Wisconsin Badgers
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Twice as nice: Akinniyi, Flax twin All-Americans in heptathlon
June 11, 2011 | Women's Track & Field
June 11, 2011
• Day 3 Results | Day 3 Results 
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DES MOINES, Iowa -- Over the course of a demanding two-day, seven-event competition, every athlete in the NCAA championships heptathlon is looking for an advantage.
It turns out Wisconsin teammates Dorcas Akinniyi and Jessica Flax had one in each other.
The duo -- which made UW one of just two schools with multiple qualifiers for the event -- used strong performances to parlay that advantage into a pair of All-America awards Friday, with Akinniyi finishing sixth and Flax seventh in a loaded field at the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Championships at Drake Stadium.
Akinniyi, competing in her fifth NCAA championships, became a four-time All-American by posting a season-best score of 5,554 points that fell just 30 markers shy of her lifetime best.
"This year has been kind of a mess, but thank goodness I had Jess there pushing me all day," Akinniyi said. "I'm really happy about it."
Flax, meanwhile, was in her first go-round at an NCAA meet and used an outstanding second day to pile up a personal-best total of 5,440 points. That improved on her previous lifetime best, which was the score of 5,372 she used to win the Big Ten title in May.
"It helps a lot having a teammate with me," Flax said. "I don't know how I would have done as well without her."
Kansas State's Ryann Krais claimed the national title with 5,961 points.
While Akinniyi posted the best first-day performance of her career with 3,469 points on Friday, Flax saved her big push for the final day of competition and laid down career-best marks in two of the three events held Saturday.
The junior was 11th in the standings with two events left to be contested, but both disciplines -- the javelin and 800 meters -- are among Flax's best in the seven-event heptathlon.
"That gave me a lot of confidence," Flax said. "It really helped a lot."
She posted the second-best throw in the field with her personal-best mark of 134 feet, 7 inches in the javelin, a performance that shot her to ninth in the overall standings with one event remaining.
In order to secure the top-eight finish needed for All-America honors, Flax needed to pick up additional points in the finale, the 800 meters. She responded by clocking in fourth-fastest in the field, laying down a personal-best time of 2:18.10 to vault another two spots in the final rankings.
"I knew I had to pick someone and latch on and just keep running with them," Flax said. "The idea was pretty much to run until I was dead."
Akinniyi opened the day with a strong mark of 18 feet, 6 inches in the long jump and followed with a mark of 113-9 in the javelin. That throw -- a 10-foot improvement over her previous attempt -- came on Akinniyi's third and final try on the runway, despite the fact that her last attempt was put off by nearly an hour because of a weather delay that was called during the competition.
That left the 800 meters, which Akinniyi finished in 2:23.42.
"A lot of it with the heptathlon is just doing what you need to do and not messing anything up," she said. "I'm happy that we could both be All-Americans and bring a little recognition to our school."
Darling, Sisson score second-team All-America honors
Maverick Darling was forced to play the waiting game more than once as the NCAA attempted to work in his men's 10,000 meters final around severe weather. Originally scheduled for late Thursday, the race finally went off Friday afternoon.
Darling, an All-American at 5,000 meters at the NCAA indoor meet in March, scored second-team All-America honors this time around with a 14th-place finish in 29 minutes, 32.80 seconds.
Racing against a stacked field, Darling lost touch with the lead pack midway through the race. He continued to pace a chase pack as the threesome of Iona's Leonard Korir, Liberty's Sam Chelanga and Arizona's Stephen Sambu left the rest of the field in their wake.
Korir won the race with an impressive breakaway over the final 200 meters, clocking in at 28:07.63.
Freshman Emily Sisson found herself in a similar position in the women's 5,000 meters, as the leaders pulled away in the late stages to take a number of contenders out of the race. Still, Sisson used a strong close to take 10th place in 15:53.90.
Sisson wrapped a stellar freshman season that saw her finish third at the Big Ten cross country championships and twice at the conference outdoor meet (5,000 meters and 10,000 meters), as well as earn All-America honors in cross country.
The NCAA championships conclude Saturday, with CBS airing the meet live from noon to 2 p.m. (CT). Sophomore Mohammed Ahmed and redshirt freshman Reed Connor will represent UW in the men's 5,000 meters final at 1:21 p.m.
