Big Ten Champions Meghan Armstrong & Diane Nukuri Lead Hawkeyes in Tight Team Battle
The 2008 Big Ten Championships were highlighted by two Big Ten Championship performances by Meghan Armstrong (10k) and Diane Nukuri (5k). Meghan got the Hawkeyes off to a great start on Friday night as she raced her way to the Big Ten title over the 10k distance, leading the team to a 1st, 3rd, and 4th place finish overall. Both Meghan and Diane took turns leading throughout in an attempt to assure a fast pace, while also allowing Racheal to make a run at an NCAA qualifier. With 4 laps to go Meghan took the lead for the final time and close her final mile in 5:07, with her last 800m @ 2:27 and her 25th and final lap @ 70.14. Meghan bettered the facility record and posted an outstanding time of 33:49.03. Diane held on for third in 34:07.50, while Racheal Marchand punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships with a 39 sec PR of 34:11.48. The Hawkeyes will have 3 ladies competing in the NCAA 10k final on June 12th with the hopes of posting three All-American performances.
Also getting Day One underway in fine fashion was Tammilee Kerr the Sr. multi event star who posted an NCAA Auto mark of 5532 points despite not having a great first day. Not one to get down she roared back on Day 2 with a monster PR of 19-04 in the LJ and 161-07 in the Javelin. She later went on to run a leg on the 8th place 4 x 100m and improve her Javelin PR from the multi with a toss of 163-05.
Renee White picked a great weekend to post two lifetime best jumps. Despite her big PR in the LJ of 19-10 she just missed the final, but did post an NCAA Regional mark. She came back on the final day to better her school record with a leap of 42- 08.25 and improve her Regional ranking.
Kineke Alexander continues her return to form with an improvement on her Regional mark. She clocked a time of 53.59 in the prelim before placing 4th in the final.
Graduate Student Sarah Henize ran her way to a lifetime best of 4:29.54 and a spot in the Big Ten final on Sunday.
Jessica Schmidt closed out Day 2 with a 4th place finish of 10:27.18 (bettered her own record). That mark moves her up to #9 on the Midwest Regional rankings.
Entering the final day the team recognized how tight the team battle would be for places 4-8. When the meet came to a close the Hawks tied Wisconsin for 6th, 1 point out of 5th and 4 points to 4th.
Caleigh Bacchus emerged for the Hawks with a 6th place finish in the HJ. She posted a collegiate best of 5-7.25.
The 5k proved to be an important event as just with the 10k the trio of Diane Nukuri, Meghan Armstrong, and Racheal Marchand fought their way to a 1st, 3rd, and 5th place finish overall. Meghan led the race until 5 laps remained at which time Diane increased the tempo from a steady 80 sec pace to 74 sec per lap in an effort to shake up the race. Runners began to fall off the pace and going into the final lap Diane held a comfortable lead as Meghan and an Illini runner chased down a runner from Wisconsin. The Hawkeyes posted places of 1st, 3rd, and 5th overall.
As is often the case with Big Ten Championships the team places would be settled with the 4 x 400m relay. Iowa posted a season best (3:44.21) for 6th place overall.
School has officially come to a close and the campus is empty. Racheal, Diane, Meghan, Kineke, Renee, and Tammilee all preparing for the NCAA Regional and NCAA Championships.
"How
many miles will you run chasing down a dream."
On Iowa! Go Hawks!