By Jack Pfeifer
photos by Kim Spir
EUGENE, Ore. – Running just the third steeplechase of her young college career, Lanie Thompson qualified for the NCAA Championships Friday evening, getting a dramatic 3rd place in the West Regional meet here in front of the Oregon home fans.
Thompson, the second-year freshman from Voorhees H.S., N.J., passed Martina Tresch of Kansas State with 20 yards left to get the final automatic qualifying spot in Heat III, and ran a lifetime best, 10:06.83, 6 seconds faster than she ran in her surprise debut in the event a month and a half ago.
“I didn’t know at that point what the qualifying situation was,” Thompson said. In the three heats, qualifying was the top three finishers plus the next three fastest times. “It’s a lot less stressful if you can get an auto, so I went for it.”
It was a good thing her shoes stayed on, though. “My shoes both came untied with four to go.
“I think I lost it a little bit. I looked over at my coach when I ran by him, and yelled to him, ‘My shoes! What do I do about it?’”
On the next-to-last water jump, “I stepped on my laces. I just about stopped completely. But this is the steeplechase. It happens.”
Thompson, it turns out, would have advanced even finishing 4th. Tresch did just that, running 10:06.98 as a time qualifier.
Two New Yorkers advanced in their events for UCLA. Ashlea McLaughlin, the senior from Uniondale, finished 3rd in her quarterfinal of the 400 and moved on to the NCAA finals, to be held in two weeks in Des Moines, Iowa, while Lindsay Rowe (Cardozo, Queens) moved through Round 1 of the 100 hurdles.
“I made it!” said McLaughlin. “It’s my first time getting to the NCAA meet” as an individual runner. She qualified last season in the 4x4. “I’m thankful to have made it.
“Now that I have, I know that I have to train really hard these next two weeks. I have to work on my speed, and on my closing.”
McLaughlin ran 53.43 in Heat III, behind Jessica Beard of Texas A&M and Brianna Nelson of Texas. She will also run on the Bruins’ 4x4 team in Saturday’s qualifying round.
McLaughlin will graduate in two weeks with a degree in English, and will be teaching at a middle school in Las Vegas in the fall as part of Teach for America.
Rowe, also a senior for the Bruins, advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals in the 100 hurdles, running 13.88 for 3rd place in Heat IV into a headwind. She finished just ahead of Ryann Krais of Kansas State, who failed to advance on time.
Krais, the junior from Methacton, Pa., also ran the 400 hurdles, won her heat in 57.50 and moved on to the Nationals in that event. Dalilah Muhammad (Cardozo) also advanced in the IH, running 57.93 for 3rd place in Heat II.
The fastest time of the day in the 100 hurdles was turned in by another transplanted Angeleno, Nia Ali, a 5th-year senior at USC. (Earlier in her college career, Ali ran for Tennessee. In high school, she competed both for West Catholic, of Philadelphia, and for Pleasantville, N.J.)
Ali ran 12.82w to win Heat II. It was the only sub-13.00 time turned in on the chilly, rainy afternoon at Hayward Field.
“I’ve been working on technical things in my race” with Coach Tommy Lee White, Ali said. He tells us “it’s the way you look at it. He tells us to visualize our race, then he says, ‘No, that’s not it! Run it again!’”
Although her first and last names total just six letters, there’s more to it. Her full first name is Nia-sifaatihii. “It’s from Islam,” she said. “Nia means purpose, sifaatihii means worthy of praise.”
On Saturday, she is scheduled to run Round 2 of the hurdles and also to try to qualify in the high jump, in which she suddenly improved to 6-1 ¼ at the Pac-10 meet two weeks ago. “I used to play basketball,” Ali said, “so Coach Mike Pullins, my high jump coach, told me to go at it like a layup. I’ve been putting two and two together.”
And then there’s also dancing, and schoolwork. “I just got my degree, in psychology, and I’m a dancer – modern, tap, everything. Outside of track, I never stop.”
In the women’s 100 quarterfinals, two New Jersey natives advanced to the NCAA meet. English Gardner, the Oregon freshman, finished 2nd to Tiffany Townsend of Baylor, 11.30-11.39. Porsche Giddings, an East Orange native who runs for BYU, advanced on time, running 11.66. Later, Giddings was eliminated in the 200.
Geronne Black, a sophomore at Portland State who went to Robeson of Brooklyn, was eliminated in the 100, running 11.95 for 7th in her heat. In the women’s 800, Brittany Ogunmokun, Baylor sophomore who transferred last year from Seton Hall, failed to advance, running 2:06.77.
Qualifying also continued Friday at the East Regional in Bloomington, Ind. Both Regionals conclude on Saturday.
By Jack Pfeifer
photos by Kim Spir