DIII Nationals Day Two Recap: Sprints and Team

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Before we delve into the sprints, congrats to two first-time team champs: the UW-La Crosse women and the UW-Eau Claire men.  The Lax women won the meet with depth, racking up mid-pack placings to go with wins in the 4×4 and triple jump, while the UWEC men were able to hold off the La Crosse men with star power, winning the DMR, shot put, and heptathlon. Both winning coaches—Pat Healy of La Crosse and Chip Schneider of Eau Claire—broke it down after.

Perhaps the most exciting race of the meet was the very last one.  Augustana’s David Voland had the second fastest time in the nation in the open 400, but elected to only do the 4×4 in hopes of a national title that Augie has come close to but been eluded by for a few years.  It looked like for about 1598 meters that this wouldn’t pay off, but Voland caught Oshkosh’s Brian Beaudo at the finish line for a 0.02 second win.

The exhausted men on the winning relay talked after finally getting their national championship:

The women’s race was almost as close, though with a familiar result.  For the third straight year, La Crosse won, though this time they only beat Eau Claire by 0.05 seconds.

Lehman came into the meet with two national records, and left with two national titles, though not the ones they expected.  Adriana Wright, the fastest DIII athlete ever in the 60 hurdles and 200, tried what the Brits would call a “treble.”  She failed to make the final in the flat 60, did win the hurdles, and lost the 200 to Eau Claire’s Carly Fehler.

Wright broke the meet record twice in the hurdles, running 8.48 in the prelims and 8.45 in the finals. And Fehler won two national titles, taking the 200 in the seventh best time in DIII history and the 60 in the eighth best.  Here’s what she had to say after winning the sprint double:

While Wright’s loss in the 200 was unexpected (her regular season 24.33 was 0.31 seconds faster than what Fehler ran on Saturday), her teammate Allie Bernasconi’s win in the 400 was equally surprising. The sophomore had the third fastest DIII time this season, and no championship experience. After this weekend, she’s a national champion and the only woman in DIII to have broken 56 this year.

Another national record holder—Salisbury’s Luke Campbell in the hurdles—was seriously challenged this weekend.  Freshman Bobby Cooks of Aurora made it a second straight historically fast hurdles final, marking himself as the No. 5 hurdler in DIII history and the top freshman of either gender on the track this weekend, but Campbell was faster off of the final two hurdles and retained his national title, 7.93 to 7.95. He explained to me after that injuries have been a major problem this winter:

Campbell is a veritable hobbled old man compared to the youth movement that took over the rest of men’s sprinting this weekend.  Sophomores Winston Lee of Cobleskill, Kevonte Shaw of UT-Tyler, and Ross Denman of La Crosse took titles in the 60, 200, and 400, respectively.  

Lee beat injured national record holder Thurgood Dennis of Eau Claire in the 60 final, and he did so with an extremely respectable time of his own: 6.73 makes him the fifth fastest performer in DIII history and the second best of the decade, behind only Dennis.

And Shaw was shaw-cked at his win:

We’ll see you in ten weeks at St. Lawrence. Check out all of our interviews from the weekend here.