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August 19, 2005 > Sports > Seven go to NCAA track championships

Seven go to NCAA track championships

By Stephen Whitfield | Thresher Editorial Staff

After falling short of winning a third consecutive Western Athletic Conference outdoor title, seven members of the women’s track and field team competed in six events at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships held June 8-11 in Sacramento, Calif.

Junior Krystal Robinson was the most successful Owl at the NCAA meet, qualifying for the finals in the discus with a throw of 173 feet, 1 inch. The only Rice athlete to advance to the finals of any event, Robinson missed out on a top-three finish in the finals by one inch, throwing 178-1.

Head Coach Jim Bevan said Robinson’s performance was indicative of her impressive outdoor season, in which she broke the Rice record in the discus throw on three separate occasions.

“Krystal Robinson’s performance [in the discus] was stellar,” Bevan said. “She was consistent throughout the whole outdoor season; she came in seeded seventh and ended up finishing fourth. All of these people are the best throwers in the United States, so [her finish] shows that she competed at a higher level than her peers across the board.”

The first day of competition consisted mainly of preliminary rounds. Freshman Desarie Walwyn, junior Nina Mayes, junior Funmi Jimoh and senior Yvonne Umeh finished third in their heat of the 4x100-meter relay and fourteenth overall with a time of 45.07 seconds. Jimoh would go on to jump 19-8 in the long jump prelims, less than six inches off the qualifying mark. Marissa Daniels, the WAC Freshman of the Year for the outdoor season, finished the 5000-meter prelims in 16 minutes, 46.96 seconds. The time, although only six seconds off her personal-best time, was nearly 16 seconds behind the time needed to advance to the finals.

On the second day, Umeh finished 22nd overall in the 200 meter preliminaries, missing a spot in the finals by just two-tenths of a second. Freshman Rachel Greff cleared 13-1.5 in the pole vault qualifying, tying seven other competitors for the last three spots in the finals. Because she took more attempts to clear that height than the other vaulters, Greff failed to advance. Greff later had a successful summer in the pole vault, winning the USA Junior National Championship on June 27 and taking second at the Pan American Junior Athletics Championships on Aug. 1.

Greff said she was pleased to make it through the regional meet but that her finish was disappointing.

“It was exciting to be one of the few to make it [to the NCAA Championships],” Greff said. “I [just] didn’t have my best meet.”

All of the Rice athletes qualified for the NCAA Championships by virtue of their performances at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships in Norman, Okla. May 27-28. Individuals finishing in the top five places of an event and relay teams finishing in the top three received automatic bids. At-large berths were awarded to competitors who finished in the top eight of an event. The participating athletes were then seeded according to their season-best mark in their event. Robinson, Umeh and Greff all received automatic berths.

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