By Jack Pfeifer
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Joe Greene, Ali Beauvais and Luke Schoen of Albany all advanced to the next round on Day 1 of the NCAA Championships before lightning and rain arrived Wednesday evening at the University of Arkansas.
Competition was suspended at 7 p.m. because of bad weather but was expected to resume later that night.
Beauvais won Heat I of the men’s 400 hurdles in 50.41 and Greene was 2nd in Heat V in an eased-up 50.73, as both advanced to the semifinals. Beauvais is a senior from Hempstead, Greene a senior from Rochester.
Schoen, a junior from West Islip, had a tricky route to the pole vault final. After needing three attempts at his first two heights in the qualifying round, he cleared 17-2 ¾ on his first attempt, good enough for a spot in the final.
Two Manhattan College throwers also advanced. Milan Jotanovic was 4th in the shot qualifying, at 62-5 ¾, while Seid Mujanovic was 8th in the hammer, at 211-11.
The leading throw in the men’s hammer qualifying was posted by New Yorker Walter Henning, of LSU, at 229-0. Matt DiBuono of Fordham and Alex Pessala of Princeton failed to advance, however. DiBuono missed by a foot and half, throwing 209-0 for 14th place. Pessala, this year’s Ivy League champion, was 20th at 196-1.
In the men’s shot, John Hickey, a senior at Iowa from Tappan Zee, made the final, finishing 11th with a put of 60-2. Rashaud Scott of the Bronx, who competes for Kentucky, had no mark, as did Larry Lundy of Monmouth. Scott will defend his championship in the discus later in the meet.
Dalilah Muhammad, a freshman at USC who attended Cardozo in Queens last year, won her heat of the women’s 400 hurdles, running 57.38. Fawn Dorr of Penn State, this year’s Penn Relays champion and formerly a student at Cortlandt State, also advanced to the IH semifinals.
Eastern runners did well in the 800.
Lance Roller, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Virginia, ran a lifetime best of 1:47.88 to move on to the 800 semis. Roller, who attended Walter Panas H.S. in Cortlandt Manor, finished 4th in Heat IV and advanced on time. His previous best was 1:48.34.
New Yorker Sean Tully and Seton Hall’s Rob Novak also advanced in the 800. Tully, a senior at Villanova, came from well back on the final straightaway to finish 2nd in Heat II in 1:47.59, a lifetime best, and Novak advanced on time, running 1:48.84 for 5th in Heat III. Novak was the last of the 16 semifinalists.
Australian Ryan Foster of Penn State and Delaware State sophomore Donte Holmes also advanced in the event, but Jeff Moriarty of Columbia did not, running 1:51.26 in Heat II.
In the women’s 800, Seton Hall senior Clarisse Moh grabbed the final qualifying position. She ran 2:06.17 for 5th place in Heat IV.
One of the biggest surprises of the day came in the men’s long jump, where Bernard Bush, a senior at Syracuse from Tacoma, Wash., made the final with a jump of 25-6 1/4w. Bush had entered the meet with the shortest mark in the field, 24-7 ¼.
Priscilla Frederick of St. John’s and Monique Roberts of Columbia both failed to advance to the final of the women’s high jump. They cleared 5-8 ½, one height short of the needed performance.
Lynne Layne of New Rochelle advanced to the semifinals of the women’s 100 for Tennessee, running 11.48 in her heat. Layne also ran a leg for the Lady Vols’ 4x1 team that made the final.
Alexandria Anderson of Texas had the fastest time of the 100 qualifying, running 11.02, a lifetime best and one of the leading times in the world this year.
In the men’s 100 qualifying, Trindon Holliday of LSU ran 10.00, Jacoby Ford of Clemson 10.01 and D’Angelo Cherry of Mississippi State 10.04 to win their heats. For Cherry, it is the 3rd-fastest time ever by a Junior (under age 20). As a high-school runner from Georgia, Cherry set the national high school record in the indoor 55-meter dash at the Armory in 2008.
With the weather improving, competition was expected to resume late Wednesday evening.
In the team competition, the Oregon men got off to a good start with a solid first-day performance from Ashton Eaton, the favorite in the decathlon. Eaton ran 10.35w in the 100 and 46.85 in the 400 on his way to a first-day total of 4,367 points. In the long jump, however, Eaton fouled on his first two attempts before jumping 24-10 ¼ on his third and final try. On that one, he took off from a foot behind the takeoff board.
Texas A&M, a contender in both team races, had the fastest times of the day in both 4x1s, running 38.51 in the men’s and 42.93 in the women’s. Florida (38.57) and LSU (38.72) also ran under 39.00 in the men’s. TCU had the slowest qualifying time, 39.41.
Reindell Cole of Cal State Northridge had the day’s best long jump, going 26-11 1/4w in the qualifying round. Men’s contenders Arkansas, A&M and LSU also advanced jumpers in that event.