June 24, 2005
Carson, CA - Competition continued for the second day at the USATF Junior and Senior National championships with a fistful of All-American honors grabbed up by Cal athletes.
JUNIOR NATIONALS
Freshman Missy Faubus followed her near qualification for the Junior National team in the discus with a second place finish in the shot put to make the team and earn her second set of Verizion Junior All-American Honors in this meet. Yesterday the freshman threw 171-6 at the end of an excellent series of throws for third place and nomination to the junior All-American team. Today Faubus evolved the same way in the shot put by improving on nearly every throw. Going into the prelims Faubus was in fifth place after throwing 48-1.25. On her second-to-last throw Faubus heaved out a 50-6.75 to get all the way into second, beating out Stephanie Horton by half an inch. Redshirt freshman Emilee Strot had a more difficult time. After throwing 46-6 in the prelims, Strot could not help but foul all of her throws in the finals. Her toss of 46-6 still makes her the seventh best under-20 female shot putter in the nation and a Verizon Junior All-American as well.
Freshman Alysia Johnson won her own junior All-American honor in the 800m after winning All-American honors this year at the NCAA championships in Sacramento. At the gun Johnson got out quickly, settling into the front of the pack after the break and through the first lap. With 200m left, Johnson tried to hang with Rebekah Noble and Heidi Magill as they seperated from the pack. With 100m left Johnson found a second gear, but the two leaders were too far gone to catch as Johnson came in at 2:07.20 for third place and the third set of junior All-American honors for the day.
Redshirt freshman Tifani Grimes finished third in the women's heptathlon. After finishing the first day in third place, Grimes kept her momentum through the second day's competition. After some great performances in the long jump and javelin, Grimes nearly lost her position after the 800m where she only score 616 points off a time of 2:36.28. Thankfully her strong performances earlier in the day gave her enough cushion to keep third and makes her the fourth Cal Athlete to earn junior All-American honors.
Freshman Chris Chavez became the last Cal athlete to be named to the junior All-American team. Chavez ran a lifetime best of 14:44.34 in the 5,000m to snag eighth place from Indiana's Mark Fruin who ran 14:45.50.
SENIOR NATIONALS
Senior Chloe Jarvis finished seventeenth overall in the women's 800m. At the break Jarvis settled into the back of the pack and stayed with as the field came through 400m at a blistering 59 seconds. The first lap apparently took its toll as Jarvis struggled to kick at the end. Jarvis' final time was 2:10.12.
The women's long jump was won by Cal alum Grace Upshaw on her first jump. Upshaw was just shy of 22 feet at 21-11.75 actually tying Tianna Madison of Tennessee for the longest jump, but winning by virtue of her second longest jump which beat Madison's by only two centimeters. Junior Antonette Carter was ninth place with a windy jump of 20-9.75. The swirling winds on the backstretch made it difficult for the athletes to make a solid leap off the board by Carter still managed an excellent performance as she finished at the front half of an extremely competitive field.
In the women's shot put, Cal alum and school record holder Kristen Heaston posted a win with the only throw over 60-0. Heaston controlled the event almost from start to finish, except for a moment when Elizabeth Wanless surpassed Heaston's throw of 59-5.25 by only an inch. Heaston immediatly responded with a toss of 61-1 to seal her the win. Heaston followed the throw with another improvement to 61-3.5 and makes her the ninth best thrower in the world this year.
Assistant coach Phil McMullen bounced back from a dismal first day of competition in the decathlon to grab third place and a trip to Helsinki. McMullen. McMullen used his strongest events the pole vault and the 1,500m to climb out of his ninth place first day total of 3,695 points. After moving into fifth after the pole vault and javelin, McMullen would need to score roughly 70 points over Stephen Harris to grab third. McMullen did just that, leading out through the whole race McMullen came in at 4:19.16 to Harris' 4:32.37 to outscore him by 88 points.
Junior Paul Teinert was sixth in the men's javelin after hovering in fourth for a moment. Questionable conditions made Teinert's throw of 229-9 even more impressive as he went up against American record holder Breux Greer and other professional athletes.
