Triplets!!!

I apologize for posting this great news so late.  It was a busy week last week.  I have trying to obtain some great photos (which I have seen, just haven't received permission to download yet) from the NCAA Championships.

In case you missed it...Amanda closed out her collegiate career by finishing third at the NCAA Championships in the 1500 meter race.  Her semifinal was tightly bunched, but she calmly placed fifth (automatic advancement) and moved into the final.

In the final she was about as aggressive as I've ever seen her.  With 900m to go she moved from seventh to second by literally jumping from the rail to lane two.  She stayed near the lead through 300m to go when the packed tightened back up as the readied for a big stretch sprint home.  With 200m to go she was in fifth but trapped on the rail again and everyone was bumping and banging or as Harry Hogg would say "Rubbin' is Racin'.  Amanda held her ground and the inside line down the final 100m and was able to beat all but two for her third First Team All American honor this year.  (14th in XC, 5th in the indoor mile).

First Team AA honors (top 40 in xc, top eight in both indoor and outdoor track) in the same academic year in all three sports is an extremely rare accomplishment.  I believe there were only five athletes in the entire NCAA who did that this year.  The other four were all long distance gals (3,000 meters and up).  Amanda was the only "middle distance" runner to do it.  There are numerous "land mines" that can sidetrack this effort from illness to injury to stress.  Amanda mostly avoided those issues or if she did have to deal with them it was not at championship time.

Up next:  Amanda will likely be competing in the 1500 meter race at the USA Championships on Thursday (and Saturday if she qualifies for the final).  The top three at this meet will represent the US at the World Championships later this summer.

I'll post pics from the NCAA as soon as I receive them.