A few months short of his 30th birthday, Jake Freeman finally won his first national championship in the hammer throw, throwing 251-0 on Friday evening to defeat clubmate Kibwe Johnson by eight inches.
Freeman, a 2004 graduate of Manhattan College and now a Long Island resident, had his winning throw in the second round against Johnson, like Freeman a member of the New York Athletic Club, as the USATF national championships entered their third day, on the campus of Drake University, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Freeman was runnerup a year ago; third every year from 2006 to 2008; runnerup in 2005, sixth in 2004 and fourth in 2003. He did win the NCAA championship for Manhattan in ’04, was USATF Juniors champion in 1999, and has won the indoor weight throw title – but until now he had never been crowned the national hammer champion. He turns 30 in November.
The East showed its depth in the event. Walter Henning, recent NCAA champion for LSU, wound up seventh at 234-9, followed by Lucais MacKay (221-8) and Kevin Becker (208-8) of the Shore AC and Jesse Doty (216-2) of the Syracuse Chargers.
Walter Dix and Allyson Felix won the 100-meter finals Friday evening. In the women’s race, Miki Barber placed fourth. The women’s 5,000 was won by Lauren Fleshman, in 15:28, over New Yorkers Molly Huddle (second), Jen Rhines (fourth), Liz Maloy (sixth) and Delilah DiCrescenzo (ninth). Nicole Blood, a recent Oregon graduate, dropped out.
Some qualifying rounds took place on Friday afternoon. In the men’s steeplechase, Don Cabral of Princeton and New Yorker Anthony Famiglietti both advanced to the final, while Ryan McDermott of Duke was eliminated.
Natasha Hastings won her heat of the women’s 400 in 51.10. Sanya Richards-Ross, the Olympic champion, faded to fourth in 51.82 and narrowly made the final. Shana Cox advanced as well, but Columbia’s Sharay Hale did not, though she ran a solid 52.83. In the men’s 1,500 prelims, Matthew Centrowitz made the final but Rob Novak of the NYAC did not.
In the women’s 400 hurdles, Jernail Hayes of Seton Hall (57.89), Fawn Dorr of Penn State (57.73) and Nicole Dumpson of Le Mans TC (58.19) all advanced to the semifinals.
In the women’s javelin, Stephanie Zollmer of the Central Park TC finished 12th at 151-3.