When teammate Roberto Chozet handed the baton to senior Bobby McCoy in the anchor leg of the men’s 4×400 meter relay, McCoy was already several seconds behind Jimmie Gordon of ASU. But that didn’t faze McCoy, as he pulled off a jaw-dropping win.
“”I saw the guy I was running with and I was like ‘I better do my part,’ “” McCoy said. “”I gave everything I had. I wasn’t tired in any part of the race and he was within reach so I went and got him.””
McCoy’s split time of 44.6 seconds would have been the fastest time in the country, as well as an Arizona record, if it had been in an open race. And that wasn’t McCoy’s only shining moment.
The 4x100m relay team of McCoy, senior Marcus Tyus, freshman Kyle Alston and junior Xuehan Xiong improved their NCAA West regional qualifying time with a winning mark of 39.51 as they defeated the ASU relay team by just more than half a second and took over the eighth fastest time in the country.
McCoy also won the 400m dash outright with a personal best time of 45.6, which is the third best in Arizona history and fifth best mark in the country this season.
“”That’s amazing,”” Tyus said of McCoy’s performance. “”We’re saying that he looks like the bionic man right now. I joke with him all the time about running styles but he leaned back and just ran like there was no tomorrow … (After watching him workout this summer) and when you watched him doing things in the fall, I wasn’t surprised. When he got on that back stretch, aw man, I think the ASU guy was surprised and it took his heart away. Bobby’s a stud.””
Arizona’s stunning victory was a fitting way to end the 22nd Annual UA-ASU-NAU double-dual meet at Roy P. Drachman Stadium on Saturday as the men’s and women’s teams defeated NAU 124-59 and 106-54, respectively, but lost to ASU 116-84 and 113-68.
“”It was a fabulous meet,”” said UA head coach Fred Harvey. “”Obviously you don’t like the score because you want to win the meet. But the performances we saw today show that we are a better Pac-10 school and we are definitely a better NCAA level team. If we perform (at the NCAA Championships) the way that we performed (Saturday) then we are a top-10 team.””
Aside from McCoy’s sprinting heroics, Arizona had several other bright spots, including a football player finally getting some revenge against ASU.
Terrell Reese, a wide receiver on the football team, competed in his first meet of the season and defeated the quick-talking Matt Turner of ASU in the high jump with a 7’1/2″” leap. His clearance also qualified him for the regional championships.
“”Matt was telling me that he wasn’t going to let me, a football player, come out and beat him and I said ‘No way, I’m going to win,’ “” Reese said. “”It was good to win. Anytime I compete I expect to win and hopefully that’s the way any good athlete is. You come in and you expect to win, or you’re not gonna win, and I came in and expected to win and expected to go no lower than 7 feet and that’s what I did.””
Harvey said he may have been more excited that Reese won than Reese was himself.
“”That was more special for me than for him, because that high jumper from ASU is a super-talented kid, but he has a mouth on him like nobody’s business and I’m not about talking, I’m about performance. I told Terrell that he is going to say something to get under your skin and the only way to shut him up is to beat him.””
Other notable performances were in the distance events as junior Dylan Fitzpatrick and senior Irine Lagat each won the 1,500m run, junior Marissa Urban won the 3,000m and sophomore Christina Rodgers won the 800m dash with junior teammate Shelly Splittberger finishing third.
Tyus, a senior, set a personal record in the 100m dash as he placed second with a 10.51, which qualified him for regionals.
Harvey thought the throwers and jumpers had a “”good performance, not a great one”” and believes they will do much better as the championships approach.
“”We are in great shape,”” Harvey said. “”Our better people are performing at high levels and they are going to help us do big things.””
