The results of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships—held March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.—were not all the Lions had hoped, but still served as an important steppingstone to the more significant outdoor season.
Sophomore Kyle Merber ran his first mile this winter that was not a personal best, taking seventh in his preliminary heat in 4:08.69, to finish 15th overall. He had previously run 4:02.60 at the Virginia Duals and an Ivy record 3:58.52 at the Columbia Last Chance Meet to qualify for NCAA. New Mexico senior Lee Emanuel repeated as champion in the event in 3:59.26. Merber will look to the 5k outdoors, an event for which his mile prowess will no doubt be an asset.
It was a repeat heartache for sophomore 400m specialist Sharay Hale, as she was the first short of the final in that event—just as in outdoors last spring. Despite setting a new school record, her second place preliminary heat time of 53.46 was short of the finals, by just 8/10 of a second. Francena McCororoy of Hampton scored an upset over outdoor champion Joanna Atkinsfrom Auburn and top seed Jessica Beard from Texas A&M to win the event in 50.54. Hale has been on a tear the entire indoor season however, and shows no signs of slowing down in transition to the 400m oval.
A 1.82m jump on Jan. 30 at the NYRR Saturday Night at the Armory II turned out to be sophomore Monique Roberts’ season best, though she failed to advance past 1.70m at nationals. Arizona senior Liz Patterson had the highest leap there at 1.93m. Roberts will aim to better her January mark in quest of the 6’0” barrier in outdoor competition.
The Florida men upended titleholder Oregon on the men’s side, while the Duck women were able to secure team victory quite comfortably: 61 points to runner-up Tennessee’s 36.
Columbia will make its outdoor debut at the Sam Howell Invitational, Friday, April 2 in Princeton, N.J.
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