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UA stars shine in Elite Classic

Nduwimana marks season debut with victory

Don't tell UA junior Keith Varga that winning is easy, especially after this weekend's Arizona Elite Classic at Roy P. Drachman Stadium.

Varga set a school record in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 50.70 seconds, only to finish in third place Friday night.

Though he was the fastest collegiate finisher, he couldn't keep pace with U.S. Olympian Maurice Mitchell who was running for the U.S. West Track Club, which finished in first place, and Tom McGuirick of Accusplit Track Club.

"The big thing was that he had some very good competition," UA head coach Dave Murray said. "In order to run those good kind of times, you need that good competition."

The Arizona men's track team had many strong performances during the weekend as senior Jeff Dutoit won the men's pole vault with a vault of 17 feet, 10 inches, giving him a NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

The clearance was tied Dutoit's best outdoor vault and was the third best in school history.

Junior Mike Kenyon was also impressive as he placed second in the 200m and third in the 400m on Saturday.

The most impressive event for the men's team, though, was 1,500m race.

Making his first appearance of the season, junior Patrick Nduwimana won the race with a Pacific 10 Conference qualifying time of 3 minutes 45.07 seconds.

Nduwimana had missed the entire indoor season and the beginning of the outdoor season due to an Achilles tendon strain.

"It feels good, I surprised myself. I wasn't expecting to run so fast, I just followed the pace," Nduwimana said. "This shows me that I am on the right track, I ran that fast but I am still on rehab."

Seniors Jeremy Lyon and Micheil Jones also received Pac-10 qualifying times in the event as they finished fifth and sixth respectively.

"I guess we did good job, there were a lot of qualifications and we were so motivated," Nduwimana said.

Arizona's women's track and field team also fared well at the Elite Classic as sophomore Brianna Glenn, senior Carolyn Jackson and senior Mandy Shefman led the way.

Jackson was the top collegiate finisher in the 400m with a 52.60 but she couldn't compete with U.S. West Track Club athlete Shanel Porter who ran a 51.21, which was a stadium record.

"Carolyn has been real steady," Murray said. "This had been her third straight meet in the 52s."

Glenn was equally impressive as she won the 100m dash in 11.52 and finished second in the long jump with a jump of 19-10, despite being sick most of the week and missing most of the team's practices.

The most impressive female athlete was Shefman, who won the discus with a throw of 159-6 and was the top collegiate finisher in the shot put and hammer throw.

"I think it was an excellent weekend for us, we got quite a few qualifying marks," Murray said. "Overall we had some really excellent performances."