Posted: June 25, 2007

Athletics (RRW): Three-Peat For Clement At U.S. Championships; Hasay And Barringer Break Records

From David Monti © 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com INDIANAPOLIS (23-Jun) -- The key action on the pentultimate day of the AT&T USA Outdoor Championships here was at the 1500m distance, where Treniere Clement won her third consecutive title and Jordan Hasay, competing in the Finish Line Junior Track & Field Championshps, won her first junior title. "It was mostly trying to react and go with the leader," said the former University of Arkansas athlete who is still coached by Lance Harter. At the bell, Wurth-Thomas shot ahead. McWilliams gave chase and Clement followed. With the best 800m speed in the field, Clement was ready for the final battle to the line. "My main focus is to be able to close with anyone in the world," Clement said later. Wurth-Thomas still had the lead coming off the final bend, but Clement put her kick in full swing, getting around her rival at the top of the homestraight. She crossed the finish line in 4:07.04 to Wurth-Thomas's 4:07.86. Erin Donohue ran a supurb final 250m to get ahead of McWilliams and take third (4:08.22). Both Wurth-Thomas and Donohue made their first world championships teams on the track. In the junior race, the tiny 16 year-old Hasay from Arroyo Grande, Calif., put on an impressive show. She pulled away from Danielle Tauro of Manahawkin, N.J., in the final turn before home and broke Lynn Jennings's meet record from 1977 with her 4:16.98 clocking. It was the fastest-ever 1500m by a U.S. sophomore (second year high school student). "My coach told me when you go, you have to go (hard)," Hasay said after the race. Tauro appeared to have second place locked up, but about 20m from the finish line she slowed nearly to a stop, stumbled, and fell to the track. By the time she was able to pick herself up and jog to the finish line, she had fallen to sixth place. Jessica Pixler, a freshman at Seattle Pacific University, finished a distant second in 4:20.93. In the junior men's 1500m, A.J. Acosta of the University of Oregon came from fourth place on the final turn to beat his next year's teammate, Matt Centrowitz of Arnold, Md., by just 1/100th of a second. Although his finish time was slow (3:49.53), they covered the last lap in about 56 seconds. "It was hard," said Acosta of his race. "It was exactly as I wanted it to go." BARRINGER GETS RECORD IN STEEPLECHASE As exciting as the 1500m races were today, the best race on the track came near the end of the meet: the women's 3000m steeplechase. Pre-race favorite and NCAA champion, Anna Willard, was running on a sore ankle she injured on the fourth water jump in the first round. It was obvious to every spectator sitting in Michael A. Carroll Stadium that she was landing awkwardly off of every water jump. "It just put me back," Willard said of her injury. Willard, the University of Colorado's Jenny Barringer and Lindsey Anderson carried the pace, and by the fourth lap they had a small gap over the field. With Anderson on the front, Willard would lose a step or two after every water jump, then catch up. Coming out of the final water jump, Barringer accelerated hard leaving Willard two steps behind, and began an all-out sprint. Willard chased in earnest, nearly closing the gap, and helped push Barringer to a ten second personal best, a meet record, and the second-fastest U.S. women's steeplechase performance of all-time: 9:34.64. Willard finished just 12/100ths of a second behind, and Anderson got third in 9:40.74, both personal bests. "Every stride, every tactical thing counts in the last 100m of the steeplechase," said Barringer. She added: "My preparation wasn't on the track, it was in my head." Barringer, who just finished her sophomore year at Colorado, has only run a dozen steeplechases by her own reckoning. She goes by the nickname "Puddles," a moniker she picked up in high school because of a stuffed toy duck she owned with the same name. "I think it's ironic that I became a steeplechaser," she said. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest