Alexander finishes ninth in 400-meter hurdles at NCAAs
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Izzy Alexander ’09 broke the Bates record in the 400 hurdles for the third time this season, and by doing so she made Saturday’s finals at NCAAs. (Tom Leonard photo) |
OSHKOSH, Wis. — Bates College sophomore Izzy Alexander finished in ninth place in the finals of 400-meter hurdles Saturday at the NCAA Division III Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships, finishing in 1:02.87 and one spot away from All-America honors.
SUNY Cortland first-year Fawn Dorr won the event in 59.50 seconds, the best performance this season in Division III. Alexander (Harvard, Mass.) was the only remaining first-year or sophomore in the field.
Alexander had made the finals by vaulting eight spots ahead of her 17th seeding in the event to ninth overall, clocking in a time of 1:02.51, breaking her own Bates record in the event for the third time this season by 0.63 seconds. Six days ago at the ECAC Division III Championships, Alexander shaved 0.80 seconds off of her previously set Bates mark.
Alexander’s senior teammate Kathryn Moore (Pelham, N.H.) finished sixth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase on Friday. Moore’s three points, then, become Bates’ total scoring output at nationals.
Moore passed two competitors over the final 200 meters and finished in a time of 10:42.45, nipping Elise Tropiano of Amherst College by 0.11 seconds. Moore finished eighth in the same event a year ago in a time of 10:49.46, which at the time became the Bates record. Moore shattered that mark earlier this season at Open New Englands in a time of 10:33.20. She followed last year’s All-America performance, the first of her career, with All-America awards in the 2006 cross country season, then in the distance medley relay at the 2007 indoor nationals.