Track squad makes important step toward NCAAs

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Dominic Johnson/Smashed his own previous school record by five inches in the pole vault.

Two weeks ago at the Mt. SAC meet in California, the Wildcat track and field teams started this momentum with great qualifying marks, which also continued at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, over the weekend.

Increased pressure during the last couple of weeks, due to the fact that many athletes couldn't compete at their actual level due to bad weather conditions, vanished a little bit with recent successes.

"We had an excellent competition and with seven new automatic and provisional results we were the dominant team of the meet," said UA head coach Dave Murray.

The highlight of the Drake Relays was senior Dominic Johnson's performance in the pole vault. Johnson, who qualified provisionally two weeks ago at the Mt. SAC meet, not only earned himself an automatic berth for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June, but he also smashed his own previous school record by five inches to bring it to 18 feet-6 1/2 inches.

"I had a really good week practicing, because I could concentrate on the pole vault and I also got the pressure off me after last week's qualifying performance," Johnson said. "The fact that I was able to jump in the elite section with other professionals like Olympian Jeff Hartwig also helped me to compete on such a high level."

On the women's side, graduate Dee Dee Buzzi qualified with a strong provisional mark of 12-3 3/4, which gave her the win in the college division and the runner-up spot overall.

"I was very pleased with my result at the meet and the opportunity to compete against professionals prepared for the upcoming big meets," Buzzi said.

The heart of the meet in Des Moines is traditionally the relays and medleys. Sophomores Jeremy Lyon and Micheil Jones, freshmen Patrick Nduwimana and junior Abdi Abdirahman continued Arizona's winning ways in the distance relays as they won their second-straight 4x1600-meter relay.

"I have been preparing for this race for a while," Abdirahman said, "and when the runner (from Oregon) started jogging, I knew that I had him."