Monday, May 30, 2011

UAA


UAA's Micah Chelimo gained All-America honors for the second straight year by placing sixth Friday in men's 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Division II track and field championships in Turlock, Calif.
Chelimo, who provided a stirring finish at last month's Heart Run by sprinting past teammate Alfred Kangogo in the final few meters to claim victory, recorded a time of 8 minutes, 58 seconds.
Last year, Chelimo raced to seventh place in the steeplechase to earn All-America honors.
A sophomore from Kapkoi, Kenya, Chelimo gave UAA its third All-America performance at this week's national championships. On Thursday, senior David Registe placed fourth in the long jump and sophomore Ruth Keino was eighth in the 10,000 meters to collect All-America honors, which go to the top eight finishers in each event.
In its seventh year of existence, the UAA track team now boasts 19 All-America efforts. And today the Seawolves have a couple opportunities to add to that total.
UAA has six runners competing today at Cal State-Stanislaus. Among them is Susan Bick of Anchorage, who ran the third-fastest preliminary time Friday to advance to the women's 800-meter finals.
Bick, a Bartlett High graduate, clocked a school-record 2:10.69, slicing almost two-tenths of a second off her previous best of 2:10.87. The top qualifying time was 2:09.6; the second-fastest was 2:10.40.
Bick was one of just two freshmen who qualified for the national meet in the 800. The other was her teammate, Ivy O'Guinn of Soldotna, who placed 16th in qualifying for with a time of 2:14.50. Only the top eight will run in today's finals.
But that doesn't mean O'Guinn's meet is over. She was one of three Seawolves to qualify on Thursday for today's 1,500-meter finals. She and Miriam Kipng'eno will race in the women's final and Kangogo will compete in the men's final. Kipng'eno will race twice today. She and Keino are both entered in the 5,000 meters.

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