Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Steele Hoping for More at Oregon Invitational

The bad thing, for former Gopher national champion Adam Steele, is that he ran poorly last weekend.

The good thing is that he gets to race again this weekend.

Steele, who trains with the Oregon Track Club in Eugene, ran 1:52.07 for 9th place in his section of the 800 meters at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California last weekend. But the Eden Prairie High School grad gets to compete in front of his new home crowd at the high-powered Oregon Invitational this Saturday, with a chance for some half-mile redemption.

"Yes, you are correct I was hoping for more ... 3 or 4 seconds more," Steele said of his Mt. SAC race. "I believe the biggest problem with the race was the tactics, I never really put myself into the race. I ended up wasting a lot of energy trying to get out of bad situations. The reality, I should have been patient and the race would have opened up for me."

This weekend, Steele plans to be "a little more competitive at the beginning" in an effort to run closer to his 1:49.22 personal best in the event.

Steele's indoor campaign and winter training were confounded by injuries that lasted until recently.

"The health issue is always a question," he admitted. "I had the calf/Achilles injury the month of February which put me in the pool. Things were good until recently and the same stuff flared up again. I think we found the answer and will make the adjustments needed."

Check out Steele's web-site here.

Also ... Team USA Minnesota's Andrew Carlson, a former Gopher teammate of Steele's, will compete in the 5000 meters at the Oregon Invitational.

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