Pifer Places 11th at Nationals

Wednesday, June 6

Sacramento, Calif.

TBA

Colorado

NCAA Outdoor Championships

Photo by: Prairie Pixel Group

June 09, 2007 | Track and Field

By: Linda Sprouse, Assistant SID

SACRAMENTO, Calif. ? Colorado's Stephen Pifer placed 11^th in the 1,500-meter run to wrap up the action for the Buffs on the final day of the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship in Sacramento.

Pifer finished the run in 3:42.25. He started the race off strong, taking the lead from Stanford's Russell Brown in the first 200 meters. Pifer held the lead for the next 1,000 meters, but shortly after that, Texas' Leo Manzano and a group of four others passed him. Pifer was unable to make up any ground and fell to 11^th in the final 150 meters.

“Stephen did everything exactly how we wanted him to do it,” head coach Mark Wetmore said. “He hit the early split times that we were asking for. At the 1,200, he was exactly where we were hoping he was going to be at 2:56, but he didn't have the close that we had counted on.

“Honestly, it was a coaching error. I made some mistakes in the last eight days in his preparation and I wish I could go back and undo that. He blames himself but it was my fault.”

Colorado leaves the national championships with six All-Americans. Billy Nelson took fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Jenny Barringer was seventh in the steeplechase and the 4x100-meter relay of Jeremy Dodson, George Pincock, Chris Abuan and Ryan Campbell placed sixth.

The men's team finished 37^th with eight points and the women were tied for 64^th with two points. Florida State won the men's championship with 54 points and the Arizona State women won with 60 points.