Smith outduels
NIPs Ingram in
two-day meet
By Adam Klinkkr
Senior staff writer
For certain, Trecia Smith isn't one
for theatrics.
The Pittsburgh senior jumper owns
Bob Devaney Sports Center records in
the triple jump and long jump. She's got
the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational
records, too. Smith has won both events
at the Sevigne meet for the past three
years.
I The accolades extend on and on,
and yet, Smith nary bats an eye when
the questions come.
H Instead she shrugs her shoulders,
H gives a few glib answers and tells people
that she wasn't even running half-speed
H on her takeoffs.
“I'm really not ever worried” Smith
11 said after winning her third consecutive
|| Sevigne triple jump competition on
H Saturday afternoon. She jumped 43
H feet, TA inches - almost a full foot more
U than her closest competitor, junior
H Dalhia Ingram of Nebraska.
“When I put my full run with my
| full speed together, I'm going to jump
Im even better,” Smith said. “My team
mates told me, ‘Trecia, you look like
you’re jogging down the runway.’ But
that works for me. It’s getting me back
in the flow.”
With her jump, Smith automatically
qualified for the NCAA meet. Ingram
met an NCAA provisional qualifier
with her mark of 42 feet, 8 inches.
On Friday in the long jump, Smith
—ng —r-A-,-a. n—
Despite her difficulty in eclipsing
Smith’s marks, Ingram said it was a
good meet for her, especially in the face
of such premium competition.
“This was good experience,”
Ingram said. “I feel very ready for the
Big 12s and the other meets.”
Husker Coach Gary Pepin agreed.
“Dalhia will come back, one way or
the other,” Pepin said. “She’s a competi
tor, always has been.”
Elsewhere around the meet, the NU
women's team was keyed on by several
winning performances on the track and
in the infield.
In the women’s 800-meter run,
Husker junior Stella Klassen ran her
way into a NCAA provisional qualify
ing mark with a time of 2 minutes, 7.92
seconds.
In just her third time running the
800 this season, Klassen was less than
half a second off the NCAA automatic
qualifying time.
“That mark helps me a lot,” she said.
“It helps me to better myself. I’m really
excited about it.”
Going into the last lap, Klassen
found herself in a neck-and-neck battle
for position with Chantee Earl of Pitt.
But down the backstretch, Klassen said,
she felt a surge of energy that put the
race solely into her possession.
“As soon as I got to the straight
away with one lap left, I felt I had it,”
Klassen said. “I felt strong and I was
ready to work for those last 100 meters.”
Klassen also ran in the anchor posi
tion on NU’s 4x400 meter relay team
that won the Sevigne meet champi
onship on Saturday in a time ot 3:4U.41.
Fueled by sophomore sprinter
Lesley Owusu, who had faltered on
Friday in her 400-meter race, the NU
team held off Kansas State to win by
almost four seconds and gain an NCAA
provisional mark.
“I was angry when I didn’t finish
my 400 on Friday,” Owusu said follow
ing her performance in the 4x400. “But
I knew I had to come back strong, and in
the 4x4, it’s very important for everyone
to work together. Fm very happy with
our performance.”
Yet another bright spot in the
Husker women’s rotation was a come
back by freshman Becky Beachler, who
finished second in the shot put.
After nearly a year on the sidelines
following surgery to relieve patellarten
dinitis, Beachler put up a throw of 50
feet, 11 inches - an NCAA provisional
qualifying mark.
“That’s the best she’s looked since
she was healthy and throwing well in
high school,” said NU Assistant Coach
Mark Colligan. “She worried that
maybe she’d forgotten what it was to be
a competitor, but she hasn t.
Beachler said that while she was
happy with her performance, she knows
she can do better.Her throw fell just 23A
inches short of the meet best by Cherre
Hicks of Syracuse.
“I’m starting out kind of slow,” she
said. “I’ve got some room to grow. But
this was a very big boost in confidence
for me.”
On the whole, Pepin said the Husker
women put together a solid meet, espe
cially in preparation for the Big 12
Conference meet on Feb. 19-20.
“It was pretty positive,” Pepin said.
“You have some good things happen
and some not so good things happen.
Overall, there were more positive than
negative and now we’ve got a couple
weeks to improve before the conference
meet and we’re making inroads into
doing just that.”
Matt Miller/DN
RUNNERS CLEAR their first obstacle in the 60-meter hurdle finals on
Saturday. Washington State’s Arend Watkins soon pulled ahead to set the
meet record.
Lane Hickenbottom/.DN
NEBRASKA’S WOMEN’S 4x400
meter relay team of Cheryl
Harmon, Seneik Saavedra,
Lesley Owusu and Stella
Klassen embrace after rocking
the competition by more than
four seconds in the finals of the
Frank Sevigne Husker Invite on
Saturday.
practiced the same routine and netted
similar results, though this time she had
to withstand a final charge from Ingram
that just fell short.
With Ingram leading after the pre
liminary rounds, Smith, who owns the
longest jump in the nation this year,
went back and forth with Ingram in the
finals until finally landing a leap of 20
feet, 9Va inches. Ingram scratched on
her final attempt but still gained an
NCAA provisional mark with a jump of
20 feet, 33/4 inches.
“I just got kind of tired,” Ingram
said. “I was ready, but Trecia was just
jumping very well in the last round and
I was just... tired.”
Once again, Smith, running at half
speed with only half of the runway in
front of her, hit the NCAA automatic
qualifying mark for the national meet.
Smith said that while warming up
for the long jump, she felt a twitch that
told her to take it easy instead of running
at full speed.
“I’m very happy,” Smith said. “But I
didn’t really feel like I was doing my all
to compete out there. (Ingram) was the
competitor. She did well.”