Sacramento, Calif. – After two heaves Thursday, Loree Smith was in solid position to claim her first national title. But the Colorado State senior wishes more spectators could witness her favorite event – the hammer throw.
Smith qualified second with a toss of 64.47 meters (211 feet, 6 inches) on the second day of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Sacramento State.
Georgia sophomore Jenny Dahlgren set the day’s standard of 66.58 meters (218-5) on her only effort.
Smith posted her mark on her second heave and joined Dahlgren on the sidelines as the only athletes in the field of 27 to eclipse the automatic qualifying mark.
“My first one (60.36 meters) was a little … well, not very good,” said Smith. “I kind of slipped coming out of the back, and I cut through my throw. I tried to fix it and I was going really slow.”
Smith wasn’t pleased with her second effort, but it served her well.
“My second throw was off, but it was good enough to hit the automatic mark so I didn’t get another chance,” said Smith, who finished sixth at the NCAAs last year. “All the tosses in the qualifying were down for some reason.”
The women’s hammer final is Saturday, but not many fans will witness it. The men’s and women’s events are being held outside the stadium on the corner of a nearby practice facility.
Brian Berger, Sacramento State sports information director, said it was too difficult in a four-day meet to use the same area for hammer and discus.
“The Olympic trials are eight days so there’s time in the schedule to reconfigure the discus area for the hammer,” Berger said. “But in a four-day meet it’s too tight. The NCAA wanted it in the stadium, and we tried to find a time.
“It could have been at 8 a.m., but what good would that have done?”
Smith was 11th in the 2004 trials, when the event was held inside the stadium. When the 2003 NCAA meet was here, the hammer was held outside.
“We’re a part of the sport of track and field and when we’re practicing and competing behind the stadium and over the mud puddle, it doesn’t make you feel like you’re part of the sport,” Smith said. “It’s a really exciting event, but not a lot people know about it.
“I don’t think the meets are doing much to help that by constantly hosting (the hammer) outside the stadium. But if more people got to see it, I think they would enjoy it.”
In other events, Wyoming senior Shauna Smith won the fifth heat of the 400 meter hurdles in 56.54 seconds to qualify for Saturday’s semifinals with the third-best mark. Smith was scheduled to run on Wyoming’s 1,600-meter relay team.
CU sophomore Stephen Pifer finished fourth in the second heat of the 1,500 meters in 3:40.51 and advanced with the seventh-best time.
Mark Walter of Air Force placed 10th in the first of two 1,500 heats in 3:51.93 and failed to qualify (22nd overall).
Wyoming senior Tanice Barnett finished 13th in the second heat of the 1,500 in 4:34.85 and didn’t qualify.
Also, Arkansas’ Tyson Gay ran the fastest 200 in the world this year, a stunning 19.93 seconds in the semifinal.
