Decathlete Stephen Conrad was able to put forth a solid effort in Day 1 of
the decathlon, amassing a total of 3,844 points after the first five events
to put him in 7th place overall in the competition and at a pace that would
garner him All-American status.
Conrad, the sophomore out of Grass Valley, California took third in the 100m
dash with a wind-aided 11.03 clocking as well as a third in the 400m dash with
a lifetime best of 48.64 to complete the first day of the decathlon's
ten events. Coach Ed Miller said of Conrad's first day, "It was
really solid for Stephen. He was only soft in the shot-put (with
a throw of 37-06.75) that placed him 21st, but everything else looked quite
strong, including that PR in the 400m. It's always nice to finish
off the first day with a PR."
The second and final day of the decathlon resumes today with the 110m high
hurdles at 10:00am. Jangy Addy of Tennessee who has a career best of
6,938 points recorded a personal best first day of 4,211 points and currently
leads the competition by 141 points over Pac-10 decathlon champion, Jake Arnold
in second place. Stanford's Josh Hustedt is currently sitting
in 6th place, just 25 points ahead of Cal's Conrad.
In other preliminary qualifying rounds, Cal high jumpers Ed Wright and Inika
McPherson were able to battle some tricky breezes at Sac-State's Hornet
Stadium to get into the high jump finals that will be held on Friday. Wright
easily cleared 6-10.75 to qualify as the diminutive McPherson had a much tougher
time before finally making 5-10.75 on her third attempt. Said Coach
Miller, "The head wind really plays havoc with someone as small as Inika,
but she made the right adjustments and got the job done." At only 5-06,
McPherson is one of the shortest competitors in the women's high jump,
predominantly featuring very lanky athletes that are close to 6 feet tall and
beyond. McPherson was the runner-up to Cal Poly's Sharon Day at
the NCAA Western Regionals, with both jumpers clearing 6-00.50 up in Eugene.
The Cal throwing contingent at the NCAA's of Emilee Strot, Kelechi Anyanwu,
and hammer thrower Carrie Johnson also were able to qualify for the finals
in their respective events. Strot placed fifth in the women's
shot-put with a mark of 49-7.75 while Anyanwu was eighth with a toss of 48-09. Johnson
placed 5th in her flight of the hammer with a throw of 203-09, seeding her
seventh overall heading into the finals on Friday.
Senior Giliat Ghebray had his heel accidentally stepped on - and his shoe
partially removed - two-thirds of the way thru the first heat of the
Men's
5000m semi-final late Wednesday night and was unable to advance
to the final. Ghebray
nevertheless finished in 23rd place (after retying his shoe) with a time of
14:44.01, well off the 13:42.16 which he recorded at the Payton Jordan Cardinal
Invitational that ranks him #3 on Cal's 5000m all-time list. The
winner of heat one was Bobby Curtis of Villanova in 14:30.56, while Wisconsin
senior and favorite to win the event, Chris Solinsky took the much faster heat
two victory in 13:56.81
The Men's 110m hurdles saw some incredibly fast preliminary times due
to a tailwind that gusted to as much as 2.7 meters per second. After
the initial three heats of nine runners each that saw Cal junior Thomas Mack
run 13.90 to qualify for the semi-finals, the semis were run less than two
hours later. John Yarbrough of Mississippi (13.51) and Alleyne Lett of LSU
(13.52) look to be the front runners of the event heading into Friday's
finals. Mack was unable to qualify, as his 13.74 for sixth place in heat two
of the semi-finals was 0.08 away from the ninth and final qualifying time of
Julius Jiles of Kansas at 13.66. Mack's 13.74 was a season best (vs.
13.87) and a lifetime best moving him up to #4 on the Cal all-time list.
In the 3000m steeplechase, senior Kevin Davis' dream season continues
as he put forth a yeoman's effort to qualify for the steeplechase finals
on Friday. Two preliminary heats were run with Pac-10 Champion, Aaron
Aguayo winning the first heat in 8:38.77. Davis, placed fourth in heat two
with a time of 8:41.56 The top 5 advanced from each heat, plus the next
four fastest times. Davis' prelim mark puts him at 8th overall
heading into what is most certain to be an extremely competitive final as eleven
of the fourteen qualifiers were all under 8:42.00
Cal's Alysia Johnson continued her undefeated march to an NCAA 800m
Championship as she easily won her heat of the Women's 800m prelims in
2:05.99, coming thru the quarter in 59.05 - - - Oregon's Rebekah
Noble (2:06.05), Michigan's Katie Erdman (2:04.14), and Minnesota's
Heather Dorniden (2:05.21) were also heat winners and appear to be Johnson's
biggest competitors. Taking the lead after the break into the backstretch
has been Johnson's trademark all season long, and she did not deviate
from this pattern. "Getting out in front really keeps me out of
trouble," said the affable Johnson. " There's no potential
of getting boxed-in or tripped-up. No surprises."
The 2007 NCAA 880m Indoor Champion is having her best season ever and comes
into the competition with the nation's second fastest mark of 2:01.48
- - - The latter had held up for most of the season until Michigan's
Katie Erdman threw down a 2:01.25 at the NCAA Mid-East Regional. Semi-finals
begin today at 5:05pm, while the final is schedule for Saturday at an unusually
early 10:28am due to live television coverage by CBS that starts at 10 am.
Other News From Around the Track
Sixteen men's pole-vaulters moved on to Friday's finals, which
for some unknown reason will be held simultaneously with the women's
vault competition on an adjacent runway. "We don't have
a problem with it," said veteran UCLA vault coach Anthony Curran. "What's
more of an issue are the crosswinds here at Hornet Stadium."
Those tricky winds were blamed for the lower qualifying mark of 16-10.75 to
get into the finals vs. the 17-04 that was required last year. Two big "guns" in
the competition are out, most notably seniors Scott Martin of Oklahoma and
Jarno Kivioja of Northern Iowa. Aside from crowd favorite Tommy Skipper
of Oregon who vaulted 19-00.50 at Regionals, this could open the door for other
Pac-10 vaulters such as Mike Landers of UCLA, Graeme Hoste of Stanford, and
the amazing freshman at UW, Scott Roth of Sacramento.
Also from the UCLA camp: According to UCLA athletic department sources hurdler
Kevin Craddock will remain a UCLA Bruin and continue to train under UCLA hurdle/sprint
coach Tony Veney. Rumors had been circulating after Craddock's scratch from
the 110m hurdles at the NCAA Western Regionals in Eugene - due toyet
another in a series of injuries (this one a strained hamstring)- thatCraddock
had been given a release from his scholarship and was possibly interested in
attending another school or pursuing an intent to turn professional and train
under his former prep coach, Remy Korchemny.
Craddock, a nativefrom nearby Richmond, CA, was an incredible preptrack
star at James Logan High School in Union City. Last month, the talented
sophomore won the Pac-10 Championships in the 110m hurdles with a time of 13.48,
a time that ranked him #2 in the nation.
Weather
Many of the avid track and field fans that attended the first day of the NCAA
Championships were greeted by gorgeous weather and expressed shock and dismay
that the NCAA has decided to move future championships out of Sacramento's
Hornet Stadium. Aside from some earlier winds that were a bit tricky for those
trying to qualify in the pole-vault, the mild evening temperatures were judged
perfect by all the distance competitors - for whom the temperature is
very important. Unfortunately, this is the final year of NCAA Championship
competition in Sacramento as the meet moves to Des Moines, Iowa for 2008, and
Fayetteville, Arkansas and Eugene, Oregon thereafter.
Barbour Comments
Rumor has it that Cal athletic director Sandy Barbour will be attending the
NCAA Championships this week in her quest to narrow her search for a new head
coach after the recent resignation of Chris Huffins. What is not a rumor
is Barbour's deep disappointment with a noted Bay Area sportswriter who
presented Huffins' departure and the Cal program in a less than balanced
report the following day.
"I was very upset with what he wrote, and I (called him) and told him
so," said Barbour, who is in her third year as athletic director of Cal.
Of particular issue to her were several quotes in the article from former
athletes and a former head coach (Erv Hunt) who is no longer with the program
that taken together presented the current state of the program in a less than
favorable light. Moreover, a quote by former Cal hammer thrower, Nate
Rolfe (who transferred to Georgia last year) seemed to draw the particular
ire of athletic director Barbour. In regards to Rolfe's quoted
remarks that he had difficulty working under and drawing motivation from female
throws coach Jennifer Joyce, who is only 26 years of age, Barbour candidly
said, "Unfortunately, we have had a few rather spoiled kids in the program,
and they lead lives that are quite insulated."
Several noteworthy NCAA Division One women coaches were upset with the remarks
made by Rolfe as well. Craig Lake, the current head coach at Brown who is partially
responsible for Anna Willard's success this year as perhaps the most
versatile runner in D-1 said last night, "I read the article about Huffins' resignation
and in particular the remarks made about Coach Joyce by one of the throwers.
It really saddened me to see those remarks in print. It's that kind of
(stuff) that tries to send all of us female coaches in the NCAA back to the
Stone Age."
Cal throws coach Jennifer Joyce, who herself is a multiple Canadian national
champion in the hammer throw has 3 athletes competing in this week's
NCAA Championships. This is a strong showing for Cal, especially given
the fact that UCLA (a noteworthy throwing power with head coach Art Venegas)
has 4 athletes entered in this week's NCAA Championships.
Yet, for some reason, Cal's success was noticeably absent from the controversial
newspaper article - as was the fact that Trackwire, a ranking service
for college track and field that ranks the nations top 25 programs, currently
ranks the Cal women at #17 in the nation, four slots behind Oregon. The
final USTFCCCA national poll has the Cal women ranked at #13.
"I didn't find this article to be very balanced, especially in
the way that it was presented with quotes from former athletes, and a former
head coach," said Barbour. "It did not present the current
Cal coaching staff, or the overall program, in an accurate light."
When questioned about the timing and announcement of Chris Huffins departure
from the program just eight days before the NCAA's - and the distractions
that caused for the rest of the coaching staff and team members, Barbour said, "Certainly
the timing of Chris' resignation was an issue. I was very much
aware that this could be a distraction leading into the NCAA's. But
at the end of the day I had to weigh several factors with this, and Chris and
I agreed that this was the best way to go about it."
As to rumors that had been circulating that some kind of external event might
be driving the timing issue of Huffins' departure, Barbour retorted, "There
was no smoking gun in regards to this decision. I want to make that
very clear."
With the escalating track and field and cross country budgets of Pac-10 rivals,
for example Oregon ($2.6 million) and UCLA ($1.9 million), Barbour might be
challenged to provide a new head coach with the necessary resources to move
Cal into a more competitive position. On that note, Barbour said, "There
could be some fine-tuning that we can do with regards to the budget. But
I think that we are in the ballpark (with the other schools) and should be
able to field a competitive team that can succeed at the D-1 level."
Head of the Cal track and field steering committee and longtime Cal alum Monte
Upshaw remarked that he had confidence in Barbour's current efforts to
find a new head coach for the Cal program. "Sandy cares very much about
the track and field program at Cal. She cares about it deeply. I
know that for a fact, and I have no doubt that she will be successful in attracting
a formidable new head coach for the team."
While the current coaching staff continues to work with the Cal athletes here
in Sacramento, and were highly visible recruiting at the recent California
State High School Championships at nearby Hughes Stadium, there is inevitably
some uncertainty as to whether or not a new head coach will continue with the
current staff.
"I would hope that all of the current assistant coaches will be kept
on. They are obviously a tremendous resource for the program," said Upshaw
whose daughter Grace is a 1997 Cal alum who competed for the USA in the long
jump at the 2004 Summer Games in Greece.
The NCAA Championship Schedule and Information is
available here:
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