Hogs gamble and win on Ahmed’s qualifying times
Posted on Wednesday, March 8, 2006
John McDonnell does feel the luck of the Irish having gambled and won on his best middle distance runner.
Arkansas’ Irish track coach with 41 NCAA championships knew there would be next to no chance of winning No. 42 if Said Ahmed had to race again last weekend before this weekend’s NCAA Indoor Championships, Arkansas hosts at the Randal Tyson Indoor Track Center.
McDonnell also there would be NO chance if Ahmed’s provisional qualifying times on the mile and on the distance medley anchor got bumped out of the NCAA field by runners at last weekend’s knew Last Chance meets.
So Ahmed stayed home while other Razorbacks took their Last Chance in Ames, Iowa. "We were sweating," McDonnell said. "Believe me!"
McDonnell really had no choice.
The previous weekend, Ahmed led Arkansas to an SEC Indoor championship with five races in two days. After Feb. 25 prelims in the mile and 800, Ahmed on Feb. 26 won the mile and was second in the 800 and also anchored Arkansas’ distance medley relay as McDonnell’s men won the SEC Indoor Championships in Gainesville, Fla.
Arkansas’ DMR, leading the nation with a provisional 9:34.42 before last weekend’s round of Last Chance meets, dropped to No. 5. Four college DMR’s ran 9:33.82 or better at last chance meets. Still, at No. 5, the Razorbacks are easily in the 12-team DMR field.
The mile though, was threatening to be a different story. With five runners at Last Chance meets running season’s best faster than Ahmed’s provisionally qualified 4:00.35 running tired at the SEC meet, Ahmed also tumbled down the qualifying charts. He eventually fell to No. 12, but that still ranks high enough to make the NCAA Indoor.
In fact, Arkansas added a mile qualifier when Adam Perkins’ 4:01.01 at Ames ranked him 15 th nationally. "The first meet where Adam Perkins qualified," McDonnell said, "two guys broke four minutes. And then there was a Washington meet and a meet at Notre Dame and we thought, Said is gone and of course, Adam, too. But they had only two more guys qualifying and Adam got in, too. They ended up taking 17."
A four-time All-American senior, Ahmed has only this weekend’s mile and DMR left in his Razorback career. He’s already completed his outdoor eligibility, and this Friday and Saturday meet caps the indoor season. "It’s kind of a weird feeling," Ahmed said. "It felt like yesterday when I got here. And now I’m facing the real world to go on the next level. I love my teammates, and now I know Saturday this will be the last meet as a Razorback runner."
McDonnell needs him and 3,000-5,000 meter runners Josphat Boit and Peter Kosgei and senior All-American triple jumpers to be Razorback stoppers.
Otherwise, even ranked No. 1, McDonnell’s men will be hard put to defend their NCAA Indoor title versus Florida State, Texas and LSU. The Hogs will get zip from the sprints (no qualifiers with Wallace Spearmon, Tyson Gay and Omar Brown graduated to the pros) and lack a prohibitive favorite in the distances and jumps, too. "We are looking as good as we could look," McDonnell said, "without having the real heavy hitters up front. I think we’ve got some that will step up, but right now we don’t have anybody ranked No. 1. It’s been a while since that happened."
Decades, it seems, and it is. Arkansas has always had at least one NCAA Indoor champion since 1,000-yard winner Randy Stephens became the Razorbacks’ first in 1982.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
