D’Anieri takes over NCAA Division 3 lead, Oklahoma secures three wins and UC Santa Barbara pair sweeps 1,500 races

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

SAN DIEGO – Even as an Open Division entrant, it should have surprised no one that Claremont-Mudd-Scripps sophomore Thomas D’Anieri would excel in a distance race.

But throw in some barriers? And some water?

Why not?

“The last couple years, we haven’t had a guy in the top of our conference in the steeple,” CMS coach Glenn Stewart said. “And he was like, ‘Coach, I’ll help you out. I’ll run the steeple.’ And we were like, ‘All right, we’ll see how it works out.’”

It “worked out” pretty darn well.

In his first try at the event, D’Anieri won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9 minutes, 6.64 seconds Friday night during the distance carnival portion of the 40th Aztec Invitational at San Diego State.

D’Anieri’s victory joined a UC Santa Barbara sweep of the 1,500 meters by seniors Jenna Hinkle and Patrick Bourke and a trio of Oklahoma wins to precede Saturday’s main portion of the meet. Loyola Marymount’s Madelyn Vorgitch (3,000) and Cal Baptist freshman standout McMarshall Hartzenburg (3,000) also picked up victories.

INTERVIEWS

Some wins were mild surprises, and some were expected, but nothing as eye-popping as D’Anieri, who wasn’t even listed among the Invitational steeplechase entries. He was an Open contestant, though divisions ran together in the steeplechase races.

D’Anieri won easily to elevate to the NCAA Division 3 leader and move into the top 15 for all divisions combined.

“It was kind of all a blur,” he joked.

An accomplished distance runner who just two weeks ago set the CMS school record in the 5,000 meters, D’Anieri – a 9:05 two-miler in high school in Wellesley, Mass. – added another mark on his growing resume. The barriers weren’t a problem, and once he went over the one in front of the water once on the backside of the SDSU track, he quickly became comfortable with it.

“I’ve never done a water jump before,” said D’Anieri, who easily surpassed his goal of running 9:20, “so I got a lot better at that as I went on through the race. I had no idea, honestly, what pace we were running for the first bit. I was just kind of running.”

So was Bourke, who wound up with a rousing come-from-behind win in 3:47.82 in the 1,500, defeating Oklahoma’s sophomore duo of Heath Warren (3:49.53) and Calvin Miller (3:51.89).

“Today, (Warren) was out pretty far ahead,” said Bourke, who, like teammate and race favorite George Baier, missed last track season with an injury.

“So definitely, I was kind of worried about that, but with 200 to go, I kind of had a feeling I was going to catch him because I saw him looking back over his shoulder.

“I kind of wish I had stayed with him earlier in the race so that we would have probably pushed each other and ran a little faster at the end, too.”

Oklahoma junior Sarah Scott took a crack at her personal best of 10:23.42 in the 3,000 steeplechase with a huge sprint at the end, but just missed. She still won her first steeplechase of the season handily (10:27.44) and said her eyes are on making her first NCAA final in the event.

“I had a shot, but it just didn’t come today,” Scott said. “First race – can’t complain.”

Teammates Isabella Rose, a sophomore, and senior Eric Aldritt swept the 5,000 races for the Sooners.

While Bourke and Hinkle – who was aiming for sub-4:20 and got her wish with a win in 4:19.11 – both surged in the last 800 to win their respective 1,500s, the 3,000s were won by athletes holding a lead for more than half of the race.

Vorgitch (9:56.02) held off San Diego State senior Cassidy Towner (9:57.43) and Cal Baptist senior Kim Rabenstein (9:58.07), while Hartzenburg nearly went wire to wire (8:22.28) ahead of Loyola Marymount’s Brian Joerger (8:23.47).

“I was actually chasing to go under 8:20, but it got a little bit hard,” Hartzenburg said. “I just tried to push through it. I started hurting a little bit, but I just tried to hang in there.”