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Shannon Rowbury and Christin Wurth-Thomas won their first national titles Saturday, February 23rd at the AT&T USA Indoor Track and Field Championships, and Matt Tegenkamp defended his title in the 3,000m, but only Wurth-Thomas is certain to take a spot at the IAAF World Indoor Championships to be held next month in Valencia, Spain.
The three distance finals happened in quick succession at the end of the first day of competition at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. The women's 3,000m was first, and Rowbury waited for the last 400 to open up her stride and run away from Jen Rhines, the pacesetter for most of the race. Rowbury won in 8:55.19. Rhines, who had hoped to push hard enough in the middle of the race to burn off challengers like Rowbury, finished in 8:59.98, which until five seconds earlier would have been faster than Rowbury's PR.
Neither Rowbury nor Rhines was certain on Saturday evening if they would compete at the World Indoor Championships. Rhines, who had made Valencia her goal earlier in the season, was disappointed by her form and troubled by a recent calf injury. She said she and her coach (and husband), Terrence Mahon, would re-evaluate before committing to Valencia. Rowbury was also uncertain, explaining that her need to run an Olympic "A" standard in the 5,000m would take priority for the spring, and she, too, would consult with her coach (in this case, John Cook) before committing to the Worlds.
Behind them, both Julie Culley (third, 9:00.14) and Katie McGregor (fourth, 9:03.34) ran the qualifying standard for Worlds as well, and they would be the next athletes considered; Amy Hastings (sixth) also has the mark from a previous race and would next in line.
Matt Tegenkamp surprised nobody by running away from the men's 3,000m field, with his former Wisconsin teammate and current training partner Chris Solinsky right behind, but again, both Solinsky and Tegenkamp professed uncertainty about their plans for Valencia. "We'll need to talk to [Coach] Jerry [Schumacher] about whether that's a good idea," said Solinsky. "We're still building," said Tegenkamp. "I've only done two track workouts so far, so I'm not sure if it's a good idea to take a week out of my schedule and race in Europe."
"The focus this year is the Olympics, and making the team at the Trials will be a fight, too."
Behind Tegenkamp and Solinsky, both Jonathon Riley (third) and Steve Slattery (sixth) have qualifying marks for Worlds and would be asked if Tegenkamp and Solinsky don't take their spots.
The women's 1,500m, on the other hand, has little such uncertainty. Wurth, who stepped up the pace with five laps remaining and built a three-second margin of victory over Jenelle Deatherage, won in 4:14.21 to 4:17.38. Both plan to compete in Valencia. For Deatherage, this will be her first international team; Wurth, who is planning her own Olympic campaign, hopes to nail down an Olympic "A" standard at the Worlds. She also sees a little bit of Cold War in the Worlds meet. "We're going after the Russians," she said, alluding to the Russian dominance of the 2008 performance list. Russian women are six of the 10 fastest this year in the 1,500m with 11 of the 15 fastest marks--but only two athletes per country will be allowed to run in Valencia.
Posted by Parker Morse at 2:11 p.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2008 USA Indoor T&F Champs