May 31, 2001
EUGENE, Ore. - The second day of competition at the 2001 NCAA Track and Field Championships saw Arizona State's men's 4x400-meter relay team advance to event finals, while senior Marcus Brunson qualified for the semifinals of the 100m dash at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field Thursday.
After the second in what will be four days of competition, ASU's women stand tied for ninth-place with Texas Tech and USC at six points each, while the men are in a four-way tie for 28th with North Carolina-Charlotte, North Carolina and South Florida, having tallied three points. Brunson, who ran the second leg of ASU's 4x400m relay, matched his personal best in the 100m to win the second of three heats in 10.10, tying his ASU school record and automatically advancing to Friday's semifinals.
Joining Brunson in qualifying for Saturday's 4x400 relay final, senior Michael Campbell, junior Pete Lopez and senior Tony Berrian helped pace ASU to a second-place finish in its preliminary heat with a season-best time of 3:02.89. In ASU history, only the 1979 school record of 3:01.74 was better than the Sun Devils' effort Thursday.
The only Sun Devil to appear in an event final Thursday was senior Mary Duerbeck, who completed her Sun Devil career with a 19th-place finish in the 10,000m with a time of 39:04.80. In other preliminary action, Campbell missed qualifying for the 400m dash final by a mere three-thousandths of a second. Running in the first of three heats, Campbell and Clemson's Ato Modibo crossed the finish line in a scoreboard time of 46.16, with Modibo's official 46.152 claiming the eighth and last finals berth over Campbell's 46.155.
Sun Devil teammate Berrian also failed to qualify for the final in the men's 400m, placing sixth in his prelim heat with the 18th-fastest time overall (46.79).
"We took a big hit today in the 400 prelims," ASU head coach Greg Kraft said. "It was unfortunate that we didn't advance anyone through. Michael (Campbell) had the same time as the last qualifier and got bumped by three one-thousandths of a second. Obviously Marcus Brunson looked extremely easy running 10.10 today in the 100m. He came back and really strided through his 45.5 on the second leg of the 4x400. Tony Berrian did a good job pulling himself off the canvas after that quarter and running a 44 split for us in the mile relay. 3:02.89 is a heck of a run for them so I was really pleased with that."
Despite recording a season-best effort, the women's 4x400-meter relay team of Candida Coulson, Arlaina Davis, Seneca Holmes and Joni Smith finished one spot shy of advancing to the finals, placing fifth in its heat at 3:33.56. Although frustrated by the result, Kraft said he was pleased by the time.
"You run 3:33 and that doesn't get you in the finals," Kraft said. "You hate to be a part of a trivia question but it's the fastest time ever to not make the NCAA final." Senior Adrienne Judie failed to advance to the women's shot put final, finishing the competition in 19th place with a best of 49 feet, 3.5 inches.
Junior Brandon Strong, up against a strong preliminary 1500m field, failed to advance to the final, finishing ninth in his heat in 3:54.09. Although among a large lead pack for most of the race, Strong fell of the pace with approximately 500m left, finishing 10 minutes slower than his personal best 3:44.01.
In addition to Brunson's scheduled appearance in the semifinals of the 100m, also competing Friday for ASU will be senior Kelly MacDonald, who will vie for the first-ever NCAA women's 3,000m steeplechase title.
"It's a four-day event and you're going to have peaks and valleys and we're on that roller coaster ride right now," Kraft said. "It's going to be an uphill battle."