June 15-16, 2001 at North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

adidas Outdoor Track and Field Championships

Alicia Craig will be in a fight
to defend her title in the mile run

Standout challengers include
Erin Donohue - Brook Novak - Anita Siraki - Ann Shadle

 

by Pete Cava

RALEIGH, June 12, 2001 --- Middle distance star Alicia Craig of Gillette,
Wyo., turns 18 Thursday and hopes to celebrate with a second straight mile
victory at the adidas Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which take place
Friday and Saturday at North Carolina State University.

She'll have her hands full. Meet co-director Mike Byrnes calls the girls
mile "a standout among standouts." But Craig, a recent graduate of Campbell
County High School, is accustomed to challenges.

Craig headlines a stellar field that includes:

Erin Donohue (Haddonfield, N.J., HS), third in this meet last year and
the author of a 4:47.51 mile at the May 12 Princeton Invitational. Last
March at Landover, Md., Donohue bested Craig for the unofficial national
indoor high school mile title.

Brooke Novak (Kaukauna, Wisc., HS). Last year's fourth-placer and this
year's Wisconsin state 1600 champ, she's the latest in a long line of Badger
State distance prodigies. Novak's 1600m best this year converts to a 4:44.70
mile --- the fastest this year by a prep.

Anita Siraki (Hoover HS, Glendale, Calif.). Siraki's 2-mile triumph at
this meet last year thwarted Craig's hopes for a distance double.
Colleen Taylor (Ursuline HS, Wilmington, Del.), runnerup to Donohue in
the prep mile at April's Penn Relays.

Ann Shadle (South Sioux City, Neb., HS), seventh in this race in 2000.

For good measure, there's Melissa Donais (Phillips Academy, Andover,
Mass.), Molly Huddle (Notre Dame Academy, Elmira, N.Y.), Megan Olds
(Gloversville, N.Y.), Lynn Dixon (Mira Costa HS, Manhattan Beach, Calif.),
Clara Horowitz (Head-Royce HS, Oakland, Calif.), and Keira Carlstrom (Oakton,
Vienna, Va.),

But the Stanford-bound Craig's been the biggest factor in the mile this
outdoor season. In April she won the 1600 meter title at the Arcadia,
Calif., prep invitational. On June 9 she captured her second straight mile
title at the prestigious Golden West meet in Sacramento. Craig's 4:46.73 at
Golden West was close to her career best of 4:46.57 from last year.
Back in Wyoming, Craig usually runs unchallenged. Competing in meets
like the adidas Outdoor Championships, she maintains, "opens your eyes so you
can see what's out there."

And growing up on the Great Plains, where the average monthly temperature
doesn't reach the 70s until June, has toughened up Craig. While her home
state abounds in natural beauty --- from her window, she says, she can
sometimes catch a glimpse of antelope play --- Wyoming can be a harsh place
to train in the fall, winter and early spring.
"We do have to deal with adversities here," she recently told a reporter,
"but running in blizzards and 60 mile-an-hour winds builds character."
This weekend in Raleigh, the weather --- and the competition --- should
be a little hotter.

 

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