Hunter Veith - Can He Make It 3

[1972Shocker]

At the end of Day 1 the Top 5 are:

Tim Duckworth, Kentucky 3,601
Hunter Veith, Wichita State 3,432 (-169)
Tyler Adams, Sam Houtson State 3,397, (-204)
Scott Filip, Rice 3,348 (-253)
Gabe Moore, Arkansas 3,343 (-258)

Hunter did not have a bad day although I suspect he was just a little disappointed in his long jump. Tim Duckworth just had a very good day setting new PR's in the shot put and the high jump and winning the long jump by a comfortable margin.

Hard to see much of pathway to victory for Hunter unless something unexpected happens. At this point it looks to me like Hunter will battle Tyler Adams for 2nd place. They seem pretty even over the final 3 events so Hunter will have to perfourm well to maintain his hold on 2nd place.

Hunter would just about have to PR in all 3 events tomorrow and Tim Duckworth would probably have to fall a bit short of his PR's in all events for Hunter to have any chance of catching Duckworth.

Tomorrow's events are the 60H, the Pole Vault and the 1,000m run. The 60H can be dangerous as they have been known to jump up and trip a runner every now and then.

While winning the national championship looks like a long shot at this point Hunter still can earn 1st-Team All-American Honors, can still set a new PR in the heptathlon which would also be a new Wichita State school record and a new American Athletice Conference record.

[1972Shocker]

Possible pathway to victory for Hunter:

If Hunter can match his PR's in the 60H (7.94m) and the Pole Vault (5.10m) and run a 2:40 in the 1,000m run (which would be a PR by a pretty sizable 7.2 seconds) he would end up with 6,243 points.

If Tim Duckworth was just a little short of his 60H and PV bests say 8.05 seconds in the 60H (vs a PR of 8.03) and 5.20 meters in the Pole Vault (vs a PR of 5.26) and if he ran right at his PR in the 1,000m run at 2:57 he would end up with 6,236 points. BTW, his best Pole Vault this season so far has been 5.10m.

So while it may be a long shot, expecially since Mr. Duckworh hasn't been too cooperative so far, there is still a chance. I know this becasue Lloyd Christmas told me.

[1972Shocker]

Coach Rainbolt feels pretty good about Hunter's Day 1 performance and his position going into Day 2.

http://goshockers.com/news/2018/3/9/track-and-field-veith-in-contention-for-a-national-title.aspx

[1972Shocker]

There are 4 flights of 60m hurdles. Hunter and Duckworth are side by side (sort of) in flight 3. I say sort of because each flight has 4 runners and they are using lanes 2, 4, 6 and 8,.

In flight 3 Duckworth is in lane 6 and Hunter in lane 8. Tyler Adams, who is in 3rd place after day 1 is also in flight 3 and he is in lane 4. Not sure if this is good, bad or indifferent in an 8 second race but Duckworth is sandwiched in between two of the better hurdlers in the field and that might help to pull him along.

And the reuslts are:

Tyler Adams wins the heat at 7.97. However, he only picks up 5 points on Hunter who was crossed the line in 7.99 only .04 off his PR. More importantly Duckworth ran an 8.23 which is well of his PR of 8.03 and Hunter narrows his Duckworth's lead by 59 points.

Adams and Veith were the only sub-8 second times in the field.

Step 1 in Hunter's pathway to a come from behind win: Check. Hopefully, this will put a little bit of pressure on Tim Duckworth.

Up next the Pole Vault.

[1972Shocker]

Early on the bar is at 14-11.5 with two clearances and 5 competitors yet to enter for their opening jump including Hunter Veith and Tim Duckworh.

The main thing is you simply can not afford to not make any height.

Looks like Hunter has entered at 14-11.5 and has cleared that height. Tim Duckworth is the only one who has not made his opening jump yet.

[Kung Wu]

This is exciting!

[Kung Wu]

Hunter! Hunter! Hunter! Hunter!

[1972Shocker]

In Flight 1 the bar is at 15-11.25. Duckworth has successfully cleared that height but Hunter has not. Not sure where Hunters in on his attempts at this height.

In Flight 2 the bar is at 15-7.25. Tyler Adams has cleared at 14-11.5 and he may be done.

[1972Shocker]

The bar in Flight 2 just went up to 16-3.25 and Hunter is stll at 15-7.25 which indicates he may be done. If so that is a disappointing resutl for him (a full foot below his PR) and may very well lock things up for Tim Duckworth who is now over at 16-3.25 and still vaulting.

At the very least Hunter has give back what he gained in the 60 hurdles.

Duckworth is now over at 16-7.25 so he is pulling away with only the 1,000 remaining.

Duckworth pouring it on as he is now over at 16-11.

[1972Shocker]

So Hunter will go into the final event, the 1,000m run, trailing Duckworth by 233 points. I see no way that he can make up that deftict.

Hunter is in 2nd place 89 points ahead of Tyer Adams who is very strong in the 1,000m run. If they both run close to their PR's then Tyler Adams will pass Hunter for 2nd place.

Hunter's best time has been 2:47.18 compered to 2:37.62 for Adams. I think Hunter will need to finish within 8 secords of Adams to hold on to second place by whisker.

[Kung Wu]

Thanks for these updates!

[1972Shocker]

Well Hunter certainly did not throw in the towel as he set a new PR of 2:43.33 in the 1,000m run to knock 135 points off of Tim Duckworth's lead but that wasn't nearly enough to overcome Duckworth's big lead. He needed that PR to hold of Sam Houston State's Tyler Adams, who also set a new PR at 2:36.14, for second place.

I said that Hunter would need to stay within 8 seconds of Adams in the 1,000m run to hold onto 2nd place. Hunter finished 7.19 seconds behind Adams and edged him by 9 points overall for 2nd place.

Final Heptathlon Standings

Congratulations to Tim Duckworth of Kentucky on a very good performance. Hunter who finished with 6,090 points will have to settle for a medal performance, 1st Team All-American Honors, a new Wichita State heptathlon scoring record and a new AAC heptathlon scoring record.

I'm sure Hunter probably feels like he left some points behind in a couple of events but kudos to Hunter on one hell of an effort and for representing Shocker Nation so fantastically well.

Hunter's not done though as he still has the outdoor decathlon championship to look forward to and he is arguably a bit better at the decathlon than he is at the heptathlon. So here's looking forward to doing this again June 6th and 7th.

[Kung Wu]

I mean we just had a Shocker miss a National Championship by 98 points. Daaaaang. Well done Hunter.

And well done 72!

[1972Shocker]

nm

[1972Shocker]

At the beginning of the year my hopes were high that Hunter Veith might be the 3rd Shocker athlete to win a Track & Filed National Championship. He came close in March at the NCAA Indoor Championships finishing 2nd in the heptathlon in spite of below par results in the long jump and the pole vault.

I have recently expressed some concerns about Hunter's health especially after seeing him do a slow jog through the 110m hurdles at the AAC Championships and skip several other events he was entered in.

Yesterday (May 24th) Coach 'Bolt was on the Drive with Bob and Jeff Lutz and talked about Hunter. As feared Hunter is dealing with a significant back problem and has been focusing on trying to rehab that. They are still hopeful he will be ready to go by June 6th but that remains to be seen. Back problems are tough and can easily be aggravated. The problem is even if he does get healthy enough to try to compete he is missing out on some significant training and would have to be a bit rusty and who knows if he will be able to really trust his back to get the job done.

We'll see what happens but it's hard to be optimistic about this. Very disappointing for Hunter I'm sure but injuries can be such a critical factor in all sports but staying injury free in the decathlon is especially a challenge.

Regardless of how it goes Hunter is a future Shocker Hall of Famer and one of the best athletes to ever compete for Wichita State in any sport.

The discussion about Hunter starts at the 7:25 mark of this audio excerpt:
http://www.kfhradio.com/media/audio-...ow-todd-butler