COLLEGE STATION, Tex. - The fourth and final day of the NCAA West Regional Championships concluded with another Gaucho confirmed for a trip to Eugene, Oregon for the national championships as senior Astrid Rosvall successfully made it through the quarterfinals of the women's 800m. Joining fellow senior Chase Tarr who qualified for the national championships on Wednesday in the men's javelin, Rosvall completely jumped the field in the closing stages of her heat to finish second (seventh overall) and break her own school record of 2:04.90 with a time of 2:04.87. Redshirt senior Katie Camarena had almost secured a trip to the national meet herself after finishing seventh in her heat of the women's 1500m with a 4:14.84 clocking, but just missed out on a time qualifier by just 0.18 seconds to finish just outside the top 12 in 13th overall.
Day Four Results
One Spot Away in a Stacked Heat
Thunderstorm delays on the previous day of the regional event had the organizers completely revamp the schedule heading into day four, but thankfully with little overcast, low wind ratings, and the typical warmth of College Station, the meet continued on the final day without a hitch. Reporting to the stadium two hours earlier than initially scheduled, Katie Camarena faced off against a strong field that included former NCAA 1500m finalists and indoor mile All-Americans standing in her path towards a national championship appearance.
A long and agonizing wait for the starting gun kept the runners huddled on the line, everyone fidgeting and standing by in anticipation for the race to get underway. The gun finally went off moments later and Stanford's Julia Heymach immediately shot into the lead, everyone else shuffling for position while Camarena calmly laid off the early pace in last. An unofficial split of 66 seconds let the whole field know that it was do or die with Heymach refusing to ease her foot off the accelerator. The Stanford Cardinal still leading, the field came through 800m in 2:14, Camarena still biding her time at the back of the field to avoid the jostling taking place mid pack.
Camarena started navigating through the field with just under 600m left and moved from twelfth to tenth at the bell, splitting 3:07 with Heymach now being challenged by Stanford teammate Christina Aragon, the Cardinals now daring anyone to pass going into the backstretch. Camarena passed two more runners on the backstretch to move into eighth, but a strong group of six was starting to pull away from the Gaucho with just 200m left in the race. Kicking it into another gear, Camarena unleashed one last move on the homestretch to pass up one more athlete to cross the line in seventh in 4:14.84, the second fastest time of her career behind her school record of 4:13.32, but she'd be out of an automatic qualifier by two spots and had to wait for the next heat to decide her fate. In the end, the second heat ended up being too quick and the redshirt senior ended up being the first one outside top twelve with Madison Heisterman of Washington beating her out in 4:14.62, the fastest final qualifying time ever in the west region preliminaries*.
*The four previous regions (West, Midwest, Mideast, East) were cut down to two back in 2010.
A School Record and a Trip to Nationals
Queued up for the second heat of the women's 800m, another long and unbearable wait for the starting gun greeted Rosvall as she waited in her lane with the rest of the field. As the gun fired, top seed and NCAA indoor third place finisher Shafiqua Maloney of Arkansas made no qualms about who would lead the pack after the break in past the first 100m, immediately seizing the lead with Rosvall smoothly placing herself in sixth out of the eight total athletes in the field. Choosing to lay off the early pace, Rosvall remained slightly detached from the pack as Maloney led everyone through the first 200m unofficially in 28.9 and the 400m in 59.34, Rosvall splitting 60.4 through the bell still in sixth.
On the backstretch, Maloney made a clear separation from everyone else to secure her automatic qualifying spot, leaving the field to scramble for the remaining two spots behind her. Wisconsin's Madison Mooney led the best of the rest through 600m unofficially in 1:32 as Astrid made her way into fifth not too far behind. Rosvall began to swing wide with 150m to go to find her position on the homestretch, but was still waiting to pull the trigger until the time was just right.
As soon as they got off the curve and into the straight, Rosvall sprang into action and unleashed a devastating final 100m to easily storm past Mooney along with Sivan Auerbach of Oklahoma State and Tiana Lostracco of Bradley. Astrid then crossed the line in a new personal best clocking of 2:04.87, 0.03 seconds faster than her school record setting time set back in mid-April at the Bryan Clay Invitational, gapping Auerbach, Mooney, and Lostracco by well over half a second in just the last 100m alone in the process. This made Rosvall the first Gaucho to qualify for the national championships in the 800m event since Ryan Martin in 2012, and the first Gaucho on the women's side to qualify for the 800m since Sabrina Caplis made it to the national meet all the way back in 1998.
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