UA's Skieresz cruises in 10,000 at Penn Relays

She went out and gained some experience. And then some.

Skieresz won the race with a time of 32 minutes, 31.65 seconds, which is both a UA and Pacific 10 Conference record time in the event. The time was the second best in national collegiate history, off by only eight seconds, and automatically qualified Skieresz for the NCAA Championships in June.

"I think mentally it is (tougher) than the 5,000 meters," she said, referring to the race she usually runs.

When asked if there was anything that she could not do, Skieresz replied with, "yeah, sure, lots of things. Maybe not in running, but in lots of other things."

"It shows what potential she has," Murray said. "Amy is just unbelievable."

Sophomore Emily Nay, who also ran at the Penn Relays in the 10,000m, wasn't too shabby herself, coming in second with a time of 34:38.62, which provisionally qualified her for the NCAA's.

For the rest of the Wildcats, breaking national records was less of a concern than the weather.

After back-to back weekends fighting Mother Nature, Arizona posted three victories at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa in the relay races and one in individual competition.

"I've been going to the Drake Relays for 20 years," Murray said. "And it was the best weather we've ever had."

In Iowa, freshman Erin Aldrich won the high jump for the fifth time in six outdoor meets this season with a height of 6-feet, 2 inches. Another individual highlight came from sophomore Jussi Autio, who tied the Arizona record with a height of 18-1 3/4 in the pole vault, which was also an automatic NCAA qualifying mark and good enough for second place.

The men's distance medley relay team won for the third consecutive year with a time of 9:34.05. This year's squad consisted of freshman Micheil Jones, junior Bob Keino and seniors Dameon Ortiz and Luther Kopf.

The women's sprint medley relay team of freshman Carolyn Jackson, senior Dee Dee Buzzi and juniors Jamie Taylor and Shanna Griffin also took first with a time of 3:52.77.

On Friday, the first day of the two day competition, the men's 4x1600-meter relay team of Kopf, Keino, Jones and freshman Jeremy Lyon took first with a time of 16:29.04.

"Looking at all the different teams there (over 200 college teams alone), anyone could see that we were the dominant team," Murray said. "There's no question in my mind about that."

Arizona next travels to Tempe, Ariz. for the Sun Devil Invitational on Saturday.