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**1972Shocker** · May 1, 2019, 03:46 PM

Here are a few tools you might find of interest although I doubt many Shocker fans get into this as deeply as I do.

Shocker Men's Outdoor Top 10 Marks - Current Shocker Athletes are in bold print.

2019 AAC Outdoor Performance List - You can adjust the filters on this depending on what you want to see/ For those who may not be familiar with Track & Field team scoring the top 8 finishers in each event score points on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale. So for example if WSU is 1st and 4th in an event they would score 15 points for that event. Here are the team scores from last year with the Shocker men finishing 3rd behind Houston and Memphis.

One place the Shocks are traditionally strong is in the decathlon. This year should be no different assuming both Sr. Ben Johnson and So. Jake Horsch are healthy and ready to go. As far as I know Ben is healthy. I am not sure about Jake. Here is a decathlon calculator that you can play with track and project how the decathlon is going and how a particular mark would impact the scoring. For example, if you plug Ben's PR's into the calculator he would score 7,589 points although it is very unlikely Ben will hit his PR in each event. But 7,318 won last year's AAC decathlon and that was put up by a senior. Ben was 2nd last year at 7,272. Ben's weakest event are the discus, javelin and 1,500m run. Those are 3 of the final 4 events on Day 2 so you would like to see him with a good lead after 6 events although a lot of decathlete's are weak in those events. The decathlon is one event where the current year performance list doesn't tell you much.

If you want to see the PR's (personal records) for any individual Shocker athlete go to the team roster, click on the athlete's name and then under their photo click on the Season and Career Results link.

If I get time next week I will post a list of Shocker men who have Top 10 AAC marks heading into the AAC Tournament as that is still subject to some change this weekend.

**1972Shocker** · May 5, 2019, 06:44 PM

I believe all marks are in for the outdoor season at this point. Here is a list of Shocker men who have Top 10 AAC marks heading into the AAC Championship. Remember a Top 8 finish in each event is needed to score. A top 3 finish earns AAC All-Conference honors.

100 Meters -- No Shockers -- Houston has 5 of the top 6 marks -- Houston qualifies 6 into the finals.

200 Meters -- No Shockers -- Houston (5), Memphis (2) and Cincy (2) account for 9 of the top 10 marks USF has a sprinter with the 6th best time. Houston advances 6 runners into the finals. Cincy gets 1 and Memphis gets 1 in the finals. Houston set to score really big points in this event.

400 Meters -- No Shockers -- Houston has the top 4 marks and 6 of the top 10 marks -- Houston qualifies 4 into the finals.

800 Meters -- Zack Penrod (#8 @ 1:52.12) -- Zack Penrod and freshman Jed Helker finished 1-2 in their preliminary heat and both qualified for the finals. In the finals Zack finishes 5th at 1:52.63 and Jed picks up the point for 8th place as the Shocks add 5 points to the team total.

1500 Meters -- Zack Penrod (#1 @ 3:42.96). Jed Helker (#2 @ 3:47.46), Nathan Wickoren (#10 @ 3:51.58) -- Zack and Jed qualified for the 12-man finals on Sunday. In the finals Zack picks up the win in 3:49.07 and Jed finishes 6th at 3:56.32 to collect a total of 13 points.

5000 Meters -- Ben Flowers (#10 @ 14:37.82) -- Ben finished 9th in 14:48.46. 5 seniors finished in the top 8 so look for Ben, a sophomore, to be a factor in the scoring the next couple of years.

10,000 Meters -- Pedro Montoya (#6 @ 30:42.13), Alex Moen (#9 @ 31:54.72) and Josh Klein (#10 @ 32:30.28) -- Pedro finishes 5th with a time of 30:57.10 to add 4 points to the Shocker cause.

110 Hurdles -- Joseph Holthusen (#5 @ 14.23) -- Joseph finished 6th at 14.49 in the prelims and makes it through to the finals. In the finals Joseph runs a very good 14.19 which is a new PR and good for 6th place and 3 points. A very fine season for the true freshman.

400 Hurdles -- Austin Corley (#3 @ 50.90) -- Austin qualifies 3rd running 51.82. Not sure he will be able to overcome the two Houston hurdlers that easily qualified ahead of him. In the finals Austin runs 50.93 to finish 2nd behind the incomparable Amere Lattin of Houston. Looks like Houston's Quivell Jordan, who qualified 2nd, must have incurred an injury as he crossed the line last well behind the field. Austin earns 8 points.

3000 Steeplechase -- Ethan Kossover (#5 @ 9:06.73), Nathan Wickoren (#9 @ 9:25.08), Cory Landon (#10 @ 9:27.70) -- Ethan ran 9:07.42 to finish 4th, Cory ran a PR of 9:07.57 and Nathan 9:13.03 to finish 8th as the Shocks collected a 10 more team points. Ethan and Cory are sophomores.

4x100 Relay -- Shockers are tied with Tulsa with the 7th fasted time @ 41.52 a good 3 seconds behind the speed demons of Houston -- Shocks finish 8th with a time of 41.63 for 1 point.

4x400 Relay -- Shockers are #2 @ 3:10.51 about 8 seconds slower than Houston -- Austin Corley pulled up lame on the 2nd leg of the relay and the Shocks were unable to finish perhaps costing them some nice points although not enough to change the outcome.

High Jump -- Mason Buckmaster (#2 @ 6-11), Kole Konrade (#10 @ 6-6.25) -- Mason with a new PR of 7-0.25 wins the high jump to pick up 10 points for the Shocks.

Pole Vault -- Hayden Bugner (#2 @ 16-8.75), Tate McDonald (#8 @ 16-2) -- Hayden Bugner finishes 3rd with a vault of 16-7.5. Fr. Bryce Bearden unexpectedly finishes 4th with a vault of 15-11.25 and Fr. Tate McDonald finished in a 4-way tie for 7th at 15-5.5 with those 4 competitors dividing up the 3 points for 7th and 8th place equally so Tate earned 0.75 of a point. As group the guys earned 11.75 points beating expectations.

Long Jump -- Rayvon Allen (#2 @ 25-5.25), Kaden Griffin (#5 @ 24-5), Jared Belardo (#9 @ 24-0.25) -- Rayvon Allen picks up an AAC Championship with a leap of 25-5.25 while Jared was 4th at 24-0.25 and Kaden was 5th at 23-11.5 to cash in 19 points to the Shocker cause.

Triple Jump -- Jared Belardo (#3 @ 49-11), Kaden Griffen (#7 @ 46-9.5) -- Note that Rayvon Allen jumped a PR of 50-5.25 last year but has not jumped in a triple jump competition this year. That would be the 2nd best triple jump in the AAC this year. Not sure if Rayvon will be competing in this event or not this year. -- Jared does finish 3rd with a nice jump of 51-10.5, Kaden was 4th at 50-7.5 and Rayvon was 6th at 49-2.25 as they total 14 points to go along with the 19 the trio earned in the long jump.

Shot Put -- Cory Martens (#3 @ 57-10.25) -- Cory finishes 4th with a throw of 56-1 to score 5 points for the Shocks.

Discus -- Cory Martens (#4 @ 181-3), Isaiah Evans (#5 @ 171-8) -- Isaiah makes up for his stumbles in the hammer throw to capture 2nd place spinning the discus 172-1 on his 1st throw while Cory was close behind with a throw of 170-8 to finish 3rd picking up a combined 14 points. Very happy to see Isaiah redeem himself.

Hammer -- Cory Martens (#1 @ 201-6), Isaiah Evans (#2 @ 195-11), Aidan Camp (#10 @ 172-1) - Aidan Camp fouled on his 1st throws and then threw 164-7 on his 3rd throw and did not make the finals (top 9). Isaiah fouled on all three of his attempts and he will also miss the finals. That will definitely hurt the Shocker men as I'm sure they were counting on some points from Isaiah in this event. Cory is in the finals with a best of 3 throws of 194-4 but Cincy's Sam Meese has already thrown 204-4 for a new AAC Championship record pending the final 3 throws by the top 9. Cory is in 3rd place heading into the final 3 throws. Cory finished 3rd with a good throw of 197-8 to score 6 points for the Shocks and earn All-Conference honors. But the Shocks were counting on more than that and will have to make that up elsewhere.

Javelin -- Aaron True (#1 @ 247-2), Jeff Ast (#2 at 203-8), Davis Dubbert (#8 @ 190-10), Lindsay Cauy (#9 @ 189-4) -- Missing for the Shockers is Taran Taylor who threw a PR of 243-8 in last year's AAC Championship as a freshman. He has not competed this year so I am assuming he is injured. As expected Aaron wins his 2nd consecutive AAC javelin championship with a top throw of 239-3. Jeff Ast comes through with throw of 197-5, well behind Aaron, but good enough for 2nd place. Fr. Davis Dubbert nailed a PR of 192-3 to finish 5th and pick up a few extra points for the Shocks. The Shocks scored a total of 22 points in the javelin. Probably about as good as they could expect.

Decathlon -- Not sure the performance marks mean much for the decathlon. Ben Johnson has the 3rd best recorded mark of 6,567 and he did not mark at all in the javelin as he fouled 3 times. You can fouls several ways in the javelin including a flat or tail first landing. The javelin must land tip first. Ben's PR is 7,272. Ben would no doubt like to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the javelin. In looking at the national performance charts this year Ben would probably have to score around 7,500 points. He is capable of that but he will have to perform at the top of his gmae to get there. Redshirt sophomore Jake Horsch was 3rd in the heptathlon at this year's AAC Inddor Championships but I don't think he has competed in any events during the outdoor season so, like Taran Taylor, I am assuming Jake is injured. Ben at perhaps not quite his best overall but still wins the decathlon with a 7,413 PR. So. Chandler Stiawalt with a nice 4th place finish and Davis Dubbert, Grant Downes and Lucas Shaffer ear 6th, 7th and 8th place points. All told the Shocker decathlon group picks up 21 valuable points.

**1972Shocker** · May 6, 2019, 05:45 PM

TICKETS

Single day tickets, all-session passes and heat sheets can be purchased beginning May 10, at the west side gates of Cessna Stadium only.

• Single-day tickets: $7 for adults, $5 for senior citizen, ages 65 and older, and children under 12, children 3 and under are free.

• All-session passes: $14 for adults and $10 for senior citizen, ages 65 and older, and children under 12, children 3 and under are free.

• Heat sheets along with a schedule of events can be purchased for $2.

If you don't want to pay $2 for the heat sheets and schedule you can print those out before heading out to Cessna Stadium.

Here is the link to the schedule: https://goshockers.com/documents/201..._of_Events.pdf

The heat sheets are not available yet.

At this point the weather is looking pretty good for a track meet. Mild temps and light winds. Temps projected to be 65-70 for highs with night time lows of around 50. A few Sunday morning showers are possible which should be of no consequence. The athletes will probably love these conditions.

**1972Shocker** · May 6, 2019, 06:53 PM

If your time is limited but you would like to see pretty much non-stop action and your especially like the running events 21 running events (10 for the men and 11 for the women -- the women have 2 heats in the 5000m run; an unseeded race and a seeded race) will be contested between at 4:30 pm and 8:00 pm on Sunday.

Personally, I want to see Aaron True, Shocker senior All-American, in the javelin at 6:30pm on Friday. Not sure if they will be throwing inside the stadium or outside south of Koch Arena. I would also like to watch Winny Koskei in the 10k on Friday at around 7:55 pm as well. Although the 10K races are a bit monotonous. 25 laps that will take about 30 minutes or so. Can Winny duplicate her 5k/10k double championships that she was able to do last year. I guess if she does that would be a double-double.

Hopefully, I will have time Saturday to take in the back half of the decathlon and heptathlon. The qualifying prelims can also be exciting as you can't score on Sunday if you don't qualify for the finals. Most likely there will be multiple heats in most of these races.

I am assuming Rebekah Topham will be running in the 1500m prelims at around 6:00 pm and then comeback for the 3000m Steeplechase finals at 7:00 pm on Saturday. Then hopefully Rebekah will be in the 1500m finals on Sunday at 4:50 pm and she may also run in the 5000m run 2 hours later. That is a heavy load especially when you run at the pace Rebekah runs at.

I would expect Coach Rainbolt will have a preview of the meet on GoShockers.com sometime this week.

**goshox74** · May 6, 2019, 07:32 PM

For the general track fan, you'll certainly want to be there Sunday evening to see the Houston men sprinters. Arguably the best group of sprinters in the history of the NCAA and you'll probably bump into Carl Lewis while you're there. For Shocker fans you'll be able to see WSU athletes in almost all events as they have a much more balanced philosophy. I believe the heat sheets won't be available until Thursday and if you can't make it there will be a live stream on the AAC website.

**1972Shocker** · May 9, 2019, 04:41 PM

RH: Podcast Previewing AAC Outdoor Track with John Wise

On Wichita State's second season in the AAC:

"We're starting to get a handle on it and I think we're starting to get our philosophy figured out as to how we're attacking the conference. We're right at the top of the conference, just like we were in the Missouri Valley. We won a lot of Missouri Valley Conference titles, but we didn't win all of them. That's how we're starting to feel about this conference. The teams we built before are going to be successful in this league."

On decathlete Ben Johnson and his strategy for the conference meet and NCAA qualification:

"He'll probably need to score about 7,400 points, or something like that. He's quite capable of doing that. He's been running good hurdle races, he's been throwing well. He's been jumping well. He seems as ready as he's ever been to have a good decathlon. I think everything is lining up for Ben to finish out strong and get that score that he needs. Little bit of pressure, but he's guy that enjoys that."

Podcast

RH: AAC Outdoor Challenges Shockers Depth (with a focus on grad transfer Cory Martens)

Shockers Set to Host AAC Championships

Taylor Eldridge: Five must-see athletes, events in Wichita for AAC outdoor track, field championships

**1972Shocker** · May 10, 2019, 03:11 PM

Decathlon - Friday Events:

100m Dash: UConn sophomore Jordan Torney wins the event in 10.82 seconds for 901 points and Shocker senior Ben Johnson was close behind at 10.89 for 885 points. As somewhate expected Shocker sophomore Jake Horsrch is not competing. Shocker So. Grant Downes finished 3rd (11.16/825), Shocker Fr. Chandler Stiawalt was 4th (11.22/812), Shocker So. Lucas Shaffer was 7th (11.71/809) and Shocker Fr. Davis Dubbert was 8th at (12.25/603). Only 8 competitors so all 5 Shockers should score team points if they can finish the event.

Long Jump: UConn's Torney wins his 2nd event with a jump of 23-6 for 852 points. Ben is 3rd with a jump of 22-2.25 for 757 points. That was Ben's 3rd and final jump after fouling on her first 2 attempts so he had to be a bit careful there and make sure he got a clean jump in.

After 2 events Torney leads with 1,753 points, Ben is 2nd with 1.642 points and Cincy's Damien Berthenet is 3rd at 1,558. The other 4 Shockers are in 4th , 5th, 7th and 8th.

Shot Put: Usually a relatively strong event for Ben and he does win the event with a put of 46-5.75 for 738 points. Torney finishes 2nd with a throw of 41-3.

After 3 events Torney leads with 2,394 points with Ben close behind at 2,380 points. Berthenet is in 3rd and Stiawalt is in 4th with the other 3 Shockers 5th, 6th and 7th.

High Jump: UConn Fr. Benjamin Grosse wins the event with a jump of 6-7 for 813 points. Ben and Chandler each cleared 6-4.75 for 758 points. UConn's Torney was only able to clear 5-10.75 for 627 points.

After 4 events Ben moves into the lead with 3,138 points. Torney falls to 2nd place with 3,021 points. Chandler moves up a spot to 3rd with 2,907 points. The other 3 Shocks are 6th, 7th and 8th and have pretty much lost contact with the Top 5.

400m Dash: UConn's Torney and Grosse had strong runs with Torney winning in 49.18 and Grosse 2nd at 50.86. Ben finished 3rd at 51.28.

After Day 1 (5 events): Ben leads with 3,895 points. Torney is a close 2nd at 3,874 points, Grosse is 3rd at 3,635, Chandler is 4th at 3,630, with Cincy's Berthenet 5th at 3,589.

The guys will finish up tomorrow with the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500m run.

**1972Shocker** · May 10, 2019, 11:55 PM

See post #3 above for event results vs pre-meet performance charts.

Friday's Results -- The Shocks were hurt by Isaiah Evans failing to score in the hammer throw as he fouled on all 3 of his attempts and failed to advance for a final 3 throws. Coming in he had the 2nd best throw in the AAC this year. That will be offset a bit by Davis Dubbert finishing 5th in the javelin and perhaps a bit by Pedro Montoya's 5th place finish in the 10k race and Fr. Jed Helker qualifying for the 800m finals. Shocks had a pretty good 1st day in the decathlon and are positioned to score well with another good day in that event.

Koskei, True Defend American Conference Titles

Taylor Eldridge Reports on Friday's Action

**1972Shocker** · May 11, 2019, 12:09 AM

RH: A Story of True Love Of Throwing

Sully takes a look at the rise of Aaron True from a scrawny little kid to NCAA All-American spearchucker.

**1972Shocker** · May 11, 2019, 11:51 AM

Decathlon - Saturday Events

110 Hurdles -- UConn's Jordan Torney, who is a terrific looking sophomore athlete, won the 1st event of the day clocking a very good 14.35 (just off his PR of 14.29) for 930 points. However, Shocker senior Ben Johnson hung right with him to finish a very close second in 14.36 which is a new PR for Ben and .929 points.

After 6 events Johnson and Torney are pulling away from the field. Ben leads with 4,824 points while Torney is right on his heels at 4,80, Cincy's Damien Berthenet moved up from 5th to 3rd at 4,430 points. Shocker freshman Chandler Stiawalt is 4th at 4,407 points with UConn freshman Benjamin Grosse right on his heels at 4,404. Shockers Grant Downs, Lucas Shaffer and Davis Dubbert are well back in 6th, 7th and 8th place.

Looks like this is going going to be a battle to the very finish between Shocker Ben Johnson and Husky Jordan Torney.

Discus --No great throws in this event. Cincy's Berthenet wins the event with a toss of 126-4 scoring 635 points. UConn's Torney is 2nd throwing 125-3 for 628 points and Ben is 3rd at 123-6 for 617 points. Leon Liebl reporting that Ben may have a shoulder issue effecting his performance which could also be factor in the javelin and perhaps even in the pole vault.

After 7 events Ben still leads Torney but only by 9 points at 5,441 to 5,432 followed by Berthenet at 5,065, Grosse at 4,964 and Shocker freshman Chandler Stiawalt at 4,959.

Poled Vault -- Ben is usually a pretty solid pole vaulter. This may be the event the determines whether he will be able to win the decathlon. Toreny sets a new PR and Ben is well below his best as the tied in the pole vault at of 14-11. I hope Ben will not regret failing to take more advantage of his abilities in this event. Ben has 2 things on the line. An AAC Championship and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.

After 8 events Ben Still leas Torney by 9 points at 6,216 points to 6,207 points. Chandler Stiawalt moves into 4th place at 5,590 ahead of UConn's Grosse by 50 points. Ben needs to good performances in the final 2 events.

Javelin -- Not a bad discus for Ben but he fouled on 2 of his 3 attempts including his final attempt that was probably his best throw. As it was Ben threw 151-5 for 532 points while Torney threw for 128-7 for 431 points as Ben adds to his lead by 101 points.

After 9 events Ben leads Torney by 110 points at 6,748 to 6,638. Chandler is still in 4th place with 6,209 points.

1500m Run -- Ben is not real strong in the 1500. He probably needs to finish within 18 seconds of Torney to hold onto to his lead. Ben gets it done with a PR of 4:42.51 and he actually finished 3rd well ahead of his closest competitors.

Ben set a new PR of 7,413 which ranks 4th all-time at WSU in winning the AAC deccathlon championship. UConn's Torney was second at 7,231 points, Cincy's Berthenet was 3rd at 7,084 points, Shocker sophomore Chandler Stiawalt was 4th at 6,829 points and UConn's Benjamin Grosse was 5th at 6,756. Shockers Davis Dubbert, Grant Downes and Lucas Shaffer were well back in 6th, 7th and 8th but they all finished and put in a lot of work in picking up 6 points for the Shocker cause. All toghether the Shocks picked up 21 points in the decathlon. Well done men.

I don't know if Ben's score will qualify for the NCAA National Championships or not. Will probably have to wait and see on that.

**1972Shocker** · May 11, 2019, 10:03 PM

With 7 of 21 events scored the Shocks are at 87 points. Not sure how that compares to expectations coming in but I think the Shocks have done pretty well at this point. Houston will not doubt make a huge charge in Sunday's sprint, hurdle and relay finals.

The Shocks scored 6 points in the hammer throw, 22 in the javelin, 4 points in the 10k, 21 points in the decathlon, 5 in the shot put, 19 in the long jump and 10 in the 3k steeplechase.

The Shocks will be looking for points tomorrow from the following:

Jr. Mason Buckmaster in the high jump.

Sr. Hayden Bugner and perhaps Fr. Tate McDonald in the pole vault.

Srs. Jared Belardo and Kaden Griffin and So, Rayvon Allen in the triple jump.

Sr. Isaiah Evans and Jr. Cory Martens in the discus.

Jr. Zack Penrod and Fr. Jed Helker in the 1500m run and the 800m run.

Fr. Joseph Holthusen in the 110m hurdles.

Sr. Austin Corley in the 400m hurdles.

4x400 Relay

I think Houston may very well end up with 185-195 points. Are there enough Shocker points in the above list to challenge Houston. I don't think so. But the Shocks certainly should be in position to make a storng run for that 2nd place trophy.

**1972Shocker** · May 11, 2019, 11:17 PM

Taylor Eldgridge: AAC Track & Field Championship - Day 2 Recap

https://www.kansas.com/sports/colleg...230307394.html

GoShockers.com: Shockers Claim Five Individual Titles, Sweep Multis - Day 2 Recap

https://goshockers.com/news/2019/5/1...eep-multi.aspx

**1972Shocker** · May 12, 2019, 10:58 AM

Proving There Is More Than One Way to Skin A Cat

I thought the Decathlon and Heptathlon event were quite interesting in showing that there is more than one way to get the job done.

In the Decathlon Ben Johnson, the event champion, had the best marks in 2 of the 10 events while runner up Jordan Torney of UConn had the best marks in 5 of the 10 events. Ben won because he was the model of consistency as he also had 2nd place marks in 3 events, 3rd place marks in 4 events and a 5th place mark in one event in which there was little separation among the results. Torney had a 2nd place marks in events giving him 7 of the 10 events where he finished 1st or 2nd. However, in his other 3 events he was 6th, 7th and 8th. However, Jordan Torney's day will come as he is only a sophomore and will probably be the favorite in the decathlon the next 2 years. Hopefully, Jake Horsch will be back next year for the Shocks. Not sure what his situation is.

In the Heptathlon Shocker Kendra Henry took pretty much an opposite track from Ben in winning the heptathlon. In 3 of the 7 events she finished 7th, 10th and 14th. However, she overcame those relatively weak results with very strong results in winning the shot put and javelin. She was especially strong in the javelin where she gained anywhere from 258 to 435 points on the rest of the field. Kendra was 3rd and 4th in her other 2 events.

In sweeping the top 3 spots of the heptathlon the Shockers had the top marks in all 7 events. Kendra in the shot put and javelin. Claudia Rojo won the 100 hurldes, the long jump and the 800m run. Sidney Wilson won the high jump and the 200m run. BTW, Kendra a sophomore, Claudia a junior and Sidney a sophomore will all be back next year. Hopefully, all 3 will improve in their weaker events and continue to perform well in their stronger events. Kendra is relatively weak in the 100 hurdles, 200m dash and the long jump. Claudia needs work the high jump and the shot put and Sidney, who is tall and slender, needs work in shot put, javelin and 800 meters. Kendra now has back-to-back AAC heptathlon titles as a freshman and a sophomore but she better not rest on her laurels. Claudia was nipping at her heels this year and if she stays healthy she will be right their again next year. Sindey is interesting. It will be interesting to see how much muscle the conditioning coaches can put on that slender frame.

**ABC** · May 12, 2019, 02:00 PM

I thought Houston was the men's favorite, but they seem to be way down the pack.

Announcement

AAC TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP - CESSNA STADIUM

AAC TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP - CESSNA STADIUM

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