Friday, May 23, 2014

BY MARK MOSCHETTI

ALLENDALE, Mich. – McKayla Fricker certainly doesn't mind being in the No. 1 position now. But the Seattle Pacific senior would much prefer to be in that spot on Saturday night.
 
Fricker, who came in as the No. 3 seed, raced to the No. 1 spot in the 800 meters on Friday night. Her time of 2:07.52 has her 14 hundredths of a second ahead of Shawnee Carnett of Concord (W.V.) – the same one who beat Fricker for the NCAA indoor 800 title by half a second in March.
 
"It's cool, but I don't think about it," Fricker said of that distinction. "It's paper, it's not the results. We'll just see what happens tomorrow when it really matters."
 
ONE PLUS ONE FINALLY ADDED UP FOR ANDERS

In three heptathlons this spring, Karolin Anders always came up with a solid Day 1. But Day 2 was  shakier.
 
Not so on Friday's second and final day of the NCAA Division II heptathlon. The Alaska Anchorage sophomore came up with 2,135 points.

Added to the 3,236 she scored through the first four events on Thursday, Anders finished with a personal-best 5,375 to snare second place with 136 points to spare.
 
"I'm a little overwhelmed, I have to admit, right now," Anders said after collecting her trophy. "I was hoping I would finally put my first day and second day together, and everything worked perfectly. I'm really excited, so thank you to Coach Ryan (McWilliams) for everything."
 
At the Mondo Mid-Major Classic on April 10-11 in Sacramento, Anders totaled 2,105 second-day points and finished with 5,048.

Two weeks later in the GNAC Multi-Event Championships, she had just 1,966 on Day 2, but still won the title handily with 4,997.
 
Anders, a sophomore from Berlin, Germany, jumped three places and added 375 points to what she did as a freshman at last year's NCAAs. Between then and this week, she underwent surgery late last October to repair a torn meniscus.
 
"The rehab took a lot of time," she said. "There was so much to work on, and Coach Ryan worked hard with me on everything."
 
THOMAS SAVES HIS BEST FOR LAST – TWICE

On his way to beating his long-held goal of 7,000 points, Cody Thomas came up big just when it seemed as if he might run out of chances – or out of time – in the NCAA decathlon.
 
On the first of his two javelin tosses, the Alaska Anchorage junior from New Zealand threw 133 feet, 2 inches (40.60 meters), and 137-1 (41.78). Then on his last try, he flung it 161-6 (49.60).
 
"My elbow had been hurting me and bugging me," Thomas said. Coach Ryan (McWilliams) and Mike Friess) said, 'Hey, you need a 50,' So I just gotta grip it and rip it. I made sure I got in position and threw it as fast and as hard as I could, and 49 was good enough."
 
Then in the meet-ending 1,500 meters, he found himself in last place among the 16 competitors coming toward the end of the first lap. He got around some traffic, and moved up to an eighth-place finish in the race, clinching seventh overall in the 10-event competition.
 
"I don't know how to run 1,500," Thomas said. "I just run and listen to what they're telling me to do."
 
STEEN'S POST-MEET PRIORITY: CHOW DOWN

After smashing her personal-best time by nearly 14 seconds on the way to fourth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase on Friday night, Western Washington junior Katelyn Steen talked about what was next for her.
 
Going for a run to start getting ready for the fall cross country season wasn't No. 1 on her to-do list.
 
"First things first: I have to eat a BIG cheeseburger," she said, emphasizing 'big' with a laugh and a grin. "And then I'm gong to take some time off and then start running again."
 
Steen said her goal is for a two-week break, but – as is the case for most runners, especially those of the distance genre – that's easier said than done.
 
"The first week is usually pretty easy, but the second week is tough," she said. "Sometimes, I start running after a week."
 
As for her 10:20.66 on Friday, Steen said it seemed even faster than that.
 
"It felt like an 8:50 – it was so hard," she said. "I could not have run another second faster."
 
LOWER ALTITUDE SUITS DECKER JUST FINE

After racing in the 1,500 meters at last year's nationals in Pueblo, Colo., Seattle Pacific sophomore Lynelle Decker definitely preferred the much lower altitude of Allendale. The Grand Rapids suburb sits just 653 feet above sea level, compared to the 4,692 feet of the Colorado city.
 
"The altitude in Colorado really ate up your last 200 meters sprinting," said Decker, who ran the 1,500 in the 2013 meet. "This time, I had more left until about 50 meters to go.
 
Decker continued her streak of never missing an NCAA meet since arriving at Seattle Pacific as a freshman in the fall of 2012. She has run in two cross country nationals,  twice at indoor track, and now twice at outdoor track.
 
A BREAK, THEN BACK TO BUSINESS FOR SAWATZKY

Although Simon Fraser senior Sarah Sawatzky fell short of making the 800 finals on Friday, thus ending her college career, she probably will be back in action before long – and not necessarily in the 800, an event for which she became well known in the GNAC.
 
"I'll maybe take a little break. I don't know if I'll race much in the summer," she said. "But we have the provincials (British Columbia championships) in July, so I might be doing that. I'll probably focus more on the 400 – something shorter in the summer."
 
Sawatzky, who finished 13th on Friday in 2:10.55, said she just didn't have that little boost left heading toward the finish line.
 
"I wish I had a little more push at the end, but it just wasn't there today," she said. "The first lap was really quick. With the last 200 to go, I felt it slowing down for me, and I didn't have that kick."