At Great SW, athletes adjust to conditions

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Christina Aragon sat on the ground near the award stand and struck up a conversation with Sydney Badger and Lucy Biles.

Aragon, a sophomore from Billings, Mont., had just won the girls mile on a hot afternoon with blaring sun at mile-high altitude. And she asked the other girls, "What do think the best temperature is for running?"

Coming from Montana, Aragon said she felt the heat. Biles, from Utah, looked like she would have preferred a few degrees cooler than 90 to turn four laps at the University of New Mexico's track, site of the Great Southwest Classic.

"I think 65 would be (about right)," Aragon said.

Badger, from Las Vegas, disagreed -- "Sixty-five! No way. That's too cold" -- which all goes to show that the conditions for June track and field in Albuquerque fit some more than others.

The 39th Great Southwest Classic, under the direction John Haaland, was held in the very warm New Mexico sun and Saturday's finals were also buffeted by wind. Haaland would have preferred to turn the straightaway race in the opposite direction so that the athletes could run fast instead of into the teeth of a steady 2-meter per second wind.

Friday night, the girls from St. Thomas Aquinas coughed in the dry air as they explained their unhead-of success in the 4x200 relay this year (two national records).

Earlier, Ashlee Moore (Arizona) and Tiana Bonds (Nevada) waged one of the greatest heptathlon competitions in this storied meet's history and neither was fazed by Thursday's 100 degree temperatures.

The Great Southwest brings together a dizzying array of talent from a wide swath of the country, from Las Vegas and Phoenix to St. Louis and yes, even Miami.

Greg Foster, four-time world champion and hurdles legend, helped bring 140 high school athletes from Missouri (and a few more from Illinois) to compete in Albuquerque for the purpose of finding competition and exposure to college recruiters.

One of the attractions of the meet is relays, which form organically as state all-star teams. Athletes who have competed all season as rivals join forces under a state flag to do battle with the likes of Texas, Utah, Colorado, Louisiana, Arizona, etc.

Of the many highlights at this meet, it was hard to imagine a more successful weekend than the one that came from Arizona recruit Bonds. She was second in the heptathlon with 5,258 points (16th all-time), second in the 100 hurdles (a tenth of a second behind Dior Hall), and won the 300 hurdles with a personal best of 40.90. By the end of the weekend that was co-US#1 and 14th best of all-time.

Keturah Orji, just three days removed from the New Jersey Meet of Champions, came to New Mexico and launched a wind-aided 44-9 in the triple jump and broke the meet record by two feet.

Haley Showalter of Colorado tossed the hammer 193-4 for No. 8 all-time.

Kord Ferguson of Kansas doubled up wins in the discus and shot put against some of the best competition he has faced all season. Likewise, Keandre Bates of Texas showed his range of skills by jumping US#1 50-9.50 in the triple jump and he also won the high jump.

Terrell Smith of Mississippi sped through a fast final of the 200 meters in 20.87.

Sarah Feeny broke the meet record in the 800 meters in 2:09.87 and looked very much like someone who could be a factor at the adidas Grand Prix Dream Mile next week in New York City. She also teamed up with Biles and two more of Utah's best half-milers for a 4x800 relay win.

Diamond Spaulding and Kendall Ellis, part of that killer St. Thomas Aquinas lineup, won the 200 and 400, respectively. Spaulding ran 23.00 and called it "a gift to my seventh grade self," who had dreamed of running so fast.

The conditions were unusual for many of the athletes -- some were even unnerved by all of the grassphoppers that attended the meet -- but the challenges were overcome time and time again by athletes ready to embrace the opportunity of top-flight competition.