By
Francisco Merced
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Glenn earns 2nd Pac-10 Athlete of the Week Award
For the second time this season, junior Brianna Glenn was named the Pacific 10 Conference's Athlete of the Week. This time, it was for her performance at the weekend's Mount San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, Calif.
Glenn ran a wind-aided time of 11.16 seconds in the invitational's 100-meter dash in a come-from-behind finish to beat Nike's Torri Edwards, an alumna of Southern California.
Glenn's time, however, ranks No. 2 in the nation as Louisiana State freshman Muna Lee clocked in a time of 11.13 at the Texas Team Invitational in Austin, Texas.
Lee's mark was also wind-aided as she ran with a blistering 3.6 meters per second pushing her.
UA associate head coach Fred Harvey said he was most impressed with the competition Glenn had to beat to get her time.
"When you win and compete well at these meets, your performance level rises and it really shows what your capability is," Harvey said.
Having already secured a berth in the 100m for the NCAA Championships, Glenn's new focus will be trying to obtain the same in the 200m at this weekend's Drake Relays.
Something the athlete and coach have been working on since last year's outdoor championships is to add the 200m, placing Glenn in a third event and providing UA with another opportunity to score at nationals.
Another award will likely garner Glenn more attention as the Pac-10 Championships near.
"All those honors obviously make you feel good because people out there are recognizing her achievements," Harvey said.
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Glenn was nearly outdone by the success of Arizona's distance runners, who broke some school records of their own and better positioned themselves for an invite to nationals.
"We performed very well, especially from the distance standpoint," UA head coach Dave Murray said. "For the most part, we had a real good meet."
Once again, the third-ranked women's team showed off its strength in the distance as three athletes came away with personal bests at the meet.
Sophomore Nicole Gurnicz broke the school record in the 3000m steeplechase. She barely fell short of automatically qualifying for the event in a time of 10 minutes, 21.32 seconds, breaking senior Katrin Engelen's record of 10:23.47.
Engelen didn't run the event at Mt. SAC, choosing instead to compete in the 5000m, running a 16:33.28, a best for her in the event.
Right behind Engelen was freshman Beth Hoge, who ran a time of 16:37.17 in her second outing in the event.
On the men's side, junior Steve Smith ran an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 8:81.52 in the men's steeplechase as he finished seventh.
Murray said the Wildcats should be able to get better as the postseason dawns.
"Our biggest improvements will be seen in our meets as our competition improves," Murray said. "(This meet) showed that we are continuing to improve."
