Several Ephs advance to Saturday finals at NCAAs
OSHKOSH, WI.-- Senior Andrew Arons advanced to the finals of two events at the 2008 Track & Field Championships Thursday, highlighting the first day of competition for the Williams men's and women's teams.
"It was a good overall day," Ephs assistant coach Mitchell Baker said. "We did have a lot of people qualify for the finals, and others who had season's best or personal best times."
Arons raced to a first-place finish in his heat of the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.14 seconds, earning himself a spot in the 200 finals Saturday at 3:45 p.m. Eph Deividas Seferis placed fourth in heat three of the 200 with a time of 21.85 and did not advance to the championship final.
Arons also found a spot in the 4x400 relay finals, helping his team to a first-place finish in heat three of the preliminaries. Arons, Seferis, Taylor Fitzgerald and Alex Hoerman finished he race in 3:15.53, good enough for a spot in the finals Saturday at 4:55 p.m.
"We had a very, very good relay," Baker said. "Every one of the guys ran a great leg and I think everyone was fairly satisfied with the outcome."
Williams junior Macklin Chaffee finished fourth in his heat of the 1,500-meter run, but his time of 3:57.96 was fast enough to get him a spot in the eight-person final Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
On the women's side of the ledger, Eph sophomore Olga Kondratjeva ran a great 1,500 race as well, finishing fifth in her heat (4:31.87) and qualifying for the finals Saturday at 1:20 p.m. The time was Kondratjeva's best of the year by four seconds. Eph senior Carrie Plitt participated in the 200 and finished sixth in heat for with a time of 25.41 seconds.
The women's 4x400 relay of Sara Wild, Elise Johnson, Lizzy Danhakl and Plitt finished fourth in heat three with a time of 3:53.07 and did not qualify for the finals, but did race to a season's best time.
