On a day filled with preliminaries, more of a teaser for Sunday’s finals than anything else, English Gardner had a hard time containing herself.
The sophomore sprinter had specific instructions for her heats in the 100 and 200 meter races. She’d take it easy, make sure to grab a guaranteed spot in the finals and restrain her best for when it really counted. As it turned out, this was easier said than done. @@checked all the names http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=243&SPSID=4365@@
In what turned out to be a theme on Saturday at Hayward Field during the Pac-12 Championships, Gardner dominated both of her heats, taking first in the 100 with a time of 11.07 (.41 seconds better than her nearest competition) and winning the 200 with a 23.43. In the process, she advanced to the finals in both events, even if her times were a bit faster than she meant them to be. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205426963@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/downloads2/452376.htm?ATCLID=205426963&SPSID=4367&SPID=243&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
“Wasn’t really expecting to run that fast in the 100, but you know things happen,” Gardner said. “The time shocked me because I thought I shut it down … I feel great, I feel on top of the world actually, and I felt really good and that’s all that counts. Hopefully I’ll get out there and run faster tomorrow.”
Gardner, of course, was far from alone in what turned out to be a strong day all around for both the men’s and women’s sprinting teams. Seniors Lauryn Newson (11.48) and Amber Purvis (11.64) joined Gardner in qualifying for the 100 meter finals, while sophomore Phyllis Francis put up the day’s best time in the 200 (23.05).
On the men’s side, freshman Arthur Delaney won his 100 meter heat and an automatic qualifying bid with a 10.33, and junior Joeal Hotchkins also qualified for finals with a 10.42. Despite setting a new personal best with a 10.49, sophomore Dior Mathis just missed out on a finals berth in the 100. In the 200, meanwhile, Delaney was the only Duck to qualify for finals, as both Hotchkins and freshman football sensation De’Anthony Thomas fell short of the cutoff time.
The news was better for the men in the middle distance events, as defending 400 meter champion Mike Berry qualified for the finals with a 46.01 — using much the same strategy as Gardner.
“I just wanted to kind of do what my coach told me to,” Berry said. “(He) just wanted me to get out 40 meters and kind of chill through all of that, and just win my heat was the big thing coming in.
“I feel very strong, my legs feel good, it was good weather out here, the crowd was excellent, so I just wanted to get out here and perform.”
That he did, and the other middle distance men followed that with a strong 800 meter performance that qualified three runners for the finals. Junior Elijah Greer had the best time of the day (1:49.99) while freshman Russell Hornsby and Boru Guyota also snagged automatic 800 finals bids with second place finishes in their respective heats. Hornsby finished just behind Greer in their heat, and that was the plan all along.
“The mission was to go one-two with me and Russell in my heat,” Greer said. “I wasn’t sure how fast we were going to go out, but I wanted to be kind of like in that striking position, and kind of move up, and then just kick with about 100 to go, 150 to go, and it felt like I really did that well.”
The 1,500 meter race, meanwhile, saw four men (Chad Noelle, Travis Stanford, Trevor Dunbar and Colby Alexander) qualify, rounding out an impressive day all around for the men’s middle distance runners.
The women middle distance runners were similarly successful in positioning themselves for Sunday — qualifying a total of ten runners in the 400, 800 and 1,500 meter races. To start things off in the 1,500 meters, junior Anne Kesselring led all runners with a 4:20.83, followed by fellow junior Becca Friday (4:21.76), junior Jordan Hasay (4:22.00) and sophomore Megan Patrignelli (4:23.08). Later in the afternoon, sophomores Phyllis Francis (52.39), Chizoba Okodogbe (53.72) and Devin Gosberry (54.42) earned of Sunday bids in the 400, and things rounded out with an 800 meter race that saw freshman Claudia Francis set a new personal record (2:04.88) while Friday (2:08.41) and sophomore Laura Roesler (2:10.62) also qualified.
“I just came out here and did what I needed to do, and (I’m) ready to go home and rest up for tomorrow,” Friday said. “But all the girls have been just doing exactly as planned. Claudia, it sounds like had an amazing race, and Megan did her part in the 1,500, so I’m really excited for everyone.”
Claudia Francis, for her part, was pleased to see hard work pay off — even if it was just in preliminaries.
“I’ve been working hard, the coaches have been working hard with me,” Francis said. “I was just pretty excited that I actually broke my PB (personal best), and I just wanted to make sure I won so I could go into finals and do my best.”
The day concluded with finals in both the women’s and men’s 10,000 meter races. Senior Luke Puskedra took second overall with a 29:34.42, earning the team eight points in the process. Senior Chris Kwiatkowski (29:49.06) and sophomore Parker Stinson (29:49.88) followed in fifth and sixth respectively and combined to earn seven team points — which left the men in second place overall through day one with 44 team points, behind only UCLA (45 points). @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205426963@@
On the women’s side, senior Alex Kosinski played a starring role, earning ten team points with a winning 10,000 meter time of 34:19.67. Freshman Allison Woodward followed in third (34:37.37), while senior Bronwyn Crossman (35:06.78) took sixth. The strong 10,000 meter performance gave the Oregon women a day one overall lead with 46 points, ahead of Stanford and USC teams that tied for second with 40 points.
“We knew what we needed to do on day one,” Roesler said. “It all comes down to scoring points for the team, always.”