When the weather finally cooperated, recent Wabash graduate Geoff Lambert made the most of his chance to advance to his third Division III Outdoor National Track and Field Meet.
In his final chance to qualify for nationals in the 800-meter run, Lambert ran a 1:51.23 at last Friday’s Gregory Invitational at North Central College. His time was just under the automatic qualifying time of 1:51.30, giving Lambert a spot in his sixth national race during his collegiate career. The national prelims are today at Wisconsin Oshkosh.
Lambert, a Chesterton High School graduate who placed second in the 800-meter run in the 2007 Indoor Championships, has competed in three indoor national and three outdoor national meets.
He earned All-American honors with a fifth-place finish his sophomore season, then last year was unable to make the finals after placing ninth in the final heat.
Lambert ran in six outdoor meets this spring, which he said is about normal. What was not normal was the bad weather that didn’t make for good running conditions.
"I would have preferred not to wait until the last weekend, but the weather was not cooperating outside," Lambert said. "It finally worked out for the last meet, and I was thankful I was able to get it done."
Lambert said Friday’s race played out just to his liking. All of the runners
went out hard, and Lambert was sitting in a top-three position but at the same time was trying to conserve some energy. Coach Roger Busch was there yelling out his times at both the 400- and 600-meter mark.
Lambert said Friday’s race was all about running hard and getting the best time, and there wasn’t much jostling for position.
Lambert now is preparing for Friday’s preliminary race where he will go up against many familiar faces. He has he fifth seed in the 17-member field that includes nine seniors.
Ohio Northern junior Jimmy O’Brien, who won the 800 at last year’s outdoor and was third in this year’s indoor championships, comes in with the top seed of 1:48.45. Just as Lambert, O’Brien will compete in his third outdoor championships.
After O’Brien and second-seeded Emmanuel Bofa, a sophomore at Whitworth College, the next five seeded runners all are seniors.
"The field looks to be a lot faster this year, and part of that is because the field is very senior heavy," Lambert said.
"This is very talented group that I’m going to have to deal with."
The field also includes Wisconsin-Superior’s Matt Kramer and Nazareth College’s Nick Stenuf, who were second and fourth, respectively, at the indoor championships. Stenuf comes in with the third seed, while Kramer is seeded ninth.
University of St. Thomas junior Brian Stames, who was fifth in the indoor championships, also qualified for the outdoor nationals and is seeded 15th.
Lambert said his main goal is to advance to the finals, giving him a chance to win his first collegiate national championship.
Nine of the 17 runners advance to the finals. To advance to Saturday, runners have to finish in the top two in their heat or have one of the next five top times.
"All I have to do is duplicate my performance I had in my last meet Friday and I will be in the finals," Lambert said.
"That’s all I’m concerned with."
Lambert next year will remain in Montgomery County and will student teach at North Montgomery.
Matt Wilson is the Journal Review’s assistant sports editor.
Photo - Lambert with his All-America plaque from 2006.