Oregon runner from Maui breaking new barriers
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
On the airplane to Lincoln, Neb., for a meet last week, University of Oregon junior Alicia Snyder-Carlson told her teammates she would run the steeplechase.
Photo courtesy of University of Oregon
For the first time in her life.
Oregon's Alicia Snyder-Carlson, a St. Anthony HIgh grad, ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the first time in her life and won.
With a stress fracture of her left foot.
"We needed the points," said Snyder-Carlson, a 1999 St. Anthony High graduate from Kihei, Maui.
Never mind that the 3,000-meter steeplechase is one of the most grueling events in track, with five 30-inch high heavy barriers and a 10- to 12-foot long water pit that is more than two feet deep to negotiate.
Never mind that competitors must overcome these obstacles 7 1/2 times around the track (35 barriers and seven water jumps in all).
"When you go into oxygen debt and you have to jump, you're in trouble," explained Henry Marsh, four-time Olympian and the American record holder.
Snyder-Carlson ran the event anyway.
And won.
In doing so, she qualified for the Pac-10 championships with the 12th-fastest time in the conference this season.
"With about 300 meters left in the race, my coach was yelling at me, 'You can still win the race,' " Snyder-Carlson said.
"I was thinking, 'no way,' I was so tired. But on the last turn, I thought, 'maybe I can do this ... and I did.' "
She sprinted 150 meters to the finish from the last water jump and won in 11 minutes, 7.85 seconds.
"Alicia blew them away at the end with her 400/800 speed," Oregon hurdles coach Mark Stream said. "It was pretty fun. A whole lot of her teammates were whooping it up for her."
Snyder-Carlson had qualified for the Pac-10s the previous week in her main event, 400 hurdles, with a lifetime best of 61.51 seconds, and also has a personal best 2:14 in the 800 this season.
Both times are about four seconds faster than she ran last year.
"I trained better on Maui last summer," she said. "I did pretty well in cross-country last fall, so I had endurance, and I have been doing double workouts three or four times a week — distance and hurdles — in the winter and spring."
Commented coach Stream: "Alicia came in with really modest marks, and she had to make some goals even to come out again this year. She has been working really hard. ... It's one of those stories you like."
National women's steeplechase champion Lisa Nye and other top steeplechasers are coming to Eugene this weekend for the annual Oregon Twilight meet.
Asked if she will enter the race, Snyder-Carlson answered: "No. Last week kind of wore me out. It's one of those races you don't want to run every weekend.
"But I will run it at Pac-10s if we need the points."
• Mighty Duck II: Also running for Oregon is junior Eri Macdonald (Punahou '99, of Kailua). Her personal-best 800-meter time of 2:06.37 last month is the seventh fastest in school history and ranked 14th in NCAA Division I last week.
At Nebraska, Macdonald achieved another personal best — 4:35.79 in the 1,500, a 3.67-second improvement over last year.
Macdonald, a 13-time state champion in high school, red-shirted in cross country last fall because of a stress fracture in her left fibula. She also has a 56.74 relay anchor 400 to her credit this year.
MORE TRACK & FIELD
• Michigan
Sophomore Vera Simms (Mililani '00) long-jumped a personal best 19 feet, 6fl inches Saturday at the Jesse Owens Classic at Ohio State.
She also had a personal best of 14.25 seconds in the 100 hurdles Saturday. Last month she set a Michigan school record of 59.22 in the 400 hurdles in a meet in California.
"I've improved all my marks a lot since last year," Simms said. "I've gotten adjusted to the weather and to school (she's an engineering major)."
• Azusa Pacific (Calif.)
Senior Bryan Clay (Castle '98) is already back on track after arthroscopic knee surgery on April 8.
Clay, who has won more NAIA All-America awards than any other athlete in history, helped contribute 46 points as the Cougars won their fifth straight Golden State Conference championship.
In his first competition since the surgery to scrape a thick tendon in his left knee, Clay won the 100 (11.02) and 110 high hurdles (14.38), ran the second leg on the winning 4x100 relay team, was second in the discus (146-6), fourth in the long jump (23-2), and sixth in the shot put (42-11fl).
All the marks are well off the world-class decathlete's bests.
