Things are heating up during the regular season. The second
weekend of April brought us a total of eleven new number one performances. The
throwers dominated the weekend claiming seven of the eleven number one
performances. In this recap we will look at those new number one performances
and their potential for later this season.
SPRINTS/HURDLES
Women
We have a wind-legal sub-100-meter sprinter. Casja Chandler
of USC, formerly of Cincinnati ran a time of 10.99 to win the Trojan Invite on
her home track. She is being coached by the fastest American woman alive,
Carmelita Jeter. Coach Jeter has really been developing great sprinters and Casja
who is a senior has improved incredibly.
True freshman Autumn Wilson of Georgia is under the tutelage
of former USC coach Caryl Smith-Gilbert. Just like at USC Gilbert is developing
a strong stable of sprinters. Wilson is one of two-star freshman on the team
that has made some major noise. On her home track for the Spec Towns- Torrin
Lawrence Invitational she ran away from a strong 200-meter field with a time of
22.56. Wilson’s time is also one of the fastest U-20 performance in the world.
I am sure that she isn’t done and will lower that time even further.
DISTANCE
The lone distance standout performance came from Michaela
Rose of LSU. Rose has been flirting with going under 2:00 minutes in the 800
and nearly almost did it on her home track at the Lloyd Wills Invitational. The
super sophomore ran a dominant race to clock in at 2:00.34. Rose won the race
by over 3 seconds and the closest challenger was her teammate Lorena Batres who
ran 2:03.53. Perhaps with a stronger field she will finally dip under 2
minutes.
JUMPS
Our lone jumping performance came from Russell Robinson of
Miami. The talented junior leaped to a mark of 54 feet 10 ¾ inches (16.73m). He
also performed the top mark on his home track at the Hurricane Invitational.
This performance is especially noteworthy since star freshman Jaydon Hibbert of
Arkansas by way of Jamaica competed at the Carifta Games and did not have a
better mark. Robinson can add his name to the championship potential list
THROWS
This is where the weekend was won. As stated earlier there
are seven new throwing number ones. On the women’s side all four events saw a leader
change.
Women
Jaida Ross was apart of a great weekend for Oregon throwers.
Ross joined an elite list of 60-foot throwers by having the top collegiate
performance at the Triton invite with a throw of 60 feet 8 inches (18.49m).
Ross finished second overall only losing to a professional Chinese Athlete in
Zhang Linru.
At the same meet her teammate and former NCAA Champion Jorinde
Van Klinken became the discus NCAA leader with her throw of 220 feet (60.77m).
Like her teammate Van Klinken finished second overall behind professional
discus thrower Valarie Allman.
A new year and California has another star Hammer Thrower.
Anna Purchase is the new leading lady for the Cal Bears. She claimed the top
ranking with a throw of 239 feet 7 inches (73.02m) to finish second overall
behind Cal’s previous leading lady Camryn Rogers. The senior is a returning
All-American and serious contender for the title.
Maddie Harris of Nebraska is the top returnee in the Javelin.
After finishing second last season she re-introduced herself to the nation with
her number one throw. A mark of 193 feet 1 inch (58.85m) won the Jim Click
Shootout at Arizona University and to improve upon her debut weekend mark. Last
weekend she finished 7th at the Texas Relays and this past weekend
she leaped back to the top.
Men
A Harvard man is now the nation’s top shot putter. Jordan
Geist had the number one mark as of April 6, this past Thursday and on Saturday
Alexander Kolesnikoff took the lead with a throw of 67 feet 10 ¾ inches (20.69m).
Kolesnikoff is having a great start to his outdoor season and the latest throw
is part of strings of wins he has accrued this outdoor season having now
claimed three straight victories.
Geist still ended the weekend with a number one mark even
after loosing the shot put number one mark. He claimed the umber one mark in
the Hammer Throw with 243 feet 3 inches (74.14m) to win the Jim Click Shootout.
Geist is currently number two in the Shot Put and potentially could pull off an
incredible double.
Mykolas Alekna of California had a great freshman campaign
last outdoor season in the discus. He finished second in the NCAA and claimed
the Pac-12 title. He has gotten this outdoor season off to a strong start. At
the Brutus Hamilton meet on his home track he launched the discus 224 feet 4
inches (68.39m). The mark is just shy of his personal best set last season but
a solid debut and a sign of things to come.
UPCOMING
This Thursday will be my first post reviewing the development
process at certain universities. As stated in the last post I will be focusing
on the high hurdles first.
No comments:
Post a Comment