Wisconsin Badgers
NCAA Preliminary Round
Final destination: Staisiunaite races to NCAA championships
May 28, 2011 | Women's Track & Field
May 28, 2011
• Day 2 Results | Day 2 Results 
| Photo Gallery 
EUGENE, Ore. -- Even though she got to the finish line faster than ever before, Egle Staisiunaite was forced to wait patiently before reaching her final destination.
So she sat in the holding area just off the track, watching the last quarterfinal heat of the 400-meter hurdles to see if her performance in the previous section would hold up.
In the end, it did. Staisiunaite's lifetime-best run of 58.53 seconds was good for a 11th-place finish Friday at the 2011 NCAA West Preliminary Round and was enough to earn the University of Wisconsin senior her first NCAA championships berth.
"I felt great, and coach (Nate Davis) told me to carry everything through the line and lean," Staisiunaite said. "I think that lean helped me so much, because another girl was catching me, and I don't think she made it."
She didn't. Baylor sophomore Christina Holland was fifth in the heat and finished 13th overall, just one one-hundredth of a second out of the 12th and final qualifying spot.
Staisiunaite, on the other hand, is headed to the NCAA championships for the first time in her career.
"I'm the happiest that I've ever been after a race," she said.
Staisiunaite has qualified for postseason competition -- either an NCAA regional or the new preliminary round format -- in each of her four years as a Badger. This time, however, her season will extend all the way to the end and the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, June 8-11.
It's an accomplishment four years in the making for Staisiunaite, who ranks No. 2 all-time at UW in the 400 hurdles and holds the Badgers' school record for the 100-meter hurdles.
So, what ultimately led to the breakthrough Staisiunaite has experienced during her final championship season?
"I'd say experience," she said. "Knowing when to just run and when to really lay it down."
After advancing through the first round on Thursday, Staisiunaite faced a quarterfinals format that narrows the 24 remaining athletes down to 12 that will advance to the national meet. Automatic qualifying spots went to the top-three finishers in each of the three sections.
The remaining three spots were filled on a time basis, meaning Staisiunaite had to finish among the 12 fastest athletes between the three heats.
So when she crossed the line fourth in her heat -- the second section -- it meant several minutes of nervously watching the scoreboard. When the fourth-place finisher in the third and final heat -- Arizona State's Kayla Sanchez -- clocked in slower than Staisiunaite at 58.57, the NCAA bid was assured.
"It was nerve-wracking," she said. "I was sitting there praying."
For Staisiunaite, the 58.53-second performance trimmed her personal-best mark down from the 58.59 she recorded at the 2010 Big Ten Outdoor Championships.
Even though she did not advance in that event, Staisiunaite credited running in the first round of the 100-meter hurdles Friday for her strong showing later in the longer event.
"I think it really helped," she said. "It was a great warmup for the 400 hurdles."
She opened her second day of competition by clocking in at 13.95 while running into a headwind in the 100-meter hurdles. The time -- well off the school-record 13.45 she recorded two weeks ago -- placed Staisiunaite 29th overall.
While Staisiunaite celebrated, teammate Jordan Helgren fell just short of her first NCAA championships berth. The junior posted a season-best leap of 40 feet, 11 3/4 inches in the triple jump and led the event after two of the four flights had been completed.
Her standing slipped however, and Helgren was unable to improve her mark in the three-attempt final round. She finished 15th overall to miss qualifying for the NCAA meet by three places.
Ashley Beutler posted an outstanding personal-best run in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, clocking in at 10:24.35 to secure a 20th-place finish. The time knocked 13 seconds off her lifetime-best mark. Senior Karlye Wolff, meanwhile, clocked in at 11:11.23.
The 2011 NCAA West Preliminary Round concludes Saturday with the Badgers competing Taylor Smith in the discus, Monika Jakutyte in the high jump and Emily Sisson in the 5,000 meters.
