Dahm Withdraws from USA Track and Field Final

Injury forces Marquette senior to withdraw from 3,000-meter steeplechase final

CARSON, Calif. ? A hip flexor injury forced Marquette senior Brianna Dahm to withdraw from the final of the 3,000-meter Steeplechase at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Carson, Calif.

Marquette track and field head coach Dave Uhrich said the problem had been bothering Dahm for a couple of weeks, but she was only able to participate in the preliminary, held two days earlier.

"She's had a hip flexor injury since the NCAA Championships. She's been trainiing off and on since, but was bothering her quite a bit today," Uhrich said. "We thought she might have one race up in her, but in warmups it was bothering her quite a bit."

Dahm ran a 10:28.87 in the preliminary round, which featured 17 competitors. According to USA Track and Field rules, a preliminary and final round are held only if there are 18 or more competitors declare for the event, otherwise the event is a finals-only competition. USA Track and Field officials decided to hold the preliminaries, only to eliminate three contestants from the final. Had a preliminary round not been held, Dahm would have been able to compete in a one-heat final.

"We're frustrated about what USA Track and Field did as a lot of the competitors are," Uhrich said. "But she did her warm up today and could hardly even run without limping, it hurt that bad. So she decided not to run in the final."

Elizabeth Jackson won the event with a time of 9:39.78. Four competitors ran the course in under 10 minutes.

Women 3000 Meter Steeplechase Open===============================================================       World: W  9:01.59  7/4/2004    Gulnara Samitova, RUS    American: A  9:29.32  7/31/2004   Briana Shook, Toledo   World "A":    9:50.00   World "B":   10:00.00    Name                    Year Team                    Finals===============================================================Finals  1 Elizabeth Jackson            Nike                   9:39.78  2 Lisa Galaviz                 Unattached             9:40.58  3 Carrie Messner               Asics                  9:41.37  4 Briana Shook                 Nike                   9:45.91  5 Ann Gaffigan                 New Balance           10:07.39  6 Natalie Florence             Colorado              10:07.51  7 Lucinda Hull                 Adidas Ralei          10:16.71  8 Kara June                    Unattached            10:17.73  9 Dawn Cromer                  Unattached            10:18.45 10 Cassie King                  North Carolina        10:21.57 11 Kelly Siefker                Indiana               10:24.85 12 Jane Rudkin                  Kansas City Smoke     10:26.91 -- Rena Chesser                 B Y U                      DNS -- Brianna Dahm                 Unattached                 DNS

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