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A weather delay can disrupt the preparations of athletes, especially those entered in the 10,000m run. For Syracuse Orange standout Colin Bennie the delay didn’t disrupt his race as the graduate student earned his 4th career trip to the NCAA Outdoor Track Championships with his 7th place finish last night. Bennie crossed the line in a time of 29:23.08 which was 6 seconds behind winner Vincent Kiprop of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
With an already scheduled late evening start time to combat the Florida humidity, Bennie’s experience in big races helped him in a race that was faster than a typical qualifier. He followed the Syracuse race plan of staying close to the leaders keeping himself in the top 12 to avoid any late race charges from other runners. The other Syracuse runners in last night’s 10k were Iliass Aouani (21st in 30:07), Dom Hockenbury (35th in 30:52), Joe Dragon (42nd in 31:03) and Kevin James (44th in 31:14). Remember these names because we’ll be hearing a lot from them next fall.
Syracuse had one other athlete compete yesterday- Imani Clark in the women’s 100m dash. Clark set a new personal best in the event with a time of to place overall. Imani will return to the track in the 200m today along with Dasia Pressley.
Today’s action starts at Noon as the HurdleCuse crew takes to the track in Tampa . The Orange steeplechase runners will look to join Bennie in earning their way to Eugene this evening and hopefully the weather cooperates for them. Follow the live results here.