Missouri
NCAA Championship Preliminary Round
Tigers Wrap Up Day One at NCAAs
6/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
June 9, 2010
EUGENE, Ore. - Both Aaron Dixon (Lee's Summit, Mo.) and Blake Irwin (Bettendorf, Iowa) finished seventh in their respective heats of the men's 800m run at day one of the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on Wednesday (June 9). The seventh-place nods in each of the heats for the Tiger runners are not good enough to advance either runner to Friday's 800m final. In all, the two still rank among the nation's top 24 800m runners as Irwin finished 18th overall while Dixon finished 23rd.
Irwin clocked the fastest time of the two Tigers as he was paced at a time of 1:50.25 to finish 18th overall. He ran in the fastest of the three heats as Robby Andrews of Virginia won the heat with a nation-leading time of 1:45.54. In fact, four of the 800m event finalists came from Irwin's heat. Irwin went out quick as he drew lane two. He fell back in the pack after the cut-in as the field was clocked at 24.43 after the first 200 meters. Irwin continued to fight through the next 200m as the field went through the first half of the race at 50.60. Irwin made a move with about 300 meters to go and moved into seventh place heading into the final 100 meters. But he did not make up any more ground in the race and finished in seventh after clocking in at 1:50.25.
Dixon drew lane seven in his heat and went out very quick and found himself in the middle of the pack at the cut-in. Dixon's heat was paced at 26.23 at the 200m split, almost two seconds off of the pace of Irwin's heat. Dixon continued to run in the middle of the pack through the first half of the race. He fell back to eighth before kicking in the last 100m to take seventh place in a photo-finish with Penn State's Ryan Foster as he clocked in at 1:53.19.
Despite failing to qualify for the event finals on Friday, Irwin and Dixon still put together two of the finest seasons by any 800m runner at Mizzou. Irwin claimed the Big 12 Outdoor title in the event after running a time of 1:48.40 and owns the seventh-best time in school history at 1:47.53, which he ran at the NCAA Championship first round in Austin, Texas, two weeks ago. He was also an All-Big 12 honoree in the indoor 800m and as a member of the 4x400m relay team during the outdoor season.
Dixon had an equally impressive 2010 campaign. He clocked the program's fifth-best 800m time at 1:47.39 at the NCAA First Round earlier this season and ran the program's second-best time in the 1,000m run at 2:22.38 and earned the top seed in the event heading into the Big 12 Championships. He also earned three All-Big 12 honors in 2010, doing so in the outdoor 800m run and the indoor 4x400m and distance medley relay teams.
The two will compete at the USATF Championships later this summer. Mizzou still has plenty of action at the NCAA Championships as both Nick Adcock (Kansas City, Mo.) and Lars Rise (Trondheim, Norway) will compete in the men's decathlon tomorrow, which begins at 10 a.m. (PT) and noon (CT). The duo ranks second and third nationally in the event and will look to challenge Oregon's Ashton Eaton and a variety of other decathletes in the two-day event.
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Players Mentioned
