Hastings advances to 400 final, Cox eliminated, at USATF

By Jack Pfeifer

photo by Kim Spir

EUGENE, Ore. – Natasha Hastings advanced to the women’s 400 final at the USATF national championships Friday evening, but her fellow New Yorker, Shana Cox, was eliminated.

Cox finished 3rd in Heat I in 51.59, while Cox was a non-qualifying 6th in that heat, in 52.80. Fellow 2008 Olympian Sanya Richards won Heat II in 50.96.

“I felt good,” Richards said. “Today was better than yesterday. The wind was so strong on the backstretch that I really had to keep my focus on that third 100 meters, but then I was able to shut it down pretty good at the end.”

Albany’s two intermediate hurdlers both advanced out of the first round in that event. Joe Greene was an auto qualifier, finishing 3rd in Heat IV in 50.77. His teammate Alie Beauvais was 5th in Heat III in 51.63 and got the final qualifying spot on time.

New Yorkers Sean Tully and Gered Burns were both eliminated in the semifinals of the men’s 800. Tully, a recent graduate of Villanova, finished 6th in Heat I in 1:49.28. Burns, the Albany grad running for the New York A.C., was 8th in that heat in 1:51.23.

In the women’s steeplechase, Delilah DiCrescenzo, an assistant coach at Columbia University, advanced to the final, running 9:59.97 for 5th place in Heat II.

Nicole Blood, the New York native who runs for the University of Oregon, finished 7th in the women’s 5,000 meters, running 15:38.61, in a race won by Kara Goucher. Goucher, however, then announced that she will run the marathon rather than the 5,000 at this summer’s World Championships. Three members of the Oregon Track Club who moved from Wisconsin to Portland, Ore., last year – Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky and Evan Jager -- swept the first three places in the men’s 5,000.

The 100-meter championship races were run Friday night, and the winners were the two sprinters who have dominated the current American season. Michael Rodgers won the men’s 100 in 9.91, .01 ahead of Darvis Patton, and Carmelita Jeter won the women’s in 10.77, .001 – yes, one one-thousandth of a second – ahead of fast-closing Muna Lee.

more photos to come...