Both Aaron Dixon and Blake Irwin (Bettendorf, Iowa) finished seventh in their respective heats of the men’s 800m run at day one of the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR. on Wednesday (June 9).
The seventh-place finishes for the Tiger runners are not good enough to advance either runner to Friday’s 800m final. In all, the two still rank among the nation’s top 24 800m runners as Irwin finished 18th overall while Dixon finished 23rd.
Irwin has the fastest time of the two Tigers at 1:50.25 to finish 18th overall. Four of the 800m event finalists came from Irwin’s heat.
Dixon drew lane seven in his heat and went out very quick and found himself in the middle of the pack at the cut-in. Dixon’s heat was paced at 26.23 at the 200m split, almost two seconds off of the pace of Irwin’s heat. Dixon continued to run in the middle of the pack through the first half of the race. He fell back to eighth before kicking in the last 100m to take seventh place in a photo-finish with Penn State’s Ryan Foster as he clocked in at 1:53.19.