Coburn Takes Eighth In the Mile At Nationals

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -University of Colorado junior Emma Coburn raced to an eighth-place finish in the women's mile run on Saturday at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.

Coburn ran her fastest time ever at 4 minutes, 36.08 seconds, besting her previous personal best of 4:36.99 that she recorded on Friday night in the preliminary round.

Oregon's Jordan Hasay won the race in 4:33.01. The race was very close with the 10 competitors all finishing within 8.51 seconds of each other.

Coburn started out sixth in the pack and moved up to fifth after the first 600 meters. She took over fourth-place at the 1000-meter mark but then dropped back to sixth with just 300-meters remaining in the race. Coburn was able to hang on to beat out North Carolina's Ashley Verplank (4:36.17) at the line for the eighth and final scoring position.

"She came and did what we asked her to do," coach Mark Wetmore said. "She executed her race plan soundly and had another great season. Now it's time to get back to work for outdoors and work on her specialty, the steeplechase."

This will be Coburn's first indoor All-American honor and it is also the first time since 2002 that a female Buff has stood on the podium in the mile. Sara (Gorton) Slattery was the last Buff to do so as she placed sixth overall in 2002.

Coburn now owns three of the top four times in CU history. Her PR of 4:36.08 ranks second and her prelim time (4:36.99) is third overall.

2011 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship

Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium, McFerrin Athletic Center

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

Women's Mile run finals: (1. Jordan Hasay, Oregon, 4:33.01) 8. Emma Coburn, 4:36.08