Men's 4x400 Meter Relay Suffers Heartbreaker at NCAA Championships
6/10/2010 12:00:00 AM
June 10, 2010
EUGENE, Ore. - With the largest crowd ever in attendance for the second day of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with 11,172 fans on Thursday, the Alabama men's track and field team competed in only one event, the 4x400 meter relay semifinal, at historic Hayward Field.
Though the 4x400 meter relay was the only event for Alabama on Thursday, the Tide squad of freshman Fabian Norgrove, sophomore Aaron Stockstell, freshman Kirani James and senior Matt Watson made sure to make it entertaining - as the relay competition always is.
Alabama finished third in the first of three heats with a time of 3:07.22, leaving it up to the next two heats to run a slower time as only the top two times advance to the final after the top two in each heat are removed - the top two in each heat automatically advance.
By the third leg, Alabama was in seventh in their heat, but it wouldn't stay that way once James took the handoff. Even though James had to leap over a fallen athlete at the beginning of his leg to avoid falling himself, he picked off nearly every team as he sprinted around the oval to an enormous roar from the capacity crowd, handing off the baton in third place - the squad's eventual finish.
"I really like the effort that the team gave," head men's track and field coach Harvey Glance said. "Kirani had a real bad incident happen right in front of him where there was a lot of congestion at the line when he got the stick. He had to jump and hurdle some people. I'm very thankful he didn't get hurt because he's got the (400 meter final) tomorrow and that's probably the race of his life at this point."
The time looked as if it would hold up as the second heat only had one team faster, but the third and final heat had five teams post times faster than the Tide. Alabama finished 10th in the semifinal, just .57 seconds out of qualifying.
Follow the new official Alabama track and field Twitter page for live updates of this weekend's action, AlabamaTrack.
Alabama will conclude its competition in Track Town USA when it returns to Hayward Field on Friday as junior Fred Samoei competes in the 800 meter final at 5:40 p.m. (PT) and James competes in the 400 meter final at 6:25 p.m. (PT). Both events will be aired live on CBS College Sports as the championships will be broadcast from 7:00-9:00 p.m. (CT).
Thursday's Alabama Men's Results
4x400 Meter Relay Semifinal: 10. Norgrove, Stockstell, James, Watson - 3:07.22
Alabama Men Advancing to Finals
Fred Samoei - 800 Meters (June 11, 5:40 p.m. PT)
Kirani James - 400 Meters (June 11, 6:25 p.m. PT)
! - Personal-best; * - Season-best; + - Advanced to next round; DQ - Disqualified; DNF - Did not finish; NM - No mark; FS - False start; SR - School record
