April 4, 2002
AUSTIN, Texas - - Running her first 5,000-meter race of the outdoor season, junior Debbie Thornhill won the Texas Relays crown with a NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 16:40.05 Thursday at the UT Mike A. Myers Track Stadium. Thornhill's time set a new Mike A. Myers Stadium record and was her fastest mark of the season by nearly 17 seconds.
"I came in here today with the attitude of taking the lead early and possibly running alone. For the first mile and half I was able to stay behind the leader (Cheryl Smith, Hawaii), but I was striving for 79s and 80s so I had to pull away," said Thornhill. "I'm really excited to finally qualify for NCAAs, and even more excited about being able to do it running alone."
Also turning in a solid performance in the 5,000 was senior Kara Newton who finished fourth with a time of 17:20.69.
Sophomore Jordan Willmann completed second-day action in the heptathlon posting a PR 4,952 point total to finish sixth overall. Willmann's performance was highlighted by a first-place finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:16.49, her fastest mark of the season.
The women also notched a sixth-place finish in the 4x800-meter relay as the team of Tiffany Wise, Lanie Millar, Rachel Tibbs and Katherine Duncan combined to post a time of 8:59.17.
In prelim action, the Bears qualified freshman Danielle Myricks and senior Michael Smith into the finals of the 400-meter hurdles to be run on Saturday. Myricks won her heat and turned in the second fastest time overall with a 59.02 clocking, while Smith also took top honors in his heat and sits with the third fastest time in the event with 54.04 mark.
Failing to qualify for the finals, but also competing in the 400 hurdles were senior Chava Demart for the women and freshman Dwight Ruff for the men. Demart's time of 60.64 was good enough to win her heat but placed her .37 seconds out of finals. Ruff was on pace for a season-best time heading into the eighth hurdle, but caught the a foot on the hurdle stumbling to the ground, before managing to recover and finish with a time of 54.04.
Action will continue tomorrow from the Texas Relays with running events beginning at 9:30 a.m. and field events starting at 10 a.m.
