Ficken, Woods Advance on First Night of NCAA Track Championships
June 7, 2006
Sacramento, Calif. - Both Cassie Ficken and Shareese Woods advanced beyond the preliminaries in their respective events, as the Charlotte 49ers completed a successful opening night of the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium. Woods advanced to the semifinals of the 200-meter dash, while Ficken will be one of 16 competitors vying for the NCAA 5,000-meter title on Friday night.
The Niners were represented in four different races on Wednesday. The 4x100-meter relay team of Woods, Courtney Patterson, Lamarra Currie and Pat Springs broke the school record and ended their season 13th in the nation. Junior Tsehaye Dagnachew finished 25th nationally in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at her first NCAA Championships.
The Niners are entered in five different races overall at this meet, with the women's 100-meter dash preliminaries and semifinals still to come on Thursday evening.
200-meter dash
Shareese Woods advanced to the semifinals of the 200-meter dash, running the sixth-fastest preliminary time (23.11) on Wednesday. She finished second in heat one, behind Houston's Ebonie Floyd (22.90).
The 200 semifinals will be part of CSTV's two-hour televised block on Friday night at 8:45 p.m. ET. Fans in the Charlotte area can watch that portion of the meet live for free on Charlotte49ers.com through CSTV (just click the "Watch Live" link on the track schedule or via the Niner Notes section of the site's main page).
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"Shareese did a good job while running in the most difficult lane," said head coach Robert Olesen. "She ran in the outermost lane, which means she started ahead on the stagger and couldn't see anyone for the entire beginning of the race. But things are looking good for her right now as she was the sixth-fastest qualifier and moved on."
Heat one was run into a slight headwind. Woods had been seeded fourth overall heading into the Championships.
The top 18 competitors overall advanced to the semifinals, including the top three from each of four heats plus the next six fastest times. Five athletes will advance to the Championship race.
5,000-meter run
Senior Cassie Ficken qualified for the finals of the 5,000-meter run on Wednesday night, finishing 15th in the preliminaries with a season-best time of 16:22.45. That time is about seven seconds slower than her career best (16:15.51 run in 2005). However, it was over five seconds better than her previous top time run in this outdoor campaign.
Sixteen women made the cut for the finals, including the top six from each heat plus the next four best times. Ficken was eighth in heat one.
"Cassie did a good job and made the final," said Olesen. "This was about seven seconds off her lifetime best run last year. She did what she needed to do, hang with the pack, and then in the final 800 meters finish strong."
Advancing to the final is a bit of personal redemption for Ficken, who was disappointed after missing out on the Championship race by just one place last outdoor season. She finished 17th in the nation in 2005, but will compete for the 2006 title this Friday night.
The finals begin at 10:00 p.m. ET on Friday. That is just outside the CSTV live television window, but taped portions of the race could be shown the following day on CBS.
4x100-meter relay
The women's 4x100-meter relay team of Pat Springs, Shareese Woods, Lamarra Currie and Courtney Patterson broke the school's record with a time of 44.44 seconds, finishing 13th in the nation.
"They did a great job," Olesen commented. "It was a new experience for the team. They still have a few things to work on with handoff exchanges, but it's a young team [two freshmen, two juniors]. Obviously they wanted more out of themselves, but as we move on I think they'll look back and be proud of their accomplishment."
Charlotte ran in heat two of the preliminary round, along with LSU, Miami, Houston and Arizona. The top eight teams out of 20 advanced to Friday's final, including LSU and Miami.
It was the first time a relay team from Charlotte, in either gender, had advanced to the NCAA national meet.
3,000-meter steeplechase
Tsehaye Dagnachew, a junior making her first appearance at the NCAA nationals, finished 25th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:38.66. She ran out of heat two, the faster of the two heats Wednesday, which produced the top five times overall.
"Her heat went out really fast," said coach Olesen. "I think it was a good lesson learned for her. She needed to just go out with the fast start and try to stick close enough to make a move at the end. Instead she didn't go out with them and wasn't really close enough to close the gap at the end.
"This will be a good experience for her when she makes it back here in the future, we plan on her making it back. She finished 25th in the country."
