(Sydney McLaughlin-Kentucky)
This season continues to be a season of record breaking.
This is perhaps the most talented group of collegiate runners ever assembled.
This past weekend was conference championship weekend. As expected the first
stop on the championship tour led to many record breaking performances and a
few disappointments. The team race took a major shift on both men and women’s
side for the NCAA Championships. In this recap below is a brief breakdown of what took place.
The event that took a major shift this past weekend was
perhaps the 400-meter dash, both men and women. We finally saw two true freshmen
duel it out in a much-anticipated match up at the SEC Indoor Championships.
Kentucky’s Sydney McLaughlin versus Georgia’s Lynna Irby. Both have led the
event this indoor season nationally and many were wondering who would win. McLaughlin
led early and never let up dominating the first 200 while Irby trailed. With
Irby charging late McLaughlin’s tactic clearly proved to be best winning in a
time of 50.52. Her time is a new World Junior Record, defeating the old record
held by Sanya Richards-Ross. Irby was no slouch with a time of 50.62. She would
rebound to come back and win the 200 in a national leading time of 22.66.
On the men’s side we saw Akeem Bloomfield dominate the SEC
to win in a time of 45.22. His time is still top 10 all-time in the collegiate ranks. However,
it is perhaps USC at the MPSF Conference Championship that caught the attention
of everyone. The USC men had three men go under 46 seconds in one race. Rai
Benjamin, Zach Shinnick and Ricky Morgan. What is perhaps more impressive is
that the group stated does not include the number one ranked Michael Norman.
The USC Trojans will likely send four men to a meet all running under 46
seconds indoors. Although we do not want to jump ahead of ourselves but that
statistic is mind-boggling and perhaps confirms a potential world record by the
group and a possible sub 2:59 performance outdoors.
In the short sprints LSU’s Mikiah Brisco continues to
dominate. After winning the 100-meter dash at the NCAA Outdoor Championships
last season Brisco has performed consistently at a high level. She again tied
her NCAA lead at the SEC Championships in the 60-meter dash with a time of
7.10. Although Brisco is a top tier hurdler it has become her performance in
the sprints that has garnered her much attention. The LSU Tigers have not had a
NCAA Champion at 60 meters since Kelly Ann-Baptiste in 2008, Brisco looks to
break the trend.
In the short sprints on the men’s side Nick Gray of Ohio
State tied the NCAA lead in the 200-meter dash at the Big Ten Indoor
Championship. Gray who has been steadily climbing up the rankings won in a big
way clocking in at 20.45. The time proves that he was as expected at the beginning
of the season to be a serious threat to win the NCAA title. Gray is the highest
ranked sprinter for Ohio State since Andrew Pierce in 2000.
Virginia Tech has become pretty adept to developing great 800-meter
runners, for the past few years it was Hannah Green. Now on the men’s side it
is Nick Gourley. The talented senior is the latest Virginia Tech Hokie to win
the 800-meter run at the ACC Indoor Championships. His winning time of 1:47.04
vaulted him to the number two ranking in the NCAA. Last season he won the 1,500
outdoors but for this indoor season he has only competed in the 800. With his
speed at a high level we may see him step back up to the 1,500 to compete for
the NCAA title in that event.
Agnes Abu has become the latest middle-distance standout
from Middle Tennessee State which has proven to have a pretty solid distance
program. Abu is strong in both the 800 and 1,500 meter runs. This past weekend
at the Boston University Last Chance Qualifier she clocked in at 2:02.30 and
tied the number one time in the NCAA. Although she did not compete at a
conference title she did carry the load for her team the previous weekend
winning the Conference USA title in the 800 and runner-up in the 1,500.
We have a new triple jump king in the NCAA. With KeAndre
Bates of Florida struggling to get back to his form of 2017 Scotty Newsome of
TCU has gained his. Newsome leaped to 54 feet 6 ¾ inches to win the triple jump
at the Big 12 Indoor Championships. His mark moves into the number one position
in the NCAA.
The SEC had an amazing jumps competition in every event, the
pole vault, high jump, long jump and triple jump. Two performances stand out to
me and that is Logan Boss of Mississippi State in the high jump and Olivia
Gruver of Kentucky in the Pole Vault. Both went up against top ranked
competition and persevered in a championship setting. Boss has a winning jump
of 6 feet 3 ¼ inches and Gruver in 15 feet 3 ¾ inches. Both are ranked number
one in the nation with Gruver earning her number one ranking this past weekend
and Boss just a ¼ inch shy of her top jump.
The throwing events also had an epic weekend as well. Josh
Davis of NC State began as the season’s top weight thrower and had his number
one position challenged against Michigan’s Joseph Ellis who would eventually
dethrone him and take his number one ranking. This past weekend at the ACC
Championship Davis reclaimed his number one ranking with a throw of 78 feet 2 ¼
inches. His mark is now 8th all-time.
Kaitlyn Long of Minnesota also joined the all-time list with
her winning throw at the Big Ten Indoor Championships. Long was a part of a
dominant group of throwers for Minnesota which saw three girls throw over 70
feet. Long’s throw of 79 feet 11 ½ inches was the winning throw and now moves
her to number six all time.
The relays this past weekend was insane. On the men’s side
at the SEC Championships Florida and Texas A&M again did battle and it came
down to the wire with Texas A&M prevailing against the Gators again to win
in a time of 3:02.35. The irony is that Florida’s time from early in the season
that beat the Aggies was still better but Florida’s change in relay order may
be what did them in. The Big Ten has quite the battle and will be sending the most
relays team to the National meet with five teams alone in the race joining the
top 12. Ohio State was the class of the field with their winning time of
3:05.09 that help to garner their first team Big Ten Indoor title since 1993.
On the women’s side LSU was perhaps the shock of the
weekend. Although we should not be shocked the Tigers did not enter the meet as
one of the top teams in the conference and found a way to earn the number four
ranking in the NCAA with a time of 3:30.85. The other big performance this
weekend also came from the Big Ten with Purdue garnering the number two ranking
with a time of 3:30.40. USC is still the class of the field in the event having
the only quarter under 3:30 with their NCAA leading time of 3:27.56.
I must say what a great weekend this was, there were many
great performances and disappointments. My recap is truly only a snippet of a
great weekend. The National Championship meet will be quite interesting. Many
pre-season favorites have not even qualified to attend the meet, Ariana
Washington the defending 200-meter champion from Oregon is one of them. Expect
for this meet to continue the excitement of this record breaking season.
No comments:
Post a Comment