May 11, 2012
BATON ROUGE, La. - Following Auburn's first day of competition on Friday, the men's team picked up three points from sophomore Stephen Saenz, while the women earned four big points in the 10,000 meters to leave the teams in fifth and ninth place with two days of action remaining at Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
"The 10k was a big boost for us," Auburn head coach Ralph Spry said. "We had three girls in the mix to score. Alissa Fisher finished fifth, Erin Fondren was seventh and Elizabeth Briasco got leaned out right there at the finish. She ran a really gutsy race. We are on the board now and we got some points we weren't really expecting. Stephen Saenz did a great job in the hammer. It's all about momentum and we did that tonight. I'm pleased with how things played out so far.
"Other than the 10k, the meet has been what we expected. We got two through to the finals of the 100 meters for the men and the women. Marcus Rowland had really been looking good, but we decided to hold him out as a precaution. Keenan [Brock] and Harry [Adams] ran really fast today. Kai [Selvon] and Nivea [Smith] ran really well today."
On his final throw of the night, sophomore All-American Saenz recorded a mark of 185-1 (56.42m) to jump into sixth place in the hammer throw and score the men's first points of the meet. Hammer is the first of three events that Saenz will compete in this weekend.
Fisher continued her strong rookie season for Auburn finishing fifth in the women's 10,000 meters in 35:50.39 to score four points. Freshman Fondren added two points with her seventh-place finish in 37:08.22. Fellow freshman Briasco (37.13.99) narrowly missed scoring with a ninth-place finish, missing out on eighth in the final few meters.
The mark was a new PR for Fisher, and Friday's race was the first collegiate 10k for Fondren and Briasco.
Kai Selvon will be one of two Auburn women in the finals of the 200 meters on Sunday afternoon after she finished second in her heat in 23.72 seconds. She will be joined by teammate Nivea Smith. The senior from Bahamas was second in her heat with a mark of 23.89 seconds.
The men's 200 meter finals will also feature the orange and blue of Auburn. Junior Harry Adams (20.86) and sophomore Keenan Brock (20.89) both finished first in their respective heats and will advance to Sunday's final. Senior Michael DeHaven narrowly missed with his mark of 21.34 seconds.
Auburn's day got started with the women's hammer throw. Tori Nwadiogbu and Anna McCloskey recorded long throws of 148-9 and 140-3, respectively. The night action began with preliminary races of the men's and women's 800 meters. In the women's prelims, Samantha Berggren finished her heat in a near personal-best time of 2:12.85.
Kane Grimster ran his first collegiate outdoor 800 meters in 1:53.02, while teammate Jonathan Hardin set a new personal best with his mark of 1:54.18.
"Tomorrow is the 100 meters, which is a big event for us," Spry said. "We've also got some hurdle action. Friday was huge and Saturday is even bigger. We need to take care of business in the prelims so we can score in the finals. If we step up like we did today, we will be alright."
Action picks up on Saturday with the women's javelin at 2 p.m. Coverage by ESPN3 begins at 4:30 p.m. CT. For the latest on Auburn track and field, follow @AUTrack on Twitter.