Weekly Recap

42.34!

(OREGON 4X100 RELAY)

Whew! That’s all that can be said after an exciting weekend. There were three major competitions in the Texas and Florida Relays along with the Stanford Invitational. All three meets produced a bevy of number one rankings and quite a few national records.

New Number 1 Rankings

(Women)

Before we talk individual performances this weekend we had some amazing relay performances particularly on the women’s side. Oregon took down the first record of the season with their time of 42.34 in the 4x100 relay. They took the record away from Texas A&M who has held the record since 2009. It is the first time since 1988 that Coach Pat Henry has not held the 4x100 relay record.

The Lady Ducks followed that performance up with another national record in the 4x200 relay with a time of 1:28.78. They are the first team under 1:29 in NCAA history and also broke a record held by Texas A&M.

Kymber Payne of LSU continued LSU's success of Individual champions at the Texas Relays. The talented 400 hurdler rocketed to the top spot in the nation with a time of 56.12 to claim the event title. Payne ran against a number top 10 competition and is the latest hurdler from LSU to win at the Texas Relays.

Anna Rohrer of Notre Dame perhaps had the most successful individual weekend. Although it is still early in the season and she is a freshman her performance at the Stanford Invitational was nothing to take lightly. The talented freshman won the 10,000 meter race. In the very race sat her teammate and former NCAA Champion Molly Seidel. Seidel has been sidelined with injury but looked close to her old self with a top time against a strong field. Rohrer herself ran 31:58.99 putting her in the number one spot.

Allie Ostrander of Boise State is another talented freshman. Ostrander garnered the number one ranking in the 3,000 meter steeplechase with a time 9:55.61. She won the event at the Stanford Invitational and is currently the only competitor in the nation under 10 minutes.

Siofa Cleirigh Buttner- Villanova (800 Meters 2:03.07)

Annemarie Schwanz- Fresno State (1,500 Meters 4:13.82)

Mikella Lefebvre-Oatis- UCLA and Logan Boss- Mississippi State (High Jump 6-0 ¾)

Savannah Carson- Purdue (Long Jump 21-5 ½)

Iana Amsterdam- Clemson (Triple Jump 44-10 ¾)

Rebekah Wales- LSU (Javelin 188-0)

Taliyah Brooks- Arkansas (Heptathlon 6,075)

Men

On the men’s side there was a lot more changes at the top. There are 15 new number 1 rankings in Division 1.

Lindon Victor of Texas A&M was one of the record breakers this weekend. Against high quality field at the Texas Relays Victor set a national record in the decathlon. He scored a total of 8,472 points breaking Trey Hardee’s NCAA record. Victor is currently the only athlete in the country with a point total over 8,000 and he has over a 500 point lead against his closest competitor. Perhaps the irony in his performance is that former record Hardee was one of the many talented athletes competing against Victor.

Kendall Williams of Georgia had quite the prep career and after a successful freshman year in 2015 at Florida State he followed his coach to Georgia and was forced to sit out the 2016 season. However he has ran with a vengeance this season. He ran a personal best indoors and began the outdoor season with a bang at the Texas Relays. He ran a barely wind-aided time of 9.99. He also ran a wind legal time of 10.06 in the preliminaries. Either of those times would give him the number one ranking.

Eric Futch of Florida began the season on the right foot. In front of his home crowd the speedy hurdler clocked in a NCAA leading time of 49.57 in the 400 hurdles. Futch is the defending champion and proved he is still a force to be reckoned with by defeating plenty of other world ranked competitors. Futch ran his usual signature style of coming on strong down the final 100 meters and displayed the speed he developed running indoors.

Trey Culver of Texas Tech has been mentioned as one of the best high jumpers in the nation for quite a while all that is missing from his career is a NCAA title. At the Texas Relays this past weekend he competed against the favorite to win in Randall Cunningham of USC the defending champion. Although not in front of his home crowd he was still in the state of Texas and had something to prove. After a great back and forth battle between the two Culver would prevail with his mark of 7-4 ¼. That mark ranks him number 1 in the NCAA; Cunningham was not too far behind with a mark of 7-3.

Alfred Chalenga of Alabama is a transfer student from Shorter University. Chalenga was a Division 2 All-American and proved at relay invitational’s and open meets that he was capable of beating Division 1 talent as well. Against a class field at the Stanford Invitational Chalenga stepped to a longer distance in the 10,000 meter race. In the field was distance stud Edward Cheserek of Oregon. Chalenga solidified his talent by winning against Cheserek and running a national leading time of 28:04.95. Whether or not Chalenga will step down to the 5,000 remains to be seen but he has certainly proven to be a threat to win the event by defeating defending NCAA champion Cheserek.

The Florida Gators were perhaps the top relay team of the week. They earned the number one ranking with a time of 38.73 to win the 4x100 relay thanks to a great anchor by Ryan Clark. Grant Holloway ran the anchor of the century with his 44.1 split in the 4x400 relay that saw him take Florida from 6^th to 1^st. Their time of 3:03.08 currently leaves in the number two spot. Texas A&M earned the number one ranking with a time of 3:01.74.

Steven Gayle- Alabama (400 Meters 45.40)

Isaiah Harris- Penn State (800 Meters 1:45.64)

Kasey Knevelbaard- Southern Utah (1,500 Meters 3:41.76)

Troy Reeder – Furman (3,000 Meter Steeplechase 8:40.57)

Jefferson Abbey- Colorado State (5,000 Meters 13:37.23)

Chad Zallow- Youngstown State (110 Hurdles 13.37) *wind aided

Torben Laidig Virginia Tech (Pole Vault 18-8 ¼)

Charles Brown- Texas Tech (Long Jump 26 8 ½)

Felix Obi- Baylor (Triple Jump 54-8 ¼)

Alexander Young- SE Louisiana (Hammer Throw 235’5)

Ioannis Kyriazis- Texas A&M (Javelin 288’9)

The team race still has not cleared itself out. There are several top performers who have not competed for their teams and their performances could change the race. There will be a quite a few teams off this coming weekend but the Sea Ray Relays at Tennessee, Sun Angel Classic at Arizona State and the Baylor Invitational are a number of meets that will still have top tier talent competing.