Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Husker Invite
Rams distance runners lead way in Nebraska
2/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Indoor Track & Field
Feb. 7, 2009
By John Manuszak
Athletic Media Relations
LINCOLN, Neb. – Facing off against some of the top talent in the nation, the Colorado State middle-distance and distance runners held their own on Friday and Saturday at the 34th annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational, hosted by the University of Nebraska. The young Rams, taking on the likes of nationally ranked Arizona, UTEP, Michigan, UCLA, Nebraska, Kansas State, Kansas and Iowa State, had several strong performances, including a pair of event wins.
“I thought our distance and middle-distance runners ran really well today,” said Head Coach Brian Bedard. “Across the board, our men and women were really solid in those events and were the highlight of the meet for us.”
Picking up first-place finishes for the Rams were junior Wil Buchanan in the men’s 800-meter run with a personal-best time of 1 minute, 54.70 seconds, and freshman Michelle Dettmann, who captured the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:10.77.
In the stacked men’s mile, the Rams captured three of the top seven spots with Scott Sanders (third – 4:16.93), Buchanan (fourth place in a personal-best 4:17.13) and Jake Keyser (seventh place in a personal-best 4:18.47) running well for CSU. Keyser also picked up a fourth-place finish in the men’s 5,000 meters with another personal-best time of 14:56.55.
In two separate heats of the men’s 3000-meter run, the Rams posted a pair of strong finishes. In the faster of the two events – the men’s 3,000-meter special - sophomore Daniel Wallis finished fifth with a time of 8:22.78. In the main 3,000-meter run, senior Kip Taylor finished second with a personal-best time of 8:40.61.
Senior Kristen Hemphill was also solid for the women’s distance team as she placed fourth in the fast women’s 3,000-meter special run with a time of 9:56.03, and third in the women’s 5,000 meters with a mark of 17:06.37.
In addition to the success of the distance squad, senior throwers Missy Faubus and Alex Godell continued their recent success. Faubus provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet with a throw of 15.44 meters, good for a fourth-place finish in the event, while also finishing sixth in weight throw with a toss of 16.90 meters. Godell finished fourth in the men’s weight throw with a toss of 19.30 meters.
Junior sprinter/jumper Tanesha Johnson finished second in the women’s 60-meter dash with a time of 7.59 and then capped off another solid weekend with a fourth-place finish in the triple jump with a leap of 11.93 meters.
In other field event action, freshman Caston Mabin set a personal best with a mark of 6 feet, 6.75 inches in the high jump.
The Rams will return to Air Force next weekend for the Air Force Invitational. The event opens with preliminaries on Friday and the finals on Saturday.
