Banks Advances to Women's 800 Final

Friday, March 11

Birmingham, Ala.

TBA

Duke University

Day One at NCAA Indoor Championships

Score Corrections Give Duke Armory Track Invite Win

Banks Advances to Women's 800 Final

3/11/2016 10:38:00 PM | Track & Field

Meet Results

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – Kicking off the first day of the 2016 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala., two individuals and one relay competed for the Blue Devils Friday. Senior Anima Banks highlighted the opening day of action by qualifying for Saturday's women's 800 final, logging a time of 2:04.67 to place sixth overall in the semifinal heats.

After four scored events for the women and five for the men, the Arkansas women lead the team standings with 19 points and the Oregon men top the list with 25 points.

Racing in the second of two heats in the women's 800, Banks knew she needed to place in the top three of her section to secure a spot in the finals or run a time faster than 2:04.81 to have a chance at competing Saturday. The Mamaroneck, N.Y., native accomplished the latter, clocking a time of 2:04.67 to finish fifth in her heat and sixth overall to advance to Saturday's final. After moving through the first 200 meters in 29.16, Banks logged respective splits of 31.21, 32.25 and 32.07 to cap the competition.

The group of senior Olivia Anderson, junior Madeline Kopp, sophomore Maddy Price and freshman Kim Hallowes capped Friday's portion of the meet in the women's distance medley relay, securing second team All-America status with a combined time of 11:24.47 to finish 11^th overall. Hallowes handled the opening 1,200 meters in 3:29.30, followed by Price's 400-meter split of 53.78. Kopp then clocked a 2:11.29 over the next 800 meters before Anderson anchored with a 1,600-meter split of 4:50.10.

Coming off a gold-medal performance in the pentathlon at the ACC Indoor Championships, redshirt senior Karli Johonnot started the pentathlon with the 60-meter hurdles, clocking a time of 8.72 for 969 points, before withdrawing from the competition due to injury.

Wrapping up the NCAA Indoor Championships Saturday, two Blue Devils will look to put points on the board for Duke. Senior Megan Clark will start Duke's day in the women's pole vault at 5 p.m. (EST), followed by Banks in the women's 800 final at 6:40 p.m. ESPN3 will provide live coverage of the event starting at 4:55 p.m.

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