June 13, 2008

8:15 UPDATE: Ty Akins will attempt to defend his NCAA Championship in the 110m hurdles on Saturday after breaking the stadium and school records with a time of 13.25 in the semifinals moments ago. Akins was impressive in defeating top-ranked Jason Richardson of South Carolina (13.29) while shattering his previous personal best and school-record mark of 13.42 set during the final at last year's NCAA meet. The fastest time in the second heat was 13.39, so Akins will have the middle lane for the final.

6:55 UPDATE: Quite an exciting sequence of events for Auburn just unfolded. Jacob Dunkleberger and Cory Martin were 1-2 in the hammer throw making their final throws just as Raevan Harris was one of three remaining high jumpers completing their final attempts. In the end, Auburn ended up with first-, second- and third-place finishers, all within a minute or two of each other.

The hammer throw competition was exceptional, as Martin set a stadium record on his first attempt and led going into the fourth round, only to have Dunkleberger pass him by setting a new PR. Dunkleberger kept the lead with Martin second until Martin was set to take the final throw of the competition, and he unleased an amazing throw of 74.13m (243-2), breaking his own school record by more than a meter (more than three feet). So the Tigers got the 18 points they had hoped for, while breaking the stadium record three times (and this is a really old stadium).

Harris finished third in the high jump, and was oh so close to winning the title. She just clipped the bar on her way down on her final attempt at 1.89m (6-2.25), and the other two finalists missed on their final attempt at that height, meaning Harris would have won had she not missed. She finished third based on the other two competitors who went out at 1.89m having fewer misses than she had.

We've got a short break before Ty Akins runs in the 110m hurdles semifinal a little more than an hour from now.

6:00 UPDATE: A lot going on right now as at last report Cory Martin and Jacob Dunkleberger were 1-2 in the hammer throw in the third round, while Raevan Harris is one of just five jumpers left in the women's high jump, having cleared 1.83m (6-0).

3:30 PM: Day three of the NCAA Outdoor Championships are now underway. The first two days were all building up towards today and tomorrow, with nearly all of the finals taking place in the last two days. In fact, Auburn has more finalists competing tonight than on Saturday.

Just a reminder, if you get CBS College Sports (formerly CSTV), you can watch live action from 7-10 p.m. CT tonight. All of the running events will take part during this time period. I can't speak for other cable companies, but I believe on DirecTV that is channel 610 if you get the Sports Pack. As you can see from the schedule at the end of this entry, the last hour-plus will be filled with Auburn runners.

UPDATE: If you can't watch on TV, there is live streaming coverage on the internet. Copy and paste this URL address into your browser: http://all-access.cstv.com/cstv/player/player.html?code=ncaa&sport=c-track&category=live&media=69621

You do have to sign up for an account to watch, I believe.

It's difficult to guage where the teams stand entering the last two days since there have been so few finals. But the good news for Auburn is that everyone who was ranked in the top 10 of their events made it to the finals, plus a few who weren't in the top 10. So the goals for today and tomorrow are to earn as many All-American honors as possible, and of course, to score as many points as possible.

By the way, the format for determining All-American honors is that the top eight finishers in each event are named All-Americans, and in addition, if any of the top eight are foreign-born, then the list is extended to include the top eight American-born athletes . So for example, if an American-born member of Auburn's team finished 10th, but there were two foreign-born athletes in the top eight, then the Auburn student-athlete will also be named an All-American in addition to the top eight (plus the ninth-place finisher if he/she is American-born or the next highest American-born finisher).

Sign by baseball park says "Permit Parking Only". It will take more than a permit to park here now.

Of course it's impossible to talk about what's going on around here without again mentioning the floods. It's a beautiful day in Des Moines today, but the rivers are still rising, and are supposed to crest tonight. There are voluntary evacuations taking place downtown in the areas most susceptible to flooding, but Auburn's hotel is a few blocks removed from that area, so there doesn't still doesn't seem to be much concern. It is still quite a site to walk a few blocks to the river and see how much higher it has risen. Also, the minor league baseball park near the downtown area has turned into an island, as the parking lot and everything surrounding it is completely under water.

But getting back to the events on the track, there is a lot to look forward to today, as nine Tigers are competing, including eight in finals. The field events will get us started, with Raevan Harris looking for her first All-American honor in the women's high jump, and then the men's hammer throw takes place. We'll know a lot about Auburn's chances at taking home one of the team trophies after that event, as Cory Martin and Jacob Dunkleberger are ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively. That's a lot of pressure, because if they have nowhere else to go but down. So the Tigers will be anxiously watching to see how many points those two can score.

The 400m hurdles finals will also be fun to watch, as Auburn has two of the eight women's finalists, which is quite an accomplishment, and Reuben McCoy is one of the favorites on the men's side. Justin Gaymon from Georgia is also a favorite and edged McCoy at the SEC Championships.

In addition to Ty Akins trying to get back to the 110m hurdles finals, the night will conclude with the 5,000m, and again Auburn has a finalist for both the men's and women's races. Both Felix Kiboiywo and Hollie Knight are racing at the NCAA Championships for the first time, and these races sometimes amount to who has the best strategy as opposed to who can run the fastest, so the Tigers will be hoping for All-American honors for each of them.

More updates will come later. Here's the schedule for today:

Friday, June 13
4:45 pm  W-High Jump Final        Harris
5:30 pm  M-Hammer Final           Martin, Dunkleberger
8:05 pm  M-110 Hurdles Semi       Akins
8:55 pm  W-400m Hurdles Final     Anderson, Gilchrist
9:05 pm  M-400m Hurdles Final     McCoy
9:15 pm  W-5000m Final            Knight
9:35 pm  M-5000m Final            Kiboiywo