Running in the pitch black around the track at Manley Field House, Liz Cufari hoped officials would stop the women’s 3000-meter run. Cufari knew this was her first and last chance to qualify for the Big East Championships, and running in the dark wasn’t going to help.

One and a half laps into the race at the Syracuse Invitational Friday night, the electricity went out in Manley. The entire arena went dark. Fans screamed in excitement and fear as they could still hear the pounding of the 16 girls racing around the track, but no one could see anything.

The referee shot his gun twice, signaling to the runners the race had stopped. Cufari, other members of the Syracuse track team, and the other competitors put on their warm-up suits and jogged around until the lights went back on.

Cufari went on to win the race in 10:08.48, giving her qualifying time for the Big East Championship race later starting on Feb. 17 in Akron, Ohio. The win also helped the Syracuse women’s track team take first in Friday’s meet. The men’s team won as well.

Senior Associate Director of Athletics Barbara Henderson said there was a slight drop in power, so the computers in the building flickered, but the lights in the arena went out completely. Because the light bulbs in the arena are mercury vapor lights, the smallest drop in power shuts them off, and then they have to cool off before they turn back on automatically.

‘When the lights went out, I had no idea what was going on,’ junior Cufari said. ‘After about a lap, I stopped running because I didn’t want to trip over something.’

The race restarted about 15 minutes later, and Cufari took the lead eight laps after the lights came back on. She held on for the victory.

After running most of the race in fourth place, freshman Lynne Mundy took second behind teammate Cufari, in 10:13.16. She also qualified for the Big East by one-sixth of a second.

Syracuse freshman Stefanie Slekis came in third with a time of 10:15.73, completing an Orange sweep.

Both Cufari and Mundy agreed restarting the race helped them calm their nerves.

‘When lights went off it was a rush of adrenaline,’ Mundy said. ‘It was awesome how everyone was screaming when the lights went out, and everyone booed when they made us stop (the race). We would have kept going; our coach was keeping the time. It would have been legendary.’

Published on February 4, 2007 at 12:00 pm