Davis Falls Short For Uo At Drake

College track

Mead High’s Matt Davis, now running for Oregon, didn’t quite have enough to hold off Arizona’s Martin Keino in the distance medley relay at the 86th Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, Saturday.

Keino ran the final four laps in a swift 3 minutes, 58.6 seconds. The son of Kenyan distance great Kip Keino passed Davis on the second turn of the last lap and pulled away to give Arizona its first victory in the distance medley at Drake since 1990, when the Wildcats won the last of their three straight titles.

Davis had led Keino by 20 meters when he began the final carry.

“I was confident I was going to catch up,” said Keino, the NCAA cross country champion last fall. “I was really pushing myself to get up there. I really wanted to catch him because I wanted to win bad. That was my motivation.”

Arizona, which finished in 9:40.65, was never a threat in the race until Keino got the baton from Luther Kopf, who had the Wildcats in fifth place after his 800-meter carry. Once Keino started running, Kopf never doubted the Wildcats would win.

“When you train with him every day, you know he’s the best,” Kopf said. “As long as you have Martin Keino, you know you’re in the race.”

Robert Keino, Martin’s brother, ran the opening 1,200 leg and handed to Cullen Plousha for the 400.

“It was a huge mess,” Robert Keino said. “I was running in the first lane and had to cut to the fourth lane to hand off. As soon as he got it, there was a guy behind him, so he had to kind of back up before he could start running.”

Oregon had moved into conten tion with a 44.8-second 400 by freshman Patrick Johnson, who was second in the invitational 100 on Friday and beat Carl Lewis in that race. Johnson was 5 meters off the lead when he handed to Ben Andrews, who quickly put the Ducks in front. They held the lead until Keino passed Davis.

Nebraska was second in 9:48.26 and Oregon was third in 9:48.60.

Oklahoma picked up its second relay victory and Georgia’s Gudrun Arnardottir put herself into position to claim the outstanding performer award in the women’s division by winning two races less than 45 minutes apart.

David Oaks anchored Oklahoma to a 400 relay title, pulling away from Iowa’s George Page in the straightaway. Oklahoma finished in 39.84 to win the race for the third time in four years. Iowa ran 40.26.

Oaks anchored Oklahoma to a victory in the 800 relay on Friday.

Arnardottir got the first of her victories when she ran a 13.3-second anchor to give Georgia the title in the 400 shuttle hurdle relay. Then the junior from Iceland won the 100 hurdles in 13.78.

Eastern Michigan’s Sevatheda Fynes also will get consideration for the outstanding performer award after setting her second meet record in two days in the 100 meters. She won the event Saturday in 11.19 after running 11.26 in the preliminaries Friday. The old record was 11.42 by LSU’s Esther Jones in 1989.

Another meet record fell in the hammer throw, Texas-El Paso’s Alex Papadimitrou winning with a heave of 236 feet, 6 inches. The old record was 234-6 by another UTEP thrower, Marko Wahlman, in 1993.

UTEP’s Jim Svenoy won the 5,000 in 13:50.32, beating two-time Olympian Jim Spivey by 20 meters, and Georgia’s Bode Osagiobare won the university-college 100 in 10.56. Arizona’s Leo Simmons eked out a victory in the university-college 110 hurdles when favored Jeff Jackson of Baylor stumbled on the sixth hurdle. Simmons ran 14.30 to win in a photo finish.

In women’s races, Amy Wickus anchored Wisconsin to its second come-from-behind relay victory, this time in the sprint medley. She paced the Badgers in the distance medley on Friday. Former Nebraska runner Fran ten Bensel ran away from the field to win the 5,000.

Penn Relays

The dominant women’s team of the ‘80s shined on the 100th anniversary of the meet.

Before a record Penn Relays crowd of 46,810 in Philadelphia, Villanova added the 3,200-meter relay title to the distance medley relay championship it won Thursday and the 6,000-meter relay crown it won Friday.

It was the first time since 1990 that the Wildcats’ women won three events in the Penn Relays, a meet they have dominated since the mid-1980s. The three wins this year increased Villanova’s total to 22 championships in the three distance events, with all but one of the victories coming since 1985.

Senior Tosha Woodward, who ran on the distance medley and 6,000-meter relay teams, was the key to Saturday’s triumph.

Her final 800-meter time of 2:03.6 gave Villanova a time of 8:31.99. It was the Wildcats’ sixth victory in the event in eight years and seventh overall.

Meanwhile, the men’s teams of Arkansas and Abilene Christian and the LSU women each won their second relay titles of the meet.

In the most notable individual performances, Ray Doakes of Arkansas set a meet record of 7 feet, 5 3/4 inches, in winning the men’s high jump and teammate Jerome Romain took the men’s triple jump in 56-2, a Franklin Field record.

Marieka Veltman set a Frankln Field open record in winning the women’s Olympic Development long jump at 22-5.

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