U.S. Track and FIeld Championships: Vessey easily wins race to make 800 final

Former Cal Poly star goes for a world championship berth in Sunday’s final

By Tribune staff report

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Maggie Vessey’s breakthrough season continued in impressive fashion Friday night.

The former Cal Poly star easily won her semifinal heat of the women’s 800 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., to advance to Sunday’s final.

Vessey, who won the Prefontaine Classic earlier this month on the same track, was in the back of the pack with about 300 meters to go but assumed the lead with about 200 meters left and won her heat in 2 minutes, 3.49 seconds, visibly easing up as she reached the finish line.

Geena Gall, who just completed her NCAA career at Michigan as the two-time 800 champ, won the first heat in 2:01.99.

“I got kind of nervous because I was on the inside and I wasn’t as far back as I usually am,” Vessey said in a news release issued by USA Track and Field. “It took me a little bit out of my comfort zone. I had to pull back and go around the field with about 350 to go, which was not ideal.”

Once Vessey took the lead, there was no catching her. She beat Morgan Uceny, the runnerup in her heat by more than a second.

In Sunday’s final, Vessey will be looking for a top-three finish or better as the top three finishers in each event automatically qualify for the world championships in Berlin in August provided they have met the “A” qualifying standard of 2:00.0.

Vessey’s personal record of 2:00.18 came when winning the Prefontaine Classic.

Also advancing to a women’s running final was San Luis Obispo resident Kara June, who had the 10th-best qualifying time of 10 minutes, 2.57 seconds in the 3,000 steeplechase. She also made the U.S. final in 2007 and the final in last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials.

Fourteen runners advanced to Sunday’s final, led by American record-holder Jenny Barringer, who had Friday’s fastest time at 9:47.94.

In the men’s decathlon, San Luis Obispo resident Paul Terek was unable to make his fourth consecutive world championship team as he finished fifth with 7,689 points.

Terek tied for the top mark in the pole vault during Friday’s second day of the decathlon, clearing 16 feet, 4 ¾ inches. Trey Hardee won with 8,261 points and only one other competitor scored more than 8,000 points.

Julie Dufresne, who just completed her Cal Poly career with a sixth-place finish in the women’s shot put earlier this month at the NCAA Championships, had only one legal throw Friday and finished 16th out of 17 shot putters at 46-0 ½.

In the men’s 5,000 final, San Luis Obispo High graduate Brian Medigovich finished 17th out of 24 runners in 14:14.09.

In the junior national championships that are running concurrently with the U.S. national meet, Cal Poly’s Jordan Goffena finished 15th in the preliminaries of the men’s 110 hurdles in 14.41.

Only the top eight advanced to the final.

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