Runner thrives in teammate's absence

Rory Fraser didn’t seem to mind teammate Lee Emanuel’s noticeable absence in the mile run event on Saturday at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Fraser thrived in the mile, finishing in first with a time of 4:10.31 but came in 11th in the 800-meter run. Meanwhile, Emanuel, the defending NCAA indoor mile champion, finished third in the 800-meter run.

Last year, Fraser qualified for nationals in both the indoor and outdoor events. On Saturday, however, he dropped down to compete in the mile run.
“It was good competition out there — I won my race just by the width of my vest,” Fraser said. “Because the USA track and field nationals are going to be here, everyone wants to come here and feel out the facilities so there’s not going to be any shortage of competition.”

Fraser said competing in two events was draining.

“My aim is to run the 5K for nationals,” Fraser said. “So today running the mile and 800-meter was a shock to the system. Next week I’ll do a 3K, and two weeks later I’ll run the 5K. Today was just a sharpener for later.”

Overall, Joe Franklin said he was pleased with the team’s performance, considering how stout the competition was on Saturday.

The event included competitors from nine programs, including bitter rival BYU.
“Getting to compete against the elite competition is something we can build on,” Franklin said. “There wasn’t junior colleges out there. This was Pac-10 and BYU coming at us.”

That didn’t faze Kendall Spencer.

Spencer, who finished sixth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.85, broke a school record previously held by Aaron Brack.

On the women’s side, Ashley Gibson finished first in the 3,000-meter run, while Precious Selmon finished third in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles.
Selmon said it wasn’t her best performance.

“I think I did really well overall,” she said. “I think I could have done a whole lot better, but you take what you can get. Working on getting down over the hurdles is what I need to work on. I can improve in practice. You can always improve, because you’re never at your best.”