By
Francisco Merced
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Glenn wins 200m, distance runners set school record
Entering the final competitive meet of the year before the end-of-season championships begin, the UA track and field team went in to tinker and fine-tune its game.
For the No. 3 women's team, the biggest contributions came from athletes not running in their usual events at the 92nd annual Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
Having already secured an automatic berth in the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the 100-meter dash, junior Brianna Glenn wanted to do the same for the 200m.
Glenn finished in 23.34 seconds to win the Special/Invitational 200m and provisionally qualify for nationals.
Glenn's time is even more impressive considering that she held off second-place finisher Angela Manuel while facing a 1.8 miles-per-second headwind.
"It was a good race," she said. "The conditions weren't perfect, but I felt good."
With only two meets before the NCAA Championships begin, Glenn's decision to participate in three events will be determined by how well she continues to improve in the 200m.
A good measure for Glenn will be her showing at the Pacific 10 Conference Championships, to be held on California's campus in Berkeley, Calif.
"The Pac-10 (Championships) is a good chance to see how well you do in multiple rounds," she said. "Depending on how I do there will probably determine my chances for nationals."
The distance portion of the women's team also had a strong showing.
Senior Erin Doherty had an exceptional weekend, anchoring the distance medley team to a new school record and winning the collegiate 1,500m.
Doherty ran the mile anchor as the distance medley finished in a record 11 minutes, 20.13 seconds before running a personal best in the 1,500m in 4:26.21 seconds - No. 8 in school history.
Both hurdlers for the Wildcats also fared well as each neared personal best times during the weekend.
Senior Rori Kelly placed sixth in the collegiate 100m high hurdles in 13.53 seconds while sophomore Alexandra Komnos finished in fifth in the special invite 100m high hurdles in 13.60 seconds.
On the men's side, the 4x400m relay team of senior Keith Varga, juniors Jules Doumbya and Mike Kenyon and sophomore Matt Lea ran its fastest time of the season with a mark of 3:07.42 during preliminaries.
However, during the finals the men finished .2 seconds slower to finish fifth.
"The prelim time was real strong and we were excited about that," Lea said. "(But) we were a little disappointed about running a slower time in the finals."
