Dacia Barr Wins NCAA Mideast 1500 Title

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Dacia Barr won the 1,500 meters and Megan Jackson punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships for Arkansas Lady Razorback track and field on the final day of competition at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships in Fayetteville.

The Lady’Backs finished seventh in the team race with 27 points. LSU won the team title with 119 points.

"Dacia (Barr) had a great day," head coach Lance Harter said. "What a race. What we’ve been working on with Dacia is expanding her weapons so she has more options in her races. One thing she really demonstrated was maturity. We have the highest respect for (Tennessee’s) Sarah Bowman. She took it out really fast and Dacia kept calm and ran her race. In regards to the pole vault (and the Lady’Backs not advancing anyone to NCAAs), you hope things like that happen few and far between. That is the reality of the regional. That’s why they race, and bad days can happen. We came up short on a couple of opportunities."

Bowman took the 1,500-meter race out right from the start and Barr kept her cool, sticking with the lead pack. With about 150 meters to go, Barr kicked it in and took the tape in a personal-best time of 4:13.16. In the same race, Jillian Rosen finished eighth (4:30.03) and has the potential to earn an at-large bid.

"Honestly I didn’t think (Sarah Bowman) would take it out," Barr said. "She went hard and I was surprised because I thought she would sit back. I decided to get on her and go for the ride. At 100 to 150 meters, I decided to take it home."

The steeplechase also worked out well for the Lady’Backs as Jackson earned a fourth-place finish and automatically advanced to the NCAA Championships. She clocked a time of 10:35.94.

"Coach told me before the race I had a chance," Jackson said. "I really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. I knew if I was having a good day, I was going to advance to nationals. If anyone had an off day, it was going to be anyone’s game because all of our times were really close."

The list of accepted entries for the NCAA Championships will be announced Tuesday, June 2. For complete results of the NCAA Mideast Championships and details about Lady’Back track and field, visit www.ladybacks.com.

Dacia Barr, 1,500 meters, 1st

Christine Kalmer, 5,000 meters, 4th

Megan Jackson, 3,000M Steeplechase, 5th

Jillian Rosen, 1,500 meters, 8th

Catherine White, 5,000 meters, 9th

Caroline Peyton, 3,000M Steeplechase, 7th

4×400-meter relay, 6th

Peter-Gaye Beckford, Long Jump, 7th

Sarah Landau, Pole Vault, T9th

Peter-Gaye Beckford, Javelin, 10th

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