March 3, 2012
UW LAST CHANCE RESULTS
TEMPE – Several members of the Arizona State University track and field teams took part in numerous Last Chance Qualifiers on Saturday, looking to have one more shot at making the field into the NCAA Indoor Championships set to take place in Boise, Idaho, next weekend.
One student-athlete not ready to call its quits on the indoor season yet was junior Nick Happe for the No. 7 ASU men's team. Competing at the Last Chance Qualifier hosted by the University of Washington, Happe set a school record in the mile in 3:58.73 to move up the rankings to 14th in the nation as the top collegian at in the event on Saturday. Happe will now await the results from other last chance qualifiers, but if the season were to end now, he would advance to the championship meet.
His sub-four time was his second of the season in the mile and passed Brandon Strong's school record in the event that had held since 2002. Happe is one of only three Sun Devils in school history to go under four minutes in the event.
On the topic of school records, freshman Shelby Houlihan broke her own school record in the mile as well on Saturday as she clocked a time of 4:39.36 to finish third overall and best her school record by a couple seconds. However, the time was only enough to move her to 25th in the country and likely will not be enough to advance the the NCAA Championships.
At the Iowa State Last Chance Qualifiers, the men's 4x400-meter relay of Kelsey Caesar, Rashad Ross, John Kline and Will Henry set a new season's best of 3:08.07 for the ninth-fastest indoor time in school history. The time tentatively ranks the Sun Devils 13th in the nation and on the very bubble of earning an NCAA bid.
The women's 4x400-meter relay also competed in Iowa State, but a drop on the exchange kept the Sun Devils from finishing.
Ross and fellow junior Chris Burrows tried to better their times in the 200-meter dash but neither was able to best their marks set earlier in the season.
Back in Seattle, Chris Benard and Bryan McBride won the long jump and high jump events, respetively, but neither bettered their marks set earlier in the season. McBride will still advance to the NCAA Championships in the high jump based on earning the automatic qualifier earlier this season/
On the women's side, Christabel Nettey won the long jump event but did not better her previous season's best. Nevertheless, Nettey still sits 14th in the nation with most final qualifiers over for the day and will likely advance to the NCAA Championships.
The NCAA will announce the qualifying field on Monday, March 5 and the NCAA Indoor Championships will begin next Friday, March 9 and continue to Saturday. Check back at www.thesundevils.com on Monday for a recap of the Sun Devil qualifiers for the NCAA Championships.