The outdoor season has officially begun. On Friday afternoon the hammer throwers open the season for our team at the ASU Invitational. Anneli Stahl took third place with a throw of 181 feet. Freshmen Destanae Howerton-Davis and newcomer Cynthia Sanchez set new lifetime bests as well.
On Friday evening the distance runners took to the track at the Stanford Invitational. The week long Bay area rain gave way to overcast skies and dry conditions for the evening races which led to some fast times and solid races. Amanda Mergaert got things started by winning her 1500 meter heat in 4:27.47 which was about a second from her lifetime best. The race was excruciatingly slow through 800 meters (2:28). Mergaert hung with the lead group and with 300 to go made her move and got to the lead coming off the final turn and took the victory going away. Her final 400 circuit was 66 seconds.
Fifth year senior, Alyssa Abbott, opened her final outdoor campaign with a very smooth 16:31.54 effort that was two seconds from her lifetime best. Abbott ran fairly even 1K splits (3:16-3:14-3:19-3:20-3:21) to take fifth in her heat. With 2,000 meters to go Abbott found herself leading the pack and the runners continued to shuffle around until about 800m to go when the eventual winner forced the pace which broke up the pack into their finishing order.
It's nice to see the throwers get off to a solid start. I know they are working hard right now and will throw further later in the season. Amanda continues to learn and is about a month ahead of where she was at this time a year ago. I think that slow opening pace cost her 5-6 seconds, but she closed well and covered the pace change well. That 5K was only the third of Alyssa's career. Physically, she's right where she needs to be. She is also well ahead of where she was a year ago. We have three weeks before the next 5K.
On Saturday the remainder of the team will compete. The sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers, throwers, and a few distance runners will compete at ASU. Mergaert will join teammate Lucy Yates in the 800 meter race at what is expected to be a rainy day at the Stanford Invite.
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