Valby, Young take different paths to same result
Talented juniors roll to 5,000-meter titles in NCAA Indoor Champs
Juniors Nico Young of Northern Arizona University and Parker Valby of the University of the Florida entered the second day of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships at the TRACK at New Balance in Brighton, Massachusetts, on Friday with similar accomplishments and goals.
They had each set collegiate records in the men’s and women’s 5,000 meters, respectively, earlier this season, and they each hoped to win that event on Friday before taking the 3,000 on Saturday on the final day of the meet.
However, the manner in which they successfully completed the first half of their attempted doubles was not the same.
While Young bided his time in the pack for much of the men’s race before kicking to a runaway victory in the final 225 meters of the contest, Valby had Taylor Roe of Oklahoma State as company for the first 3,800 meters of the women’s race before breaking away from her and closing in such as flourish that she lowered her collegiate record by more than three seconds with a time of 14 minutes 52.79 seconds.
“I didn’t know I was chasing down a record,” Valby told ESPN’s John Anderson. “I was just running. I was following my coach and he told me to turn up the notch a little bit so I was giving it all I had.”
With the 3,000 meters still to be run on Saturday night against a field that will include defending NCAA steeplechase champion Olivia Markezich of Notre Dame, it would have been understandable if Valby had stepped off the accelerator after she had broken away from Roe. However, the outgoing Gator is not known for playing things safe. In fact, much of her popularity stems from the fact that she likes to run hard and fast.
So after running 2:59.81, 3:02.44, and 3:01.53 for the first three kilometer segments of Friday’s race, she upped the ante with a 2:56.98 fourth kilo.
That gave her a 25-meter lead over Roe, as well as a time of 12:00.86 through 4.000 meters. But instead of conserving as much energy as possible for the 3,000, she ran each of her last five 200-meter laps in less than 35 seconds on her way to a 2:51.93 split for the final kilometer and a lowering of the collegiate record of 14:56.11 she had set in winning the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 2.
Her second collegiate record gave her a large margin of victory over Roe, who finished second in 15:15.01, and Alabama teammates Hilda Olemomoi and Doris Lemngole, who placed third and fourth, respectively, in 15:17.27 and 15:17.43. It also solidified Valby’s hold on ninth on the all-time U.S. performer list and gave her her third national collegiate title as she had won the 5,000 in the NCAA outdoor championships last June and the NCAA cross country title in November.
In contrast to the women’s race, the men’s 5,000 did not start off particularly fast as Habtom Samuel of New Mexico led the field through 1,000 meters in 2:44.64 and Ky Robinson of Stanford was in the lead at 2,000 meters in 5:35.98 and at 3,000 meters in 8:22.18.
Young, who later told Anderson that he “wanted to stay out of the mess for as long as possible” so he could conserve a maximum amount of energy, was not among the top 10 runners in the 16-runner field for much of the first half of the race. But he moved up to fourth place at 3,200 meters and he was still in fourth when Peter Maru of Alabama led the field through 4,000 meters in 10:59.15.
He was in third place behind Parker Wolfe of North Carolina and Maru with two laps left in the race before moving ahead of Maru early in the second to last lap and then surging past Wolfe midway down the home straightaway approaching the start of the bell lap.
The move was quick and decisive and the race for first place was essentially over by the time Young headed down the backstretch for the final time on his way to a final 200 in 27.29 seconds and a last 400 in 54.39.
Although his time of 13:25.29 was more than 28 seconds slower that the collegiate record of 12:57.14 he had set while finishing second in the second section of the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic in late January, it gave him his first NCAA title.
Wolfe finished second in 13:27.37, followed by Robinson in third in 13:27.79, Samuel in fourth in 13:30.07, and Maru in fifth in 13:30.51.
“I’m super grateful because I’ve been practicing for this,” Young said when Anderson asked him about the significance of his victory. “I’ve always wanted one of these. I knew, I knew I could definitely get one today, but executing a championship like this is a whole other thing. So yeah, it bodes well for the end of the year.”
When Anderson asked if he had been frustrated at times with his previous inability to win a title during his collegiate career, Young admitted he had. He then added that “I think everyone’s gone through their share of adversity coming into this meet so I think I’m at a place now where I’m just in such a good place fitness wise that even if I have some adversity, I’m going to be fine.”
Paced by Valby’s victory in the 5,000, Florida was in first place in the women’s team standings with 24 points, followed by Notre Dame with 18, Mississippi with 16, BYU with 14, and Oklahoma State with 13.
In addition to receiving 10 points for Valby’s victory, Florida tallied eight points when Claire Bryant finished second in the long jump and the Gators got another six when they finished third in the distance medley relay, despite the fact that Valby did not run in the event for them.
Bryant, a senior who had finished third in the long jump last year, came very close to winning on Friday.
Iowa State junior Sydney Willits had taken the lead in the first round when she spanned 6.55 meters (21 feet 6 inches). But she fell back into second place in the fourth round when Stanford sophomore Alyssa Jones leaped 6.66 (21-10¼).
Willits regained the lead with a fifth-round jump of 6.68 (21-11), only to have Bryant move from fourth place to first when she leaped 6.71 (22-0¼) on her sixth — and final — attempt.
Willits, as the last jumper in the competition, responded with an effort of 6.74 (22-1½) that gave her the victory, as well as her third personal best of the competition.
“I just told myself to respond,” Willits said when Anderson asked her about her reaction to Bryant’s jump. “I’ve never done this before. I was out there [at the NCAA outdoor championships] last year and things didn’t go the way I wanted. And then I was here and I set it on the first one… And then I took it here and I just kept improving and once I saw the lead was taken from me, I just said, ‘Respond. Let’s do this. You know what to do.’ ”
Florida’s third-place finish in the distance medley relay came in a race during which a Providence runner fell down on the third leg — causing two other runners to fall over her — and BYU placed first in 10:51.42 after Cougar anchor runner Riley Chamberlain surged past Notre Dame’s Markezich just before the bell lap began.
Markezich, the defending NCAA champion in the 3,000-meter steeplechase outdoors, had run 4:27.76 in the mile earlier this season, but she ran 4:30.15 on her 1,600 leg on Friday as Notre Dame finished second in 10:53.14.
Chamberlain ran 4:27.78 for BYU, which also received a 3:20.65 effort from Sadie Sargent on the opening 1,200-meter leg, a 55.50 split from Sami Oblad on her 400-meter leg, and a 2:07.50 carry from Meghan Hunter on her 800-meter leg.
In addition to the eight points it received for finishing second in the distance medley relay, Notre Dame tallied 10 points when junior Jadin O’Brien won the pentathlon for the second year in a row.
O’Brien was in fourth place after she ran 8.35 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, the first event of the day. She dropped to seventh after clearing 1.69 (5-6½) in the high jump, but moved into third after putting the shot 14.34 (47-0¾).
She was still in third place after she leapt 6.07 (19-11) in the long jump, but she was only 81 points behind first-place Jenelle Rogers of Ball State.
She was expected to make up a lot of points on Rogers and second-place Destiny Masters of Wichita State in the 800 meters, the final event of the pentathlon. And she did so as her 2:13.30 clocking gave her 148 points more than Rogers received for her time of 2:24.08, and 168 more than Masters tallied for her 2:25.62 effort.
O’Brien’s final total of 4,497 points put her 67 points of second-place Rogers (4,430) and 70 in front of third-place Kristine Blazevica of Texas (4,427). Masters placed sixth with 4,338.
The pole vault was the other women’s final held on Friday and it was won by freshman Hana Moll of Washington, who cleared 4.60 (15-1) to finish 10 centimeters in front of Riley Felts of Charlotte, who cleared 4.50 (14-9).
Moll, who had tied for ninth in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last August not long after she had graduated from Capital High School in Olympia, Washington, cleared 4.15 (13-7¼) and 4.30 (14-4¼) on her first attempts. After needing two tries to clear 4.40 (14-5¼), she cleared 4.45 (14-7¼), 4.50 (14-9), 4.55 (14-11), and 4.60 on her first attempts.
She then missed three tries at 4.73 (15-6½), which would have moved her into a tie for 10th on the all-time U.S. performer list.
In the only women’s event staged on Thursday, Jalani Davis of Mississippi had a best of 24.80 (81-4½) in the 20-pound weight throw and that effort was more than two meters better than the top mark of runner-up Shelby Frank of Minnesota at 22.69 (74-5½).
In the men’s meet, Northern Arizona and pre-meet favorite and defending champion Arkansas were tied for first place with 18 points at the end of Friday. They were followed by North Carolina and Oklahoma State with 13 points each.
NAU had tallied 12 points when Young and teammate Aaron Las Heras finished first and seventh in the 5,000. The Lumberjacks’ other six points had come in the 35-point weight throw on Thursday when Garret Bernt finished third with a best of 23.09 (75-9¼).
Harvard’s Kenneth Ikeji placed first at 24.32 (79-9½), followed by Cal State Northridge’s Trey Knight at 24.14 (79-2½).
Arkansas had received four points for Maru’s fifth-place finish and the Razorbacks also finished fifth in the distance medley relay with a time of 9:28.88.
In addition, Arkansas also tallied 10 points in the long jump when Wayne Pinnock won the event with a personal best and yearly world-leading mark of 8.40 (27-6¾).
Jeremiah Davis of Florida State finished second at 8.20 (26-11), followed by Malcom Clemons of Florida at 8.11 (26-7¼).
Pinnock, the silver medalist for Jamaica in last year’s World Championships, had the four longest jumps of the competition. He leaped 8.23 (27-0) in the first round, followed by efforts of 8.36 (27-5¼), 8.29 (27-2½), and 8.40 on his second through fourth efforts. He fouled on his final two jumps.
Pinnock’s 8.40 leap tied the Jamaican indoor record that was first set by James Beckford in 1996 and tied by Carey McLeod last year when he won the NCAA title as a senior at Arkansas. The Razorback junior’s mark also moved him into a tie for fifth with McLeod on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Oklahoma State won its second consecutive DMR title when Brian Musau, DeJuana McArthur, Mehdi Yanouri, and Ryan Schoppe clocked a winning time of 9:25.24 to finish ahead of second-place Georgetown at 9:25.77 and third-place Virginia at 9:27.18.
Musau ran 2:54.86 on his opening 1,200-meter leg, followed by McArthur’s 45.60 split for 400 meters, Yanouri’s 1:49.20 carry for 800, and Schoppe’s 3:55.59 clocking on his 1,600-meter anchor leg.
In other men’s events on Friday, Keaton Daniel of Kentucky won the pole vault and Leo Neugebauer of Texas was in first place in the heptathlon after the first four of the seven events.
Daniel cleared 5.70 (18-8¼) in the pole vault, followed by Bradley Jelmert of Arkansas State at 5.65 (18-6½) and Connor McClure of Virginia Tech at 5.55 (18-2½).
Daniel, a senior, needed two attempts to make his first height of 5.40 (17-8½) before he cleared 5.50 (18-0½), 5.55 (18-2½), and 5.60 (18-4½) on his initial tries. He then cleared 5.65 and 5.70 on his second attempts.
He then missed his first try at 5.75 (18-10¼), and after Jelmert missed his single attempt at that height after two misses at 5.70, Daniel missed both of his efforts at 5.82 (19-1).
Neugebauer, a senior from Germany who set a collegiate and national record of 8,836 points in winning the decathlon in the NCAA outdoor meet last year, totaled 3,664 points after the first day of the heptathlon.
He was followed by Heath Baldwin of Michigan State with 3,548 points and fellow German Till Steinforth of Nebraska with 3,476. Aiden Ouimet of Illinois was fourth with 3,315 points and Austin West of Iowa was fifth with 3,309.
Neugebauer began the competition with a time of 6.98 seconds in the 60 meters before leaping 7.73 (25-4½) in the long jump. He then put the shot 16.72 (54-10¼) before clearing 2.09 (6-10¼) in the high jump.
There were qualifying heats in several other events on Friday, and as so often happens in championship meets, some big-name performers did not advance to the finals.
Defending 800 champion Roisin Willis of Stanford was eliminated in that event after she finished fourth in her heat with a time of 2:03.64.
Freshman Shawnti Jackson of Arkansas, competing with a sore left knee, produced the slowest performance of the 16 competitors in the women’s 60 with a time of 7.39 and of the 15 individuals in the 200 with a clocking of 23.62.
Christopher Morales Williams of Georgia, who had set a collegiate record of 44.49 seconds in the men’s 400 in the SEC championships 13 days earlier, easily advanced to the two-section final of that event with a first-place time of 45.88 in his heat. But Justin Robinson of Arizona State, a member of U.S. teams that won gold medals in the men’s and mixed 1,600 relay in the World Championships, produced the slowest time of the four qualifying heats with a 47.10 clocking.