Miraculous effort gets runner into NCAA final

Craig Lautenslager’s collegiate career is still alive, thanks to what the Athletics Nelson runner termed as a miraculous effort to land a spot in next week’s NCAA finals in Eugene, Oregon.

Lautenslager, finishing his fifth and final season for the University of Texas at Arlington, held off UCLA’s Daniel De La Torre and fellow Kiwi Matt Baxter of Northern Arizona in the home stretch of his 5000m heat for sixth place at yesterday’s NCAA West prelims in Austin, Texas. The top five in each heat and the next two fastest times qualified for the finals.

Lautenslager thought his 14min 20.26 effort would not hold up to the next heat. He didn’t even think he would be in that position after Friday’s 10,000m.

‘‘I worked my butt off for five years, ran 100 miles per week in the heat all last summer, and now it’s going to take a miracle to make it nationals,’’ Lautenslager said after his 13th place finish in the 10,000m and missing the final by a 0.5s.

Lautenslager doubted he could overcome the fatigue and soreness from the 10km in the hot, humid conditions but felt better as he moved through the 5km field. He fell off the fiveman lead pack with 600m to go but ran 60 seconds on the final lap to hold sixth. Baxter finished eighth in 14:24.66.

The true miracle came when the runners in the second heat set off on a slow pace and maintained a tactical pace that left no-one within 13 seconds of Lautenslager’s time.

Lautenslager is the first Nelsonian to qualify for an NCAA final since Julian Matthews made it in the 1500m six years ago.