2009 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Web site
MARIETTA, Ohio — For the third consecutive year, Tom Ballinger (Sr./Wenatchee, Wash.) earned All-America honors in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. This time he placed third overall, his best showing ever at the national meet, with a season-best time of 52.23.
Ballinger is the sixth Carleton male to earn All-America honors at three different NCAA Outdoor national meets, joining Dale Kramer, Dan Casper, Dan Virnig, Jeff Brown and Rick Bollin.With Ballinger accounting for all its points, Carleton finished in a tie for 49th out of 81 programs to score at the national meet.
In the preliminary round, Ballinger crossed the line with a then-season best time of 52.76 as he placed third in his heat. Each of the three heat winners along with the next five fastest times advanced to the finals on the last day of competition.
“Tom had a really good race, executing his race plan to a tee,” said Carleton Head Coach Dave Ricks. “We used a ‘run the prelims like the finals’ philosophy, and it was good!”
With only eight racers qualifying for the finals and All-America honors going to the top eight performers in each event, Ballinger, who was seeded sixth, simply needed to finish the race to close his collegiate career as an All-American for the third time.
Ballinger, however, was not content to simply focus on finishing the race and collect an award. Instead he recorded the fourth-best time in Division III this season and bettered his prelim mark by more than a half-second. In the process, he narrowly missed his own Carleton record (52.16) established at last year’s NCAA Championships.
“Tom ran a great race,” Ricks said. “He went after it, and was outstanding. He made the most of a beautiful day and had a lot of fun.”
Top seed Cory Beebe of Salisbury University won with a time of 51.28. UW-Oshkosh’s Ben Zill was second at 52.07. Matt Griswold of the University of St. Thomas edged Ballinger at the MIAC Championships two weeks ago but could not keep up the Carleton senior on this day and finished fourth at 52.57.
Ballinger earned sixth place at the 2007 championships, crossing the line at 53.25. A year ago he placed seventh in the finals, finishing in 52.16.
