Week 3 Recap

(Trayvon Bromell-Baylor)



This past weekend there were some great performances to witness. There were a lot of quality team meets around the country with ranked programs competing against one another. There was the headlining meet the Rod McCravy Memorial at Kentucky, the Notre Dame invitational and the Texas A&M Quadrangular. Each meet had athletes post some impressive marks. Let us review this weekend's top performances.

SPRINTS

As usual we will start off with the Sprints and America's next great sprint star sophomore Trayvon Bromell of Baylor. Bromell reaffirmed his status as up and coming star last outdoor season by setting an American junior record in the 100 meter dash with a time of 9.97. He had an average indoor season last year. This season he has gotten off to a rocket start to prove that last indoor season was a fluke. Bromell clocked in at 6.54 to set a meet record at the McCravy Memorial in Kentucky in the 60 meter dash. His time matches the top time in the country and puts him in perfect position to win the indoor 60 meter crown.

The most impressive long sprint performance came from Bralon Taplin of Texas A&M. Taplin put incredible distance between himself and the rest of the field. Taplin clocked in at 45.78 to win the 400 meter dash at the Texas A&M quadrangular. He ran that race with no one within a second of his time. Taplin is next in line to be apart of a great set of 400 meter runners at Texas A&M.

On the women's side Morolake Akinosun of Texas beat an impressive field in the women's 60 meter dash. The top three performers were all competing at the McCravy Memorial. After a solid start she could not be caught winning the race with an impressive 7.22. Jasmine  Todd of Oregon who still holds the nation's number 1 time finished second with a time of 7.26.

Her teammate sophomore Kendall Baisden also ran an impressive 400 meter race against a top tier field. Baisden clocked in at 51.81 to earn the nation's top mark. Fellow sophomore from Miami also ran an equally impressive race with a time of 51.82.

Cierra White of Texas Tech scorched the track in the women's 200 meter dash at Texas A&M. White defeated Ashton Purvis of A&M with a national leading time of 23.18.  White is coming an outstanding outdoor season and will be a force to reckon with this season.


FIELD EVENTS

The field events were hot this weekend all over. After the national record in the women's pole vault was broken twice last weekend many other field event athletes have decided to join in on the fun. In the triple jump youth was served at the McCravy Memorial. On the women's side Keturah Orji a freshman from Georgia set a indoor American junior record with her leap of 45-10 1/2. She surpassed the defending NCAA Champion Ciarra Brewer of Florida who also surpassed 45 feet with a mark of 45-2 1/4.

On the men's side it was all Florida. Defending outdoor triple jump champion Marquis Dendy of Florida made his season debut with a mark of 52-8 1/4, his freshman teammate Keandre Bates also made noise with a mark of 52-0. As great as their performances were the top performance in the country belongs to Matthew O'Neal of South Florida who leaped to 53'11 this past weekend to claim the top mark in the country.

In the women's pole vault Demi Payne of Stephen F. Austin again proved that she is the true number one in this event by setting the NCAA record again. Her mark of 15-7 is 6 inches better than the next performer in the NCAA.

In the men's shot put Ashinia Miller of Georgia had an impressive performance this past weekend at the McCravy memorial. Miller threw for a mark of 66-7 3/4. His performance put him atop the rankings in the country and continues the success in the throwing events at Georgia. Tori Bliss of LSU led all women throwers with a mark of 57-4 3/4 in the shot-put placing her in the top spot as well.

Georgia continued there impressive performance in the field events by winning both multi-event competitions at the McCravy memorial, the heptathlon and pentathlon. Kendall Williams winning the women's pentathlon with a total of 4,609 points, nearly 2,000 more than her closes competitor. Garrett  Scantling won the men's heptathlon over his teammate Maicel Ubo with a total 5,886 points while Ubo had 5,847. Teammate Devon Williams, the brother to Kendall Williams rounded out the top three to finish third with 5,538.


Distance

The distance event are starting to warm up. Many premier athletes made their indoor season. At Kentucky there was clearly no bigger name than that of Edward Cheserek of Oregon. Cheserek ran the 3,000 meter run in 7:49.56. He had a 5 second lead against the closest competitor his teammate Johnny Gregorek.

Cheserek's performance was only part of an extremely successful weekend for Oregon. Eric Jenkins led the team to a 1-2-3 sweep in the 5k with his winning time of 13:31.76. The Duck also had a 1-2 finish in the men's mile with Colby Alexander winning with a time of 4:00.84. Furthermore they claimed the men's distance medley relay with a time of 9:32.61 four seconds ahead of runner up Florida.

Dominque Scott of Arkansas won the women's mile in Kentucky with a impressive time of 4:32.48. She won her race convincingly with a 7 second margin. She also anchored the women's distance medley relay to a victory over Florida by more than 5 seconds.

At A&M Shelby Houlihan of Arizona State ran impressive 3,000 meter race that places her atop the NCAA by more 10 seconds. Houlihan almost going under 9 minutes with her winning time of 9:03.71.

4x400  Relay

The meet at Kentucky had a lot of impressive performances. However many of the top tier long sprinters did not compete in individual races. However they made up for it with two outstanding races. First the Florida women get things started off right by going 3:30 to break a school record in the first meet with a time of 3:29.58. Robin Reynolds ran a terrific lead off leg and Claudia Francis who transferred from Oregon ran an outstanding anchor leg to hold off Arkansas and Texas who both ran under 3:31.

The Florida men were without 200 meter champion Dedric Dukes who is out injured. However Florida has earned the moniker as 400 meter "U" because of their development and depth in the event. Nick Uruburu ran the 3rd leg this time and did an admirable job. Najee Glass ran an outstanding first leg that equated to 45.3 start. Arman Hall who ran the anchor leg had his work cut out for him with hard charging Vernon Norwood of LSU closing the gap and almost winning. The Gators broke the meet record with a time of 3:04.22 without Dedric Dukes. Their performance was quite impressive. It looks like it will be another great year for the 4x400 relay.

Another big meet will headline next weekend, it is the Razorback Invitational at the University of Arkansas. Many of the same teams will be at this meet along with Texas A&M. Expect more exciting performances and finishes.

Week 1 and 2 Review

(Jasmine Todd-Oregon)



It is mid-January and there have been plenty of noteworthy performances already. Most of the performances have been performed by sprinters. It is early in the season and still time for athletes all around to perform. The sprinters that have made the early noise have mostly been women.

Remona Burchell came on late last season with a time of 7.11 to claim the indoor 60 meter dash title. If she wants to defend her title she will likely have to put up a record performance and get started early this season. Already Jasmine Todd of Oregon has gotten started with a time of 7.15. Todd has been bitten by the injury bug the last few seasons and will look to finally put together a complete season. Todd's performance set a new facility record at the University of Washington's indoor facility. She had chase from true freshman Ky Westbrook of USC who clocked in at 7.18 to lead an impressive core of sprinters at USC. Kentucky senior and defending indoor 200 meter champion Dezerea Bryant saw to it to make some noise as well with a time of 7.18 and a NCAA leading 200 time of 23.12.

On the men's side the 60 meter dash is also warming up. John Teeters of Oklahoma State blasted off to a time of 6.54 which is currently the nation's number 1 time. NCAA 100 meter champion Trayvon Bromell of Baylor also dipped under 6.6 with a time of 6.58 putting him in 3rd place. Fellow talented sophomore of Mississippi Jalen Miller impressed many in week 1 with a time of 6.56. The early impressive times lead me to believe of the possibility that one of these young sprinters will possibly dip under 6.5 and run 6.4. It's too early to tell but expect some fireworks.

The hurdles had some amazing marks as well. In the 60 hurdles one of the preseason favorites Bridgette Owens of Florida broke her meet record this season with a NCAA leading time of 8.10. Owens has had some injury troubles while at Florida but had a great outdoor season. Fellow Michigander Cindy Ofili of Michigan earned the number three mark in the nation this past week with a time of 8.18.

On the men's side in the hurdles talented junior Isaac Williams of Houston earned a nation leading mark with a time of 7.72 at the beginning of the year to defeat a talented field. Defending champion Omar McCleod of Arkansas by way of Jamaica claimed the number two mark in a competitive dual against Texas with a time of 7.76. Donovan Robertson of Ohio State also tied the number two mark with a time of 7.76. All three are young talents that should be a big part of the sport in the future.

In the field events Donald Scott of Eastern Michigan got things started very early in the men's triple jump with a leap of 53 feet 7 1/2 inches. Scott is one of the many returning All-Americans and now that his football eligibility has been exhausted he can fully focus on the triple jump and can be considered a threat to win the title overall. Fellow MAC athlete Shawn Barber of Akron University also put up a noteworthy performance surpassing 19 feet the in the men's pole vault. Barber seems to be getting an early leap on defending his title.

In the women's pole vault there are two who are far ahead of the competition by at least a foot. Demi Payne of Stephen F. Austin and Sandi Morris of  Arkansas. This past weekend both athletes brook the NCAA record, yes in the same weekend. First it was Morris with a mark of 15' 1.5 then later Payne with a mark of 15'2.25. For Arkansas it was business as usual as they routinely have turned out great vaulters. The two will likely battle it out for another national record later this season.

Keeping up with excellence in the MAC Akron continues there success in the women's weight throw. In their dual against Kent State this past weekend there top two athletes scored the top two marks in the nation with a throws beyond 70 feet. Leading the way was Alexis Cooks who threw for 71'1.5 followed by Brittany Funk with a mark of 70'11.25. Both marks are impressive and draw more positive attention to the MAC conference.

Maddie Myers of Washington had the most impressive distance performance of the weekend at the Washington Preview by winning the women's 3,000. Myers won the race by more than 8 seconds with a time of 9:16.03. Morgan Scheutz of LSU also had an impressive weekend as LSU is giving more effort in developing quality distance runners. Schuetz claimed the top time in the women's 800 with a time of 2:06.32. These two talented sophomores are names we should expect to hear more of in the future.

This coming weekend is the Rod McCrary Invitational at the University of Kentucky. Many of the nations premier programs will be competing including, Florida, LSU, USC and Miami amongst others. This is an opportunity for us to really validate the rankings many of the top tier programs have received.