National Scholastic Athletics Foundation

Nixon has huge first day; distance alums solid

First in a 9-part series! Keep checking back for the next 8!

2013 IAAF World Champs photos by John Nepolitan | John's NSAF Alums Saturday 0810 Gallery
NSAF file photos by Vic Sailer, Photorun.net, for the NSAF

     
Gunnar Nixon: 2013 IAAF World decathlon long jump at left, 2010 CSI high jump at right (NSAF staff photo)

The 2010 Nike Indoor Nationals (NIN) and 2011 New Balance Nationals Indoor (NBNI) pentathlon champ and national record-setter – indeed the holder of three prep decathlon records as well – highlighted the efforts of National Scholastic Athletics Foundation “alums” competing for Team USA during the opening day of the IAAF World Championships in Moscow.

Gunnar Nixon, who at 20 was the youngest of 33 competitors in the decathlon, used big marks of 7-0.25 in the high jump and 25-7.25(+0.4w) in the long jump  to hold down an impressive second place behind American teammate Ashton Eaton after the first five events of the 10-eventer. 

That was one of just three finals Saturday, the other two also featuring NSAF alums.  Galen Rupp (photo at left) and Dathan Ritzenhein placed 4th and 10th for Team USA in the men’s 10,000 meters, while highly decorated American Deena Kastor, now 40, took 9th in the marathon.  In preliminary action, 12 more NSAF alums (eight Team USA) were in action, with three moving on to the next round.

In total, 74 Team USA athletes here at the Worlds, plus another 21 representing other countries, have competed in NSAF indoor and/or outdoor championships – and/or Caribbean Scholastic (CSI) Invites!

Nixon’s Day 1 prowess; Rupp just misses

His rivals and fans know by now that Gunnar Nixon’s best decathlon events are on the first day – at least at this point in his career – and, boy, did he impress with his first five events.  With the above-mentioned LJ/HJ combo, plus a 10.84 100(-0.5w) and 48-2 shot put, Nixon (Edmond, Okla.) led by 110 points after four events with 3,611 points.  When Eaton ran 46.02 to Nixon’s 48.36, he went into the lead, but the youngster still trailed by just nine points with 4,493.

Nixon scored 4,141 points to take the 2010 NIN pentathlon as an Edmond Santa Fe (Okla.) junior, then became further involved with the NSAF, funded to the Caribbean Scholastic Invite where he competed in three events.  As a senior, he was ready to chase national records and captured the first NBNI 5-eventer with a 4,307 national record point total, using a big kick in the final event, the 1,000 meters, to get the mark.  Outdoors that year, he set prep records for the decathlons with HS implements and hurdle heights, Junior implements and hurdle heights, and Senior implements and hurdle heights.

In the 10,000, 2012 Olympic Silver Medalist Galen Rupp (Portland, Ore.) wasn’t able to quite duplicate his feat of last year, taking 4th in 27:24.39 behind training mate and Olympic champ Mo Farah, and two others.  Dathan Ritzenhein (also from Portland), who had taken the lead with about 1,000 to go, wound up 10th with 27:37.90 (photo, below left).

Ritzenhein, of course, was a huge star as a prep at Rockford (Mich.).  Among his many accomplishments were six NSAF titles, making him possibly the most decorated of any distance runner in the history of the Foundation’s championships.  He captured four 2M crowns – at the 1999 and 2000 Foot Locker Outdoor Champs (FLO), the 2000 Nike Indoor Classic (NIC), and the 2001 adidas Outdoor Champs (AOC) (photo, above right) – the outdoor three-peat a feat which may never be topped.  And outdoors in 2000, he also anchored winning 4x1 Mile and DMR efforts.

Rupp’s outstanding prep career at Central Catholic (Portland, Ore.) included outdoor HSRs at 3k and 5k, and two NSAF meet appearances: with a best of third in the 2003 NIC 2M behind winner Chris Solinsky.

Deena Kastor led the Team USA marathon contingent Saturday (photo, left) , starting in the top 15 in the first 5k and finishing 9th in 2:36.12.  She has been the rare athlete who was a star at the prep and collegiate levels, then for nearly two decades beyond.  She’s the 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist and current American record holder in that event, and her list of titles, records and top rankings is too numerous to detail.  Way back in 1991, as Agoura (Calif.) senior Deena Drossin, she was second in the first National Scholastic Outdoor Champs 2M with a 10:41.20, less than a second behind Monal Chokshi.

Gatlin, Hastings, McCorory advance

In the 100, veteran Justin Gatlin (Clermont, Fla.) led two Americans to the semifinals with a 9.99 – becoming the fastest ever on Russian soil hitting the fastest first-round 100 performance in meet history.  Back in 2000, Gatlin as a Woodham (Pensacola, Fla.) senior was 3rd in the Foot Locker Outdoor 100, running 10.36(+0.7w).  Interestingly, the winner of that FL 100 that year was Dwight Thomas of Northwest (Hyattsville, Md.) in a still-standing record of 10.14.  Thirteen years later, Thomas is also here in Moscow, running the 110H for Jamaica.  But in the 2000 FL meet, Gatlin also ran the 110H (he didn’t make the finals) while Thomas did not.  Of course, Gatlin has long given up running over barriers.

In the women’s 400 qualifying, Nathasha Hastings (Atlanta, Ga.) and Francena McCorory (Hampton, Va.) were two of three Americans who qualified easily for the semis.  McCorory won the 3rd heat in 50.56, while Hastings was second in the 2nd heat in 50.64.

McCorory authored one of the greatest performances in any NSAF indoor or outdoor meet, when as a Bethel (Hampton, Va.) senior in 2006, she set the still-standing 400 indoor HSR with her epic 51.91 on the flat track at the PG Sportsplex in Landover, Md.  Hastings also owns an NSAF title during multiple appearances in Foundation meets: the 2004 adidas Outdoor Champs 400 in 52.89 while competing as an A. Philip Randolph (New York, N.Y.) senior.  She would go on to take the World Junior 400 crown that year.

Meanwhile, Medgar Evers NY senior Kadecia Baird was one of only two “current preps” to compete at the Worlds, along with fellow Empire Stater Mary Cain.  Baird made the team for her native Guyana and bowed out in the first round of the 400 (photo, at right) with a 53.73.  In 2012, Baird claimed the NBNO 400 title in 52.14, then went on to earn a World Junior 400 silver with a PR 51.04, #5 all-time for preps.  She’s had a very up and down senior year, but had recently run a nation-leading 51.32 to qualify for Worlds.

Women’s long jump qualifying featured NSAF alums Aranxta King and Chantel Malone.  Malone leapt 21-0 (+0.0w) while competing for the British Virgin Islands in 21st overall, and King jumped 20-10.5(+0.1w) while competing for Bermuda in 23rd overall.  King prepped at Medford (Mass.) and had a sterling career.  She won back-to-back NON long jump titles in 2005-06, then was 2nd in 2007 while going for the three-peat.  She also was 2nd and 4th in the NIN triple jump and long jump in 2007.  On top of all that, she won the World Youth and Pan Am Junior LJs in 2005 and the World Junior LJ in 2006.  Malone competed in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 CSI meets, winning the triple jump in 2007.

Then in pole vault qualifying, Team USA’s Jack Whitt (Norman, Okla.) cleared 17-8.5, but couldn’t clear the next height and did not advance.  He was the nation’s top prep vaulter in 2009 as a Norman North senior, hitting 18-0.5 at Texas Relays and then winning NON (photo, above left) with a 17-8.25.  Fast-rising Canadian star Shawn Barber, already making Worlds just a year after becoming the HSR-setter at 18-3.5 while at Kingwood Park (Houston), also could go no higher than 17-8.5 (photo, above right) and finished just behind Whitt.  He won NBNO and was 2nd at NBNI in 2012.

Ashley Higginson and Nicole Bush were two of three Americans in the women’s 3k steeple semis, both missing the final while running 9:45.78 (11th, H2) and 9:58.03 (13th, H2), respectively.  Higginson (photo, below left) finished a great career at Colts Neck (N.J.) by winning the 2007 Nike Outdoor 2M (10:17.44), while Bush was 13th in the 2004 AOC 2M as Kellogsville (Wyoming, Mich) senior – before her career began to really take off at Michigan State.  Also competing in the steeple prelims was Puerto Rico’s Beverly Ramos (10th, H1, 9:49.60), the runner-up in the 2006 CSI 1,500.

In the women’s discus qualifying, Liz Podominick (Beaverton, Ore.) threw 185-1, but did not advance.  While at Lakeville (Minn.) HS, Podominick (photo, above right) was the shot put AND discus runner-up in both the 2002 and 2003 AOCs (facing American shot megastar Michelle Carter didn’t exactly make it easy).