Underclassmen dominate the second day: Nick Willis, Kevin Hicks, and Chris Solinsky win titles - 2005 NCAA Indoor T&F Championships

2005 NCAA INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Underclassmen dominate the second day: Nick Willis, Kevin Hicks, and Chris Solinsky win titles

by Parker Morse

Nick Willis celebrates his first individual NCAA title.
(Both photos: Alison Wade/New York Road Runners, click to enlarge)

Chris Solinsky holds Peter Kosgei to win the 3,000.

New Zealand Olympian Nick Willis starts with mile victory

The first men's final of the second day of NCAA competition was driven by results from the first day. All the mile finalists had come through the preliminaries, but two (Kurt Benninger of Notre Dame and Said Ahmed of Arkansas) had also anchored distance medley relays, Ahmed even running a winning anchor leg, which was later disqualified for interference at the finish line. Others, including Michigan's Nick Willis and Arizona's Jonah Maiyo, had advanced with minimal effort and rested through the DMR.

Bryan Lindsay of BYU took on the early pace in Saturday's mile final as though he hoped to run away from the rested kickers in the race. With Maiyo on his heels, Lindsay covered the first lap right around 30 seconds and split 59.7 for the first quarter. This quick opening stretched the pack out but did not break it up, since nearly everyone in the field had sub-4:00 credentials. Lindsay and Maiyo were followed by Tom Lancashire of Florida State and crowd favorite Ahmed, then defending champion Sean Jefferson of Indiana.

Willis, picked as a favorite after the apparent restraint with which he advanced from the prelims, hung on to the back of the pack at first, but when Lindsay started cracking under the strain of three 30-second laps, he moved up. Lindsay passed halfway at 2:02.0 with Maiyo, Lancashire, Ahmed, and Jefferson still trailing, but as the pace slowed Willis bobbed up to sixth. After the next lap, another 32, Jefferson moved up to second before Benninger, also a heat winner on Friday, moved around the bunching pack and into the lead. Benninger took the pace back down to 30 per lap, and the third quarter was reached in 3:04 with Benninger leading, Jefferson right behind, and Willis in third.

With just a quarter remaining, maintaining a fast pace was no longer an issue. Maiyo moved back up to second on the backstretch of the seventh lap, then into the lead as the pack reached the bell.

Willis finally asserted himself on the backstretch with about 150m remaining, and once past Maiyo he immediately established a gap. Jefferson, who had defeated Willis in their conference meet, covered Willis' move, but too late; he was able to get by Maiyo but could not make up enough ground on Willis to defend his national title. Willis checked his back on the corner to confirm that he had done enough, and finished with his first individual NCAA title in 4:00.69, a 26-second last lap and 56-second closing quarter. Jefferson came in next at 4:01.56, with Maiyo third at 4:02.07.

Benninger was fourth in 4:02.24 and Lancashire fifth in 4:02.32. Ahmed, who had anchored Arkansas' disastrous DMR on Friday night, was too spent to assert himself in the closing laps of his, third hard mile of the weekend, and finished sixth in 4:03.32. Jefferson's twin brother John was seventh in 4:03.96, and Lindsay took the last scoring spot in 4:07.23.

Afterward, Willis admitted he would have preferred to move sooner, but was hoping to conserve his energy for a run at the 3,000m, where he had finished second in 2004. "I was looking out for the Jeffersons or Ahmed," he explained. "My big thing is to drive from about 400m out, but with the 3,000m, I thought I'd better wait until the last 200. I've really been training for the longer distances this year, so a mile is a bit of a step down for me." He professed some disinterest in "finally" having won an NCAA individual championship. (He was part of Michigan's winning DMR in 2004.) "I wouldn't lose any sleep if I retired without ever winning an NCAA title," he said. "I wanted to win for the team."

Kevin Hicks not a one-win wonder in 800m

The 800m final which followed the mile was such a collection of champions, the announcer reached the top of his crescendo early in the introductions. 2003 and 2004 NCAA indoor champion Nate Brannen, a senior from Michigan, was back after anchoring Michigan's champion DMR Friday evening. Outdoor NCAA champion and U.S. Olympic Trials winner Jonathan Johnson, a senior from Texas Tech, was there as well. Then, on the outside, there was Kevin Hicks, a sophomore from Florida A&M and the improbable winner of February's USA Indoor T&F Championships in Boston.

"I'd never run against these other athletes," said Hicks afterward, "but they had never run against me either."

Johnson followed the strategy he'd used since high school, getting out hard and leading from the front. He scorched the first lap in 24.49 and passed halfway in 51.47, with Arkansas' James Hatch in hot pursuit. After 600m, reached in 1:19.38, it was clear that Johnson had set a pace even he couldn't maintain, and the question was who still had the strength to close.

Sherridan Kirk of Auburn thought he did, and as Johnson started to fade it was Kirk who led the charge. Brannen found himself stuck on the inside on the backstretch and could only wait for an opening. Hatch covered Kirk's move, and they battled for the lead around the final corner. It was Hicks, however, who plowed past the faltering Kirk and Hatch in the homestretch to add the NCAA title to his resume in 1:46.97. Hatch beat out Kirk for second, 1:47.40 to 1:47.64, and Brannen came in fourth in 1:47.71. Johnson faded to sixth (1:47.92) behind Mike Inge of Kent State (1:47.84.)

Though the crowd roared for Hatch, Hicks was too exhausted to show elation. "I had to work hard for that win," he said afterward.

Wisconsin teamwork pushes Chris Solinsky to the fore

The 3,000m, the last race on the schedule before the 4x400m relays, can be a race of redemption for doublers, and this year's field was loaded with them. Willis and Brannen were back from the mile and 800, as was Lindsay. Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp of Wisconsin doubled back from Friday night's 5,000m, along with Arkansas' Peter Kosgei, Georgetown's Rod Koborsi, Arizona's Robert Cheseret, and Indiana's Stephen Haas. Arkansas' Adam Perkins, who ran the 1,200m leg for the Hogs' disqualified DMR, also hoped to pick up some team points that would stick.

It was BYU's Josh Rohatinsky who set the early pace, but the 3,000m is much more volatile than the 5,000m and Rohatinsky didn't stay in front very long. Liberty's Josh McDougal, Perkins, Cheseret, and Iona's Richard Kiplagat all took turns in the front in the early laps, until Stanford's Ryan Hall stepped up with McDougal and the pair spread the pack out. Willis lurked at the back of the lead group, while Brannen was off the pace in a pack with Koborsi.

As the race passed halfway and approached the end of the second kilometer, Hall dropped back and Tegenkamp stepped up to share the lead with McDougal. It was around that time that Willis, runner-up in 2004, simply stepped off the track. "I'm a bit disappointed in myself for that decision," he said later. "It wasn't a very team-oriented thing to do."

Within a few laps McDougal was off the front as well, as Solinsky and then Perkins joined Tegenkamp in the front. Tegenkamp and Solinsky, working together, demolished much of the lead pack, opening a gap on McDougal, Perkins, and Kosgei. With two laps remaining, Solinsky said, "I could feel Matt [Tegenkamp] was slowing down," so he moved up into the lead.

This was not a position Solinsky had been in since he won the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships as a high school senior, and despite his lead he was far from confident. "I was a little bit tired all day," from his third-place 5,000m finish the night before, he admitted. "I'm not going to lie, I was scared about this race. But at the Big Ten Championships, [Tegenkamp, Willis, and I] closed in 4:03, so I felt confident that I could close with anyone in the race. A lot of the moves I covered without using a lot of energy, and I was pleased with that." The crowd was screaming, too, and not for Solinsky; Kosgei had passed Tegenkamp and was bidding to catch Solinsky. "I heard someone coming," he said, "and I got this surge of energy. I don't think I've ever closed that fast in my life."

Solinsky had barely a second to spare when he crossed the line in 7:53.59; Kosgei followed in 7:54.45, then Tegenkamp in 7:55.72. Solinsky sprawled out on the track, heart leaping, trying to get a handle on what he'd done.

Kiplagat was next in, fourth in 8:02.28, followed immediately by McDougal in 8:02.72. Perkins took unexpected sixth-place points for Arkansas in 8:03.43, and Oregon's Eric Logsdon (8:04.27) and Koborsi (8:04.74) completed the scoring in seventh and eighth, respectively.

Solinsky gave much of the credit for the win to his teammate, Tegenkamp. "Matt and I are great training partners. I wouldn't be able to do this without guys like Matt and [Coach] Jerry [Schumacher]. I set myself up so this could happen, but I had no idea that it would. I have no idea what I'm doing next. I've been doing some steeplechase work, and Jerry said something about an 800 and some 1,500s. My only major goal is to keep improving, and keep making steps. You know how, when you're in middle school, you go up stairs in your classes? This is like jumping a whole floor."