Arastu Eager to Take First NCAA Strides
6/7/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
June 7, 2011
By Brad Rudner, U-M Athletic Media Relations
Of all the freshmen on the 2011 University of Michigan men's track and field team -- and there are many (21) -- nobody has made bigger strides (literally) this season than hurdler Ali Arastu.
This week, Arastu and redshirt junior Craig Forys will represent the Wolverines at the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Championships, running in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles and 3,000-meter steeplechase, respectively. For Arastu, it marks the culmination of a purposeful first season in Ann Arbor, as he is the first U-M freshman since Mike Woods in 2005 to qualify for the national meet.
And it almost didn't happen.
At the preliminary race at the NCAA East Region Preliminary Round on May 26, Arastu needed to finish in the top three of his heat (eight men per heat) or record one of the next six fastest times in order to move on to the quarterfinals. Qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships is no easy task, especially for a freshman, but Arastu managed to find a way.
He finished third in his heat with a time of 52.43, which was technically the third slowest of all the quarterfinals qualifiers, ranking 22nd of 24 overall. Still, Arastu earned the opportunity to come back the next day and run the race again for a chance at going to NCAAs.
Arastu admitted he didn't run his best. The environment threw him off, made him nervous. As a wide-eyed true freshman with so much on the line, it is tough to blame him.
He came off the track and the first person he bumped into was head coach Fred LaPlante.
"I feel so much better," Arastu told LaPlante. "Now I'm excited about tomorrow."
The next day, Arastu knew what he had to do -- finish top three in his heat or record one of the next three fastest times to make it to nationals and continue his season.
He did one better. He ran the best race of his life, 50.90 -- a lifetime best -- taking 1.53 seconds off his time from a day earlier. He finished second in his heat and had the sixth-fastest time of anybody at the regional.
What a difference a day makes.
"It was an amazing feeling," he recalled. "Just getting in that top three of my heat, having that certainty that I made it, that was a relief. I was shocked."
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Ali, which is short for Aliasghar (pronounced "AL-ee-uz-gur"), is an Islamic name. His parents immigrated to the U.S. from India before Ali was born, eventually settling in Northville, a suburb of Detroit about 15-20 minutes east of Ann Arbor.
Standing at 6-2 and weighing 165 pounds, Ali was a three-sport star at Northville, playing wide receiver, cornerback and safety for the football team in the fall, basketball in the winter, and running track in the spring. As time went on, however, he began to care more about track and less about the others.
"I had a lot of friends on the track team," he said. "They were great guys. It was more fun. That made it more important to me."
His list of high school achievements is detailed. He won the MHSAA Division I state championship in the 300-meter hurdles as a senior, after finishing runner-up in the same race as a junior when he lost by one quarter of a second. In addition, he was a three-time all-conference pick, two-time division champion, two-time conference champion and three-time all-area selection.
Strangely, despite all the awards, recognition and academic standing (Arastu had a 3.6 grade-point average in his first year at Michigan), he only drew serious college consideration from Michigan and Michigan State. But Michigan had two things going for it -- proximity to home and comfort level.
"Everything about it was great," Arastu said of the visit. "Towards the end, the only other choice was Michigan State, but my parents didn't want me going anywhere far. Michigan was a better school, a better everything."
LaPlante, who oversees the sprints/hurdles group and was the one who recruited Arastu to Michigan, felt coming into the season that his hurdlers were not only the strongest and deepest part of the team but also one of the best in the Big Ten.
When LaPlante first saw Arastu, he wasn't even running a hurdles race; he was running the 400-meter dash. Arastu obviously made a good first impression.
"He just had a presence. He was strong," LaPlante said. "His natural stride length covered a lot of territory. That impressed me."
"Sometimes all the coaches see are times," Arastu added. "I wanted to go to Michigan from the start. Just having Fred calling me, in my head I was like, `Yes, yes!' He didn't have to convince me. That made me excited."
Like most of the team, the hurdles group was young. Arastu was one of four freshmen to make an impact for the team in his first season, joining Big Ten Outdoor Championships scorers Troy Sneller (400-meter hurdles; redshirt) and Herman Washington (110-meter hurdles).
But there was also leadership in the form of two seniors, Carl Buchanon and Nick McCampbell. Though saddled with a hamstring pull for most of his final season in Ann Arbor, nobody was more influential on Arastu than Buchanon, a 2009 Big Ten champion in the very same race.
Buchanon knows the kind of competition Arastu will face off with on Wednesday (June 8), as he faced many of those student-athletes at the last two NCAA Outdoor Championships. In 2009 as a sophomore, his first appearance, he finished 23rd of 24th. Last season, he was 12th.
"It's really difficult to make it to this meet as a freshman," Buchanon added. "I didn't make it my first year but not many freshmen go anyway, so be able to make it that far is a big feat. The biggest thing Ali can do is not worry about who's next to him and just run his own race. Sometimes younger guys can get intimidated, but he's made it there. He's clearly shown he's capable of running with the best."
Arastu ranks 21st of 24 heading into the event and the experience he'll gain will pay dividends down the road.
LaPlante, for one, expects it will.
"His season has been as positive as positive could be," LaPlante said. "He's shown he's capable of running pretty fast, even without the hurdles. That, to me, means he's going to be running a lot faster sooner rather than later."
"Ali doesn't know how good he can be," Buchanon added. "He doesn't know his potential. After this year, he'll have a taste of what it'll take to get back to that meet. He'll have goals to do even better and place even higher. He's really good."
Whatever the outcome this week, don't expect this to be the only time you see Ali Arastu in the Maize and Blue at the NCAA Championships.
"Definitely," he said. "Hopefully. Definitely."
Players Mentioned
