2012 NCAA East Preliminary Women’s 10,000m Report

by Nich Haber

As the mob of 48 women gathered to prepare to line up for their race, the NCAA East Preliminary 10,000 meters, they had a front row seat of what they were about to experience.

The men’s race was finishing up and it was absolute carnage.  Though it was getting close to 10pm, the Jacksonville, Florida air was still 80 degrees and sticky.  Too hot, even for sprinting.  It took a toll on the men’s field.  Bodies were laying on the track.  Iona’s star from Sweden, Andrew Soderberg stumbled in on rubber legs having fallen from the front of the pack to 36^th in the last laps.  The loudspeaker called for a trainer to come to the finish line.  OK ladies line up.

To paraphrase Penn Relays starter Tom McTaggert, a good track meet is run like a well-oiled chainsaw.  The NCAA prelim races were going right on time.  At 9:40 the gun went off.  A double waterfall of women came off of the first turn and gathered into a mob that went three lanes wide.  10,000 meters is twenty-five laps of the track.  It’s longer if you are in lane 3.   The top 12 get the privilege of doing it all over again two weeks later in Drake, Iowa for the finals. 

The 10,000 is normally a race of attrition, and this one seemed that it should go that way.  The pack clicked off 84 second laps one after another.  The mob demonstrated that there is not one body type that is required to be successful.  There were tall women and short women.  Women with textbook form and women who threw their elbows around like a Filene’s Basement shopping spree. 

Amazingly the pack stayed together pretty well.  Towards the front Cornell’s Katie Kellner took control of the pack and pushed the pace.  A couple of runners started falling off the back.  From 2000 meters out the race looked like a comet, with a small group pushing the pace at the front and then a long single file tail.  With two laps to go, the head started passing the tail, lapping slower runners.  At the bell, they took off with Catherine White of Virginia getting the best of Vermont’s Morgan Powers by half a second at the line.  The final time was 34:18.  The women had run a good tactical race taking into account the conditions.  Not surprisingly, the women had run a bit smarter than the men.

Congratulations to all the ladies heading to the finals.  This includes local Brown student Olivia Mickle who finished 9^th with a time of 34:30.  Finals are Thursday, June 7^th .  Watch a live video feed on www.flotrack.org.  Complete results are available from the following link:  http://www.flashresults.com/2012_Meets/outdoor/05-24-NCAAEast/Results28-1.htm