Lifferth and Liu qualify for Regionals
Stacey Lifferth and Kevin Liu didn’t waste anytime starting out the outdoor season last week.
Both finished their respective events well enough to qualify for the NCAA Regional at the Willie Williams Invitatioinal in Tucson, Ariz. last Friday.
Lifferth won the 3,000 meter steeplechase with a time of 10:43.08.
Not bad for the junnior, who last year finished 21st int he event at the NCAA Championships.
“It was good to get that out of the way because it’s usually a stress to get into [regionals], Lifferth said Tuesday. “[Head] Coach [Greg Gensell] had us in pretty good shape. The race was small. It was warm. There was only four people in my race. I had to go and hit the times by myself. My teammates helped cheer and call off my split.”
Liu qualified for the regionals with a throw of 57.97 meters in the hammer throw.
Liu nearly qualified in his other event as well. He recorded a discuss toss distance of 50.96 meters.
Other winners on the day for the Aggies included Amber Peterson, who tallied two individual titles, winning the 100 hurdles with a time of 13.99 seconds. She finished the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:01.25.
In the 400 meter race she placed third with a time of 55.06.
Jennifer Twitchell, who recieved All-American honors the week before with her fifth-place finish in the mile, won the 1,500 with a time of 4:32.33.
It wasn’t an easy task, considering she had to run three mile-long races Feb. 23-24, as well as qualifying for Nationals two weeks before that, and then running a preliminary in the mile as well as the mile event itself at Nationals.
“It was rough. I was tired,” Twitchell said of her win in the 1,500. “My coaches [said] not to try and qualify for regionals, but to just see what happens. I felt that I had been racing for too many weeks in a row. It was like, ‘oh man.’ But [after first 800 meters] it was just run to win it. Try and be first place.”
Her husband, Vance, won the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 13.90. Amy Egan won the 800 in 2:11.44.
The Aggies next meet is the BYU Invitational March 30 in Provo.
-sbhislop@cc.usu.edu