NCAA Champs: Columbia

By Jack Pfeifer

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Sharay Hale, the Columbia freshman, advanced to the semifinals of the women’s 400 meters late Wednesday night at the NCAA Championships here at the University of Arkansas. Hale, the Ivy League winner who was the Milwaukee city champion last spring, ran a strong homestretch to finish 2nd in Heat IV in 53.42 and take one of the automatic qualifying spots in Friday’s semifinals.

 

The meet was resumed at 10 p.m. after a 3-hour delay caused by rain and lightning. Qualifying in the distance races continued well past midnight Thursday morning.

In the women’s 5,000, Nicole Blood, formerly of Saratoga Springs and now a junior at the University of Oregon, won Heat I in 16:15.38. Blood is one of the keys to the Ducks’ aspirations for the team championship. After the rainstorm, conditions were pleasant for the distance races because the humidity was down.

 

Albany continued its impressive Day One performances here.After qualifying three athletes earlier in the day, Albany advanced Ricardo Estremera to the steeplechase final. Estremera, a senior from Puerto Rico, ran 8:48.72 in Heat I and advanced to the final on time. Iona and Princeton also sent distancemen to distance finals.

 

Ryan Sheridan, a redshirt freshman at Iona from Walt Whitman H.S. in Melville, ran 14:02.44 for 6th place in Heat II of the men’s 5,000. He will be joined there by Michael Maag, the Princeton senior, who was 6th in Heat I in 13:59.96. Both were auto qualifiers.

 

In the women’s 5k, Frances Koons of Villanova moved on to the final, but her sophomore teammate, Amando Marino, was eliminated, as was Holly VanDalen, the Stony Brook sophomore. Marino ran 16:25, VanDalen 16:35. VanDalen’s twin sister, Lucy, is scheduled to run in the 1,500 preliminaries on Thursday evening.

 

In the steeplechase, Jeff Randall (Columbia), Adrien Dannemiller (Cornell), Ashley Higginson (Princeton) and Hannah Davidson (Providence) all were eliminated in the qualifying round. Randall ran 9:01.71 and Dannemiller 9:04.96 in the men’s prelims. Higginson, a newcomer to the steeple this season, ran 10:17.48, while Davidson, the freshman from Saratoga Springs, ran 10:24.83, both in Heat II, and were eliminated on time.

In the women’s 400, Jessica Clarke of TCU, a graduate of Murry Bergtraum, ran 55.02 in Heat II and was eliminated. Clarke will be running later in the meet on TCU’s relay teams.

 

Four of the heat winners in that event were Jessica Beard of Texas A&M (51.61), Francena McCorory of Hampton (53.40), Leslie Cole of Oklahoma (51.86) and Keshia Baker of Oregon (53.12). All four ran on the Armory track in the final of the New Balance Collegiate Invitational women’s 400 in February, in a race won by McCorory. “Francena was just cruising today,” her coach, Maurice Pierce, said afterward. “She’s ready to go.”