2002 USA Outdoor Championships - Day Two Report

By Parker Morse

The last day of any multi-day meet is where all the plot lines come together. With the rounds over, the three shorter distance events all ran finals on Sunday.

The afternoon kicked off with the women's steeplechase, and the question was whether Elizabeth Jackson would pick up the U.S. title which eluded her last year when Lisa Nye caught her at the finish. Jennifer Michel set the early pace, with Jackson floating off her shoulder and Nye right behind, but after barely a lap and a half Jackson was out in front and forcing the pace. With three laps to go, Jackson pushed again and dropped her closest pursuers, and Nye broke away from the pack and set off in pursuit. This year, however, Jackson was uncatchable, running 9:47.35 to wipe out the championship record Nye set last year; Nye ran 9:52.61 in second. Arizona State's Lisa Aguilera picked up a place or two on the last lap to finish third in 9:59.66.

"My goal, honestly, was to go out and run the best race I could today," said Jackson after the race. "I knew I had a chance to win, but I knew I was going to have to run tough to beat some of those girls, because there are some great runners this year. I don't want to think about winning because you can't control how fast the other girls can run, you just do what you can out there."

Jackson said she thinks the steeplechase still has growing to do in the U.S. "I think it may take the steeple a little longer, but it could follow in the same footsteps [as the women's pole vault, now a marquee event]. It's exciting to watch... In two or three years it will be bigger than it is now, especially when it's a championship event in 2005."

The men's 800m final included two former champions (David Krummenacker, defending his 2001 title, and Khadevis Robinson, the 1999 winner) and the 2002 indoor champion, Derrick Peterson, along with local favorites Jeff DeLong and Michael Stember of the Farm Team. Peterson took the lead just before the halfway, passed in 54.05, with Krummenacker, Robinson, Jesse Strutzel, and Stember right behind. On the backstretch, the pace dropped rapidly, and Krummenacker rolled to the front in response to the first move. Robinson matched strides with him around the back corner, then Krummenacker broke away on the homestretch to defend his title in 1:47.24 to Robinson's 1:47.58. Peterson finished third in 1:48.14.

"I wanted a smooth race," said Krummenacker. "I've had a little twinge in my hamstring, and I didn't want to jerk it around any. I didn't want to have to do anything crazy in the last 200." A double 800/1,500 finalist at the Sacramento Olympic Trials, Krummenacker chose to focus on the 800 this season, but he will run some 1,500s in Europe this summer to keep the longer race as an option for 2004. "I'd like to get my PR down to 3:32 or 3:33," he said.

The women's 800m belonged to indoor champion and indoor AR holder Nicole Teter from start to finish. Teter led through halfway in 58.11 with Sasha Spencer, Mary Jayne Harrelson and Jen Toomey right behind. The pace lagged slightly in the second lap before Teter broke away with 200m to go, adding the outdoor title to her indoor one in 1:58.82. Behind on the homestretch, Harrelson was boxed in by Toomey in front and Spencer to her outside, and tangled with Toomey while trying to break free. Toomey stuck to lane one and took second, while Harrelson lost momentum and finished several places further back.

"It hasn't hit me yet," said Teter of her double titles, "but the indoor record hasn't really hit me yet. I planned to set the pace myself and bring it in with what I had left, but I expected Spencer and Hazel Clark to be with me with 100 to go."

After last year's heartbreaking fall in the steeplechase, and this spring's dominant indoor season, Tim Broe was expected to clean up some unfinished business by finally putting the steeplechase title on his shelf. However, Broe will have to wait another year as another young steeple lion took a page from Broe's own book to steal the race. Anthony Famiglietti, second last year and the World University Games champion, broke away from the pack with three laps to go and opened a progressively wider lead as Broe, who had been sitting in fourth, set off in pursuit. "Fam" was too far out, however, and Broe wasn't the only one making a long drive to the finish. As Fam took his first title in 8:19.07, recent Colorado grad Steve Slattery ducked past Broe to take second, 8:23.44 to 8:23.61.

"That wasn't a gutsy move, that was pretty much a Tim Broe move," said Famiglietti of his early breakaway. "I figured he would do something like that, so I figured this time I'd get the jump on him and do it first."

There's no feature in the USATF cineplex which has run longer than Suzy Favor Hamilton vs. Regina Jacobs in the women's 1500m. Since 1987 only two other athletes have won the 1,500m, with Favor Hamilton winning three titles in that time and Jacobs a whopping ten. This year Jacobs followed the same script as the last two, shadowing Favor Hamilton's every move and running away in the last 200m to add an eleventh win in 4:09.57.

"I had heard that Suzy was in good shape, so I was expecting a good race," said Jacobs afterward. "When Sarah Schwald set a fast pace in the first lap, I thought we would have a fast one and maybe we would have to run sub-4 to win it, but Suzy took the pace on the second lap [with 1,000m to go] and it slowed down. Taking the lead wasn't part of my plan, because I haven't been doing the fine-tuning work I usually have before Nationals. I'm trying to have a great European season this year, not just a great American season."

The cancellation of her announced steeplechase debut, Jacobs explained, was due to form problems. "The water jump was giving me problems," she said. "It was really jamming me up. I wasn't getting far enough out of the pit, and I was risking an injury."

The men's 1,500m was the last distance final of the championship. Mike Miller of the U.S. Army, who won the second of Friday's heats, set a brisk early pace, running laps of 59.2 and 60.7 with the field tightly bunched behind him. At the bell, Seneca Lassiter was on Miller's shoulder, and then the kicking started. Lassiter covered the last lap in 54.7 with Bryan Berryhill right with him and Ibrahim Aden not far behind. Berryhill and Lassiter battled down the homestretch, and in the end it was Lassiter in 3:40.90, Berryhill in 3:40.98 and Aden 3:41.19. Lassiter, the 1997 champion while still at Arkansas, won his second title five years later and five seconds faster.

Berryhill, who was second at the indoor nationals as well, claimed to see improvement this time. "Except for the last five meters, this was exactly how I'd planned. I've had a hamstring problem, and it's been four weeks since I've had a solid week of training."

The USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships will return to Stanford in 2003, when it will also be the selection meet for the Paris World Championships.