44.30!
We have made all the way through April. I cannot stress enough the blessing that we have been given to experience an outdoor season while still fighting a pandemic. Adding to that thought it that this weekend was another positive weekend with great new number one performances. 12 Individual performances and a new relay number 1. As we begin the final stretches of the post season times and marks are getting better and better. The team title picture is still not clear, and we will have to wait until the end of the regular season to give them a fair view. In this recap let us look at the new number one’s.
SPRINTS/HURDLES
LSU had a fantastic weekend at their home meet, the LSU
Alumni Gold. Normally this weekend would be filled with stories from the Penn
Relays. Thanks to the pandemic the Penn Relays were again cancelled this year. Instead
meets such as LSU Alumni Gold provided us with some big performances.
On the men’s side the 400 was special for the LSU tigers. In
the open 400 Noah Williams who transferred from Akron continues to have a
stellar 2021 season. Against previous number Bryce Deadmon Williams rocketed to
a national leading time of 44.30. His race was quite impressive as he bolted
around the track from the start making up the stagger on Deadmon quite early.
He claimed the indoor national title in a bit of surprise. Expect for him to
continue to improve and lower what is already an impressive time.
In the 400 hurdles true freshman Sean Burrell made his
hurdling debut. Burrell was one of the top 400 runners in high school without a
senior season. He has proven speed and was expected to eventually challenge for
a sub 45 performance as a freshman. Instead he hopped into the 400 hurdles to
win in dominating fashion clocking a time of 49.12. LSU has not had a freshman
run that fast since Bennie Brazzell who is currently the men’s sprinting coach
at LSU. Expect more from Burrell later this season.
On the women’s side at the same meet Alabama junior Tamara
Clark became the first collegian under 11 seconds in the 100-meter dash.
Against professional competition Clark held her own with a time of 10.96. She
finished second to Aleia Hobbs who ran 10.91. Hobbs now competes professionally
for Adidas. This is proof that Clark is a true threat to the 100 title. Known
more heavily for 200 meter exploits a sub 11 second performance puts you in an
elite class.
Favour Ofili of LSU continued her strong freshman campaign.
The talented Nigerian further cemented her ranking as the number one 200-meter
runner in the nation. She won the race with a time of 22.30, that was slightly
wind-aided against a bevy of quality runners. Ofili has already met the A
standard for the Olympics now she just needs to focus on continue to lead the
NCAA.
Senior Tonea Marshall of LSU continues her strong outdoor campaign
in the 100 hurdles. She again improved on her national leading mark with a time
of 12.53. Although slightly wind-aided it is indication of a time that she will
likely get to later this season. Marshall has been solid with her technique and
her speed is unquestioned.
DISTANCE
On the men’s side there were two impressive distance
performances. The first comes from true freshman Cole Hocker of Oregon. Hocker
beat an impressive field on his home track to win the 5,000-meter run with a
time of 13:19.98. He led a race were the top four athletes all ran under 13:30.
Hocker is already being talked about as the next great runner from Oregon. I
think he has already cemented that winning two NCAA individual titles indoors
as a freshman and now he seems to be in shape to win another NCAA title
outdoors. Hocker deserves all the accolades that he gets as he has really
impressed every race; the effort and the desire is evident on his face.
A new week another new number one in the steeplechase. The
number one ranking in this event has changed multiple times this season and
Bennett Pascoe of Arkansas State is the latest to do it. Pascoe competed at the
John McDonnell Invitational and clocked a national leading time of 8:38.12. He
won the impressive race by almost 20 seconds and is currently only one of two
athletes to have gone sub 8:40 this outdoor season.
On the women’s side we see that the name Sage Hurta of
Colorado appears again. Hurta once led the nation in the 800 and now she leads
the nation in her best event, the 1,500. At the Oregon Relays the senior ran an
impressive race against professional competition. She finished eighth overall
to claim a national leading time of 4:08.38. She is the only sub 4:10 runner in
the country and really cemented herself as the favorite. You can never count
out anyone from Arkansas or BYU, but I think it is fair to say with that time
she is definite favorite.
Mercy Chelangat of Alabama is the latest long-distance star
out of Alabama. She ran the top time in the 5,000-meter run at the John
McDonnell Invitational and clocked 15:17.79. Chelangat claimed the NCAA title
in Cross Country just last month instead of competing indoors. The sophomore is
ready to make a name for herself in the long-distance events on the track.
FIELD EVENTS
On the men’s side the jumpers made the noise for the field
events. Darryl Sullivan of Tennessee improved upon his lead in the men’s high
jump. His winning mark of 7 feet 5 ¼ inches (2.27m) at the Clark Wood Invitational broke his tie
for the number one ranking to give him the number one ranking by ¼ inch.
JuVaughn Harrison of LSU continued his assault on the men’s
long jump. He leaped to a mark of 27 feet 8 ¼ inches (8.44m) to the win the
event at the LSU Alumni Gold meet. Harrison pulled off the impressive double
indoors winning both the High Jump and Long Jump. He is clearly a threat to do
it again outdoors.
Our lone top throwing performance came from Ohio State. The
Buckeyes clearly are the class of the Big Ten in the women’s throwing events.
There recent success of not only Big 10 Champions but national champions speak
to that statement. Adelaide Aquilla is one of those champions having claimed
the national title in the Shot Put indoors, Aquilla finally makes her outdoor
debut at the top of the list. At the Big Ten Illini Relays she became the only athlete
in the country over 60 feet with her winning mark of 60 feet ¼ inch.
RELAY
LSU’s 4x100 relay that includes Tonea Marshall, Favour
Ofili, Symone Mason and Thelma Davies clocked a NCAA leading time of 42.70. They
still are the only team under 43 seconds this season and it looks as if they
are the clear easy favorites to win the overall title.
No comments:
Post a Comment