Saturday, May 24, 2014
BY MARK MOSCHETTI
ALLENDALE, Mich. – She saw a challenge lurking behind her in the shadows.
But in front of McKayla Fricker, it was nothing but broad daylight …
… all the way to the finish line.
The Seattle Pacific senior, after a near-miss at the national indoor 800-meter title in March, won the outdoor crown going away on Saturday night, pulling into the lead up the back side early in the second and final lap, then cruising down the homestretch at the NCAA Division II championship meet.
She came through the wire in 2 minutes, 6.18 seconds – a personal best by nearly three-quarters of a second and a winning margin of well over a full second ahead of Shawnee Carnett of Concord (W.V.) at Grand Valley Track & Field Stadium.
"It's unreal. I just can't believe it just happened," Fricker said after tasting a national title for the first time. "It's what I've been determined to do ever since I set foot at SPU – just to persevere and stay determined after everything I've been through in the last four years.
"To be able to do it like this is just surreal."
Carnett was the runner who fended off a charging Fricker to win the indoor crown by half a second on March 15 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Once again on Saturday, with the temperatures somewhat more pleasant toward evening after touching 80 earlier in the day, it was she who had the best chance to chase Fricker down.
Fricker (Canby, Ore.) was in fourth place, but right with the lead pack – including Carnett – as she took the bell lap. Coming out of the curve to start up the back of the bright blue oval, Fricker surged into the lead, and quickly started to stretch it.
"When she came around (the end of the first lap) at 62, 63 seconds, we kind of knew that it was to play in her hands a little bit," Falcon assistant coach Audra Smith said. "She has been through that so many times before, that you just knew she was in good position, and it was going to be game over.
"She had three more gears – and two more gears after that," Smith added with a laugh.
Carnett attempted to close some ground going around the last curve on the bright blue oval. But Fricker responded immediately.
"I saw the shadow of Shawnee behind me, and did not let her get close to me. I just kept going," Fricker said. "I don't know where she's at coming down that last stretch. I kind of checked a little bit and kind of just kept running for it, running scared all the way through the finish."
By the time Fricker entered the final 75 straightaway, the outcome no longer was in doubt. Her 2:06.18 easily beat her mark of 2:06.85 and the 2:07.52 she posted in Friday's preliminaries. Carnett, who had the D2's top time of 2:06.19 coming into the meet, clocked 2:07.53 on Saturday.
"About five to 10 meters before the finish, I knew I had it," she said, "and I was just 'Yes. Really? Really? Wow."
Waiting for Fricker at the awards stand was her father, Mark, to hand out the trophies. That task usually goes to the winner's head coach, but SPU's Karl Lerum is not in Michigan this week, as he sent assistants Audra Smith and Chris Reed along with the team's six athletes.
It was Reed who walked up to Mark Fricker, himself a former star runner at Oregon State, handed over his coaches pass, and told him that he should hand out the awards.
"That was really special," McKayla Fricker said. "I either wanted only him or Karl, and since Karl wasn't able to be here, I had my dad."
Fricker's victory gave her another All-American honor. She finished her career with six of them.
WISH ALMOST CAME TRUE FOR 1-2 JAV DUO
Long before the season started, Bethany Drake and Katie Reichert talked to each other about the possibility of a 1-2 finish at the NCAA meet – and on Saturday, that's exactly what they did.
But in their version of a perfect world, it would have been a 1-1 finish instead. It almost happened, as Drake won with a throw of 165 feet, 3 inches, and Drake – thanks to a career-best toss on her final attempt – was at 165-2.
"It was a joke: We wanted to tie," Reichert said, unable to contain her laughter. Chimed in Drake, "That was about as close as we could get.
It was a come-from-behind effort for both Vikings. Drake, the top seed, started the finals in second place at 161-2, trailing leader Mary Riley of Central Missouri by eight inches. Reichert was way back in eight place among the nine competitors at 145-7.
Drake took care of business right away, uncorking what became the title winner on her first finals attempt.
"It felt good and felt smooth – I didn't know what (the distance) would be," she said. "I just tried to stay relaxed."
Reichert was a little more dramatic. She was actually in ninth place coming into her final throw – not even in the podium group (the top eight make the stand). But than came her 165-2. That was 50.34 on the metric scale, her first throw ever beyond 50 meters.
Definitely it wasn't how I planned it," Reichert said with a laugh, "but I still got what I can be proud of."
BURGHAGEN'S TOUGHEST COMPETITION NEXT YEAR? HIS RETURING TEAMMATE
After a second-place finish in the javelin on Saturday that he said left him "a little disappointed," Alaska Anchorage junior Franz Burghagen can look forward to a 2015 season in which he can get even better by going up against a national championship-caliber thrower every day.
That thrower is none other than teammate Cody Parker, who won the 2013 NCAA title with a monster throw of 255 feet, 10 inches, while Burghagen finished third at 230-4. Parker missed this season recovering from elbow surgery.
"I'm sorry for Cody that he couldn't be here today," Burghagen said. "Next year, he'll be back, hopefully."
The two of them working together again could make both even more formidable.
"It's not just the technique," Burghagen said of having his training partner with whom to collaborate, "it's everything. We can make up little practice competitions around everything we do."
Burghagen came into the Saturday's event with the second-best mark of 229-2 1/2 -- half an inch behind UC San Diego's Nash Howe. Ironically, both Burghagen and Howe had their best throw of the day on their first attempt: 222-7 for Burghagen, 211-0 for Howe.
Burghagen's mark stood up as the leader until David Reinhardt of Slippery Rock, a sophomore, unleashed his eventually winning toss of 225-9 ½ on the final throw of the preliminary round.
Burghagen went as far as 218-8 in the finals; Reinhardt 's best of his final three was 213-8.
"That's how it is, especially in the javelin – there's so many ups and downs," Burghagen said. "The guy who won had a great day, and he PR'd by 4 meters. One day, there's the throw, the other day, it's not."
BEST THROWS ARE THE EASIEST
Athletes atop the leaderboard, no matter what their sport, make it all seem so simple. Western Washington sophomore Frank Catelli says it's no different in the shot put.
Catelli came up with a career-best throw of 60 feet, 10 ½ inches to close out the preliminaries as the temperature pushed toward 80 degrees on Saturday afternoon. That bumped him way up the standings and ultimately gave him third place.
"It's hard to explain – the best throw always feels like you could have thrown it a lot better," Catelli said. "That's what it felt like. I got my legs into it, which I don't normally do. It kind of flew off my hand. After I did a spin and looked back, it was definitely a PR, and I was excited."
In fact, it was Catelli's first-ever throw beyond 60 feet. His second one didn't take nearly as long to come. He launched another 60-footer (60-5 ¾) on his second of three attempts in the finals.
"That's the hump I've been trying to get over," he said. "My goal for next year is going to be 64. I'm going to be working with my high school coach all summer and hopefully, we can get that mark early and exceed some more standards.
THIRD TIME – AND FOURTH THROW – WERE CHURCH'S CHARMS
In two previous trips to nationals, Western Oregon's Seabre Church had never finished higher than double digits in the women's javelin.
It almost happened again Saturday. But Church got out of prelims as the ninth and last qualifier, then immediately uncorked a career-best throw of 156-3 on her first attempt of the finals and fourth overall of the day to snag fifth place and an All-American honor.
"My senior year, I expected a lot of myself, especially coming in ranked eighth. I at least wanted eighth or better," Church said.
Church said the key was just calming herself down a little.
"I have a really big problem with being nervous," she said. "I went and talked to my coaches, and they helped me with my breathing and just tried to give me different tips. Just talking to them lightened my mood and made me relax a lot more."