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Thursday, May 30, 2002
Vronique Wilson sprints
her way into NCAA 200-meter dash finals
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Vronique Wilson
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 IU junior sprinter Vronique
Wilson posted her fastest time of the season, finished
fourth in her women's 200-meter dash preliminary heat in 23.21
and qualified for the finals at the NCAA Outdoor Track &
Field Championships in Baton Rouge, La., late Wednesday.
Wilson, whose regular-season best time of 23.24 was the 14th
fastest time in the country coming into the championships, put
up the ninth fastest time Wednesday, and made the cut, with the
top nine all moving on to Saturday's finals at 9:30 p.m. ET.
The top eight finishers of that race will earn All-America distinction.
Despite posting her personal-best time, Wilson held her breath
at advancing until the very end of the 200m competition. Running
in the second heat, her time was fifth fastest overall when she
crossed the finish line, but there were still two last heats
to go.
In the third heat, three more runners bettered her time, pushing
her back to eighth. But in the fourth heat, despite LSU's Muna
Lee finishing with far-and-away the best overall time of
22.66, no other runners would do better, and Wilson advanced.
The second-place finisher in that fourth heat was one-hundredths
of a second slower that Wilson.
This is her second time competing at an NCAA Championship
event. Last March, she ran the 200 meters at the Indoor meet
in Fayetteville, Ark. finishing 12th overall in 23.81, falling
short of the finals by a mere 18-hundredths of a second. |