Sophomore Juli Accurso kept thinking to herself, “Don’t slow down, don’t slow down. Every tenth of a second counts,” at the Alex Wilson Invitational on Friday night in Notre Dame, Ind.
She did not know until she crossed the 5,000-meter finish line in first place that she broke the Ohio, Meyo Track and Mid-American Conference records with a time of 15 minutes, 58.69 seconds. The previous mark on the Meyo Track was set by Notre Dame's Stephanie Madia in 2006 with a time of 16 minutes, 2.14 seconds.
“It was a race against the clock rather than a race against the other runners,” Accurso said.
She said she was unsure that she would break 16 minutes because her first mile was on pace but her second was not as good. Her previous best was set at 16 minutes, 5.59 seconds a few weeks ago at the FloTrack Husky Classic in Seattle.
Before this weekend, Accurso was 17th in the nation for the 5,000-meter race. After Friday, she climbed four spots to No. 13.
“It was a perfectly executed-strategy race,” distance coach Mitch Bentley said. “We knew, going into the race, the key people to follow, and she was able to work off of them, stay on the shoulder and kind of buy her time until the right opportunity was there to strike with about 600 to 700 meters left to go.”
Emily Pifer and Melissa Thompson also competed in the 5,000-meter event and finished in the top 20, a solid race for all Bobcats, head coach Clay Calkins said.
“The race went out fast,” Calkins said. “It was a good experience with some of the top athletes in the nation."
Accurso is packing up to leave Wednesday for the NCAA Championships in Nampa, Idaho. For the next few days, she said she would be tapering down her running and focusing on the mental aspect of her game in preparation to face some of the best runners in the nation.
nb155607@ohiou.edu
