Under different circumstances, UTEP track coach Bob Kitchens might have thought it was pretty cool to be sitting on a chartered jet that used to belong to comedian Jim Carrey. The dead of night -- 12:30 a.m.
Friday morning actually -- following an entire day of travel hell was not the right circumstance. "At the time, I didn't care," Kitchens said. What he cared about was that for the first time in 12 hours, he was reasonably sure all of his athletes were going to arrive in Des Moines, Iowa, in time to compete at the NCAA Midwest Regional.
"The athletic department really stepped up and helped us out," Kitchens said Sunday from the scene of all his troubles, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. "It was tough for our kids. But we didn't get excited, we didn't get upset, so they didn't get upset.
We kept sitting and working on things and it worked out. Indeed, Kitchens and his group of athletes arrived in Des Moines a little after 1:30 a.m.
Friday, while the second group, which spent its afternoon in
The problems came about because D-FW was closed for several hours, and numerous flights were cancelled because of a hail storm. "Oh man, it's been a non-stop rush since Thursday," said regional champion javelin thrower Alex van der Merwe from the El Paso airport Sunday. He was part of the group that arrived in Des Moines at 10:30 a.
m.. "We spent eight and a half, maybe nine hours Thursday in the airport, then we jumped in a car at 6 p.
m. and made it to just outside Alamogordo when we were told to turn around and come back." "What a relief that was," women's javelin champion Erma Jean Evans said.
"I'm not a big fan of long drives." Evans arrived in Des Moines two and a half hours before her javelin competition, and while she didn't throw as well as she wanted to, she won easily. "I felt fine when I was throwing," she said.
"When I was done, I was tired like I had never been tired before." "I'm glad to be back in El Paso," said Nelly Tchayem, who was second in the triple jump. "I'm so tired.
" Through it all, UTEP had a fine meet. The only real disappointments were the seventh-place finishes of sprinters Daniel Ward and Oludamola Osayomi. Osayomi's problems were due to an ankle injury, while Ward's shoelaces broke in middle of the turn.
In addition to the javelin throwers, Elias Koech won the 800 title. Other automatic qualifiers included Fatimoh Muhammed, who had a two-second personal best in the 800, Patrick Mutai in the steeplechase and Tchayem. At-large bids won't be announced until Tuesday, but Osayomi and 800 runner Dominic Tanui appear to be in strong position, and the men's 4x400 relay also is in decent shape.
Considering all UTEP went through just to get to Des Moines, the Miners feel proud of how they competed. "We showed everybody we're not a team to be messed with," van der Merwe said. "We turned up and did our business.
We were all over the news in Iowa. All the teams knew we had just gotten in that day. "We had a good meet.
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