Thursday, April 14, 2011

Mt. SAC: Steeplechase results

The early part of the evening at the Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) Relays was highlighted – by far – by graduate student Brittany Burns, who ran one of the best races at a national-caliber track meet in Marist Running history.

Britt shattered her personal-best and own school record by 16 seconds and qualified for the ECAC Championships – the first women’s steepler in school history to do so – with a second-place finish in the University/Open Division in a time of 10:43.41. It was a thrilling race to watch as the intense California sun beat down on the field in the late afternoon at Hilmer Lodge Stadium.

Britt ran the splits she needed to run. With 1,000 meters to go, we implored her to make a big move and she did just that – taking the lead in the race! She was overtaken at the end by the eventual race winner, but she hung tough for an amazing, impressive breakthrough race on the biggest of big stages. We are all so proud of her!

In the men’s race that followed, sophomore Quimes DelaCruz went out hard – maybe too hard? – and faded to a subpar (for him) time of 9:24.82. He also had some stomach issues after the race as well. But no excuses, Q is disappointed.

In the same race, freshman Kenny Walshak had a nice breakthrough performance, notching an eight-second PR and finishing right behind his good pal Quimes in 9:25.79.

Will Griffin is set to run the 10,000-meter race in about three hours. We decided to come back to the hotel to chill out a bit. As I type this, the sun is setting over the beautiful hills that surround this area. And the Mt. SAC campus and track are in an amazing setting. More on that in a future post.

Check back later tonight (not likely) or at some point on Friday for Will’s results and splits.

Mt. SAC Relays
Women’s steeplechase
2nd place!
Brittany Burns 10:43.41 *school record and ECAC qualifier (first in school history in this event)

Splits
80.7, 2:43.9 (85.2), 4:12.5 (86.6), 5:10.0 (87.5), 7:07.6 (87.6), 8:32.5 (84.9), 9:58.7 (86.2), 10:43.41 (44.71 last 200m)

Men’s steeplechase

16th place
Arquimedes DelaCruz 9:24.82

68, 2:19 (71), 3:33 (74), 4:46 (73), 6:03 (76), 7:22 (79), 8:42 (80), 9:24.82 (40.82 last 200m)

17th place
Ken Walshak 9:25.79

70, 2:23 (73), 3:37 (74), 4:50 (73), 6:07 (77), 7:25 (78), 8:43 (78), 9:25.79 (42.79 last 200m)

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