UA men 21st at NCAA Indoors

The UA men's indoor track team finished tied for 21st with Iowa State, Baylor and Wyoming while the women were only able to score one point and tie for 40th along with Oregon and Georgetown.

"We were pleased with the team's performance," head coach Dave Murray said. "We took six kids to NCAA's and came away with four All-Americans."

Jeff Dutoit, Carolyn Jackson, Tara Chaplin and Abdi Abdirahman all received All-American honors.

With a pole vault of 18-feet-2 1/2-inches, junior Jeff Dutoit finished third in the competition and tied the indoor school record. The vault also marked a personal best for Dutoit.

"Jeff was definitely the highlight of the meet for us," head coach Dave Murray said. "He beat a lot of great collegiate vaulters and showed he was one of the best in the United States."

Junior Carolyn Jackson scored the lone UA point on the women's side by finishing eighth in the 400-meters with a time of 55.06 seconds.

Freshman Tara Chaplin finished 10th in the 5,000m with a time of 16:25.25 and 12th in the 3,000m with a time of 9:37.56.

Senior Abdi Abdirahman, who finished sixth in the men's 5,000m with a time of 14:10.10, was recently diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left foot which forced him to run in pain.

"I'm very proud of Abdi for running with such extreme pain," Murray said. "He didn't have to run with that injury but he just wanted it."

Junior Andrea Neary cleared 11-7 3/4 to place 14th in the women's pole vault competition and freshman Maureen Griffin finished 14th in the 20 pound weight throw with a toss of 56-7 1/4.

A majority of the UA track and field athletes who didn't qualify for the NCAA's opened their outdoor season this weekend at the Bill Sawyer Invitational in Tempe.

Junior Nicole Thomas won the women's 400m in 56.49 and freshman Brianna Glenn won the women's 200m in 24.19, the seventh fastest time in school history.

Sophomore Liz Giltner won the women's high jump with a mark of 5-4 1/2 and junior Warren Peters won the men's high jump with a mark of 6-8 3/4.

Sophomore Ola Larsen won the men's javelin throw with a toss of 227-feet-2 and junior Micheil Jones won the men's 1,500m in a time of 3:49.04.

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At the IAAF World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Japan, UA sophomore sprinter Patrick Nduwimana, running for his home country of Burundi, won his first round heat with a time of 1:48.31. Nduwimana failed to advance past the semifinals, finishing third in his heat with a time of 1:46.80.

Brian Wahlund can be reached at Brian.Wahlund@wildcat.arizona.edu.