Cory Primm, 4×100 meter relay team finish seasons with All-American honors at NCAA Outdoor Championships
By Derek Groom
June 13, 2010 8:32 p.m.
Junior Cory Primm and the 4×100 meter relay team ended their seasons by garnering All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships Saturday in Eugene, Ore.
On Friday, Primm finished fifth in the 800m final with a time of 1:47.58. This performance came after a memorable semifinal race on Wednesday, when Primm ran a lifetime-best and school-record time of 1:45.70.
According to coach Mike Maynard, Primm led from the gun but fell behind in the last 100 meters of the race.
“For the first 700 meters, Cory (Primm) ran a phenomenal race but as he came off the final curve, he hesitated briefly because the crowd roared,” Maynard said. “He only hesitated for a second, but (Oregon’s) Andrew Wheating and a few others then took over.”
Wheating won the race with a time of 1:45.69, but Maynard believes that Primm has a good chance of winning the race next year.
“Every race Cory (Primm) learns and gets better, and it is only a matter of time before he becomes completely dominant,” Maynard said.
Primm’s fifth place finish was the best of his career at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and it earned him his first All-American honor.
On Saturday, an ill-timed handoff doomed the 4x100m relay team to a disqualification in its final race of the season.
The miscue occurred between the second and third legs, as freshman Maxwell Dyce and senior Stan Griffin could not make the baton exchange in the designated exchange zone.
The relay team consisted of Dyce, Griffin, sophomore Jamal Alston and senior Brandon Smith. Maynard expressed disappointment in the disqualification but understood how difficult timing is throughout the exchanges.
“If we got the stick around cleanly, we would have scored, but it is not as easy as it sounds,” Maynard said.
After sophomore Karlton Rolle suffered a hamstring injury at the NCAA Western Regional, the relay team made adjustments to the roster, which Maynard believed was the main problem on Saturday.
“Since we did not have Karlton (Rolle), we had to change up the order with Maxwell (Dyce) in the second leg and Stan (Griffin) in the third, and we did not have enough background in those exchanges,” Maynard said.
Although the adjusted order within the relay team demonstrated the lack of familiarity during the finals, the same team delivered an impressive performance in the semifinal round on Wednesday. The foursome grabbed the last spot in the finals by finishing eighth overall in the semifinals with a time of 39.75 seconds.
By reaching the finals, each member of the relay squad earned All-American honors, the first for all four runners.
