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14 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, May 30, 2006
0 MEN'S TRACK
Woods receives
auto bid; teammate
waits for commitee
-SPORTS
By Jeremy Davidson
Editor in Chief
Even though sophomore Mike
Woods claimed a spot at the NCAA
outdoor national championships on
Saturday, he said he was disappoint-
ed with his performance.
"I'm obviously relieved that I got
into the NCAAs, but it was some-
thing that I felt was more or less a
given," Woods said through the ath-
letic department. "I'm disappointed
that I didn't win, because that was
really my goal coming into the race
- to build some confidence."
Woods earned his trip to the finals
after placing fourth in the 1,500-
meter run at the Mideast Regional in
Knoxville, Tenn.
Woods struggled at the start of the
race, but claimed the lead early in the
last lap. Coming around the final bend,
a pair of runners passed him just before
the straightaway. Woods lost one more
position in the final 10 meters of the
race, and finished just more than a sec-
ond behind the first place runner, South
Alabama's Vincent Rono.
Woods was the lone Wolverine to qual-
ify automatically for the finals, but the
team had some incredibly close finishes.
After fighting an intense battle for
a coveted top-five finish in the triple
jump for the entire meet, junior Michael
Whitehead fell just short, taking sev-
enth place. Even though Whitehead was
beaten out for an automatic qualifying
spot, because of his 18th-best mark
in the nation coming into the tourna-
ment, he's in good standing for earn-
ing an at-large selection to the NCAA
championships. Whitehead will find out
his ultimate fate this evening when the
championship field is announced.
Senior Brad Miller nearly qualified
for the finals in the high jump, but fin-
ished just short after failing to clear the
6-11 bar, which only the top five finish-
ers were able to overcome.
The Wolverine captain, who started
his career as a walk-on and finished as
a regional qualifier, said he was ecstatic
with his performance.
"If you would have told me (at the
start) that I'd be doing as well as I have,
especially this year, I would have said
you were crazy," Miller said through the
athletic department. "That's probably
the thing I'm most proud of from my
whole career. I did make the improve-
ments, and I reached this level. Maybe
I'm not a top-20 guy nationally, but I'm
really pleased to be where I am at."
I
Sophomore Nicole Edwards was the only Wolverine to finish in first place over the weekend in Knoxville, Tenn.
ive q f for championship
By Daniel Bromwich
Daily Sports Writer
The women's track and field team
left the Mideast Regional in Knox-
ville, Tenn., on Saturday with five
runners advancing to the National
Outdoor Championships in Sacra-
mento in two weeks.
After junior Erin Webster and
sophomore Alyson Kohlmeier
received automatic bids on Friday
for their performance in the 5,000-
meters, they were joined on Saturday
by senior Arianne Field (3,000-meter
steeplechase), sophomore Nicole
Edwards (1,500-meters) and fresh-
man Geena Gall (800-meters).
Edwards was the standout as the
sole Wolverine to claim a first-place
finish on the weekend. After quali-
fying for Saturday's final with a
time of 4:25.24, she cut almost eight
seconds off her time in the final,
finishing in 4:17.73. She stayed in
the middle of the pack throughout
the entire race, and did not make
her push until she rounded the final
turn. With just 100 meters remain-
ing, Edwards made an enormous
kick and broke away from her com-
petitors, winning the race by .37
seconds over Marquette's Michaela
Courtney.
Gall tried to run a similar race in
the 800-meters, and very nearly suc-
ceeded. After spending the majority
of the race in third or fourth place,
the Grand Blanc native tried to turn
it on. But she was unable to pass Mis-
souri's Ashley Patten, and finished in
second place by .25 seconds.
But most impressive might have
been the race run by Field. The Kal-
amazoo native has shown steady
improvement throughout her career
at Michigan, and is peaking at the
exact right time. After recording a
personal-best time at the Big Ten
Championships, she bettered that
time by .07 seconds in the steeple-
chase on Saturday, claiming an
automatic bid to Sacramento in the
process. But given the hot and humid
weather conditions, Field's perfor-
mance was even more outstanding.
"This is someone that developed
and persevered throughout the
Michigan program," associate head
coach Mike McGuire said through
the athletic department. "She ran a
time very close to her time at the
Big Tens, but she fought extremely
hard, racing with these kinds of
conditions. She actually did better
than what she did at the Big Tens."
On Friday, the big race for the
Wolverines was the 5,000-meter
run. Michigan saw Kohlmeier and
Webster both qualify for the nation-
al championships. Webster crossed
the finish line in second place, less
than a second behind winner, Notre
Dame's Molly Huddle. Webster's
finish (16:25.48) came just before
Kohlmeier crossed the finished
line less than two seconds later
(16:27.12).
The Wolverines' domination of
the 5,000-meters contributed to
what McGuire called "an outstand-
ing weekend." But Michigan does
not plan to do anything special to
prepare for Sacramento.
"It's not much preparation at this
point," McGuire said through the
athletic department. "There's no
magical workouts between now and
then; we just have to sharpen a few
things. We also have some recovery
to do after dealing with the heat and
traveling, but ... everybody still has
plenty of gas left in their tanks."
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