervousness in the hallway. She returned for the finals in the shot put renewed.
McMillian won the shot put at the Big East Championships in a meet record 16.69 meters (54-9.25) for 10 crucial points late in the meet as the Huskies won their second straight Big East title with 107 point Saturday. Georgetown, leading after 17 events, finished second with 98. With freshman Victoria Flowers finishing fifth in the shot, it provided Connecticut the breathing room they needed after leading by just one point after the 3,000 and three events left. McMillian and Flowers put UConn ahead by 16 with two relays left.
“Those were huge points,” head coach Bill Morgan said.
Then Georgetown won the 4x800 in 8:43.93 but UConn insured the win by finishing fifth in a school record time of 8:58.40. There was little room for error for UConn with Georgetown keeping the meet close throughout. The Huskies needed to score big in the sprints and field events where they are strong.
“We were void in a lot of areas,” Morgan said. “We had no horizontal jumpers. We were weak in the distances. We needed our championships to really carry us through it.”
And those athletes answered the challenge. Trisha Ann Hawthorne completed a stellar sprint double. She won the 60 in 7.31, the fourth-fastest collegiate time in the country this season. Then she won the 200 in 23.72. Both times meet the provisional standard for nationals.
“The team championship is a very, very big deal for us,” Hawthorne said. “I got goosebumps when I got out there and hear my team screaming for me.”
The momentum started when Carin Knight and Rachael Porter went 1-2 in the high jump. Knight, a New Rochelle grad, was recovering from the flu before the meet but was able to clear her first three heights on her first attempt to get the win. Later Mandela Graves-Fulgham won the 400 in a personal-best 53.57, the seventh-fastest time in the NCAA this season. She was near tears at the finish.
“I’ve been trying to run 53 forever,” Graves-Fulgham said. “That was the most relaxed I’ve ever felt.”
West Virginia’s Keri Bland said the same after winning the mile in 4:34.78, the fourth-fastest time in the country this season. Bland spent most of the race being pressured from behind by Georgetown’s Emily Infeld but when three laps to go Bland started cranking up the pace, just hoping to make the automatic mark for nationals (4:38.00).
“I had no idea I was running 4:34 pace,” she said. “I’ve never done that before.”
Clarrise Moh was a standout performer for Seton Hall. The graduate student won a tactical 800 in 2:09.56 then finished third in the 500 in 1:12.27 and ran the third leg on the Pirates’ winning 4x400 relay that finished in 3:39.20. Teammate Alexandra McCoy won the 500 in 1:12.13.
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.