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I always thought baseball was under scholarships as a sport but this is worse
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Exactly. Although the women do get 18 scholarships. While that does include XC all those athletes are also in your distance running crew in indoor and outdoor track. Nevertheless that doesn't go very far when you have the size of rosters WSU carries. This year 57 men and 56 women and those are a bit smaller than what Coach 'bolt usually carried in the MVC days. Now many of these athletes are great students and many probably receive some academic scholarship aid. But to the extent students have to pay their own way your program is obviously going to be more attractive to athletes who qualify for in-state tuition.Originally posted by pogo View Post
Because of this about half the roster is Kansas kids. One of the things that I like about WSU track and field its that these kids are truly student athletes and the team always has a home grown flavor with a lot of small town representation as well.
Now the extension of in-state tuition status along the I-35 and I-70 corridors and the 33% discount to any Missouri resident should help expand the effective recruiting foot print. I am also hopeful the new Student Athlete Center building will give recruiting a bit of a boost. From what I understand our track and field facilities are not anything to write home about.
Nevertheless, it may not be the wisest approach allocate too many resources into Houston's wheelhouse although 1 or 2 sprinters who could score points and help with the relays wouldn't hurt. Coach 'bolt has been very successful with his approach of developing a strong multi-event program and building depth across as many events as possible. He also has been very good and plucking hidden gems out of small towns and developing then into very competent competitors.
As Coach 'bolt was quoted this weekend:
I think he may tweak his approach around the edges but at this point I don't see him making any major changes to how he approaches building a track and field team and why would he based on the results he gets."Our philosophy is to build a team with depth and balance – to have good athletes in every event area and keep coming after you, event after event after event," Rainbolt said. "This is a tough league. A legitimately, upper-level league. So this means the world to me that our philosophy seems to hold true in a conference championship."Last edited by 1972Shocker; May 13, 2019, 11:16 AM.Comment
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Coach Rainbolt told me he hands out scholarships/partial scholarships based on possible points scored in the Conference championships, which seems very logical to me. If we just had one or two place in the sprints, we win, I think.Comment
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Depends on what, if anything, you would have had to give up with scholarship money allocated to get those sprint points. It might be better if we let the other schools try to take points away from Houston in the sprints while the Shocks continue to do their thing. We'll get a quality sprinter every now and then but not enough to make much of a dent in Houston's dominance. For example, in 2017 Mike Wells had a season best time of 10.32 which is the 4th best ever at WSU . That would have scored 2 points this year. In 2016 Tucker Davis ran the 3rd best time in Shocker history at 20.98 that would also have scored 2 points. Let's say to get those sprinters you lose out on a Zack Penrod who scored 14 points this year. We'll get our occasional sprinter who will be able to score in the sprints but I don't see that as being the Shocks bread and butter.
The Shocks had an outstanding meet but I think Taylor Eldridge hit the nail on the head in his report:
What hurt us pretty significantly in this meet was Isaiah Evan's failing to mark in the hammer and the injury to Austin Corley in the 4x400 relay. OTOH the Shocks picked up a lot of unexpected points in a number of events and with Houston's injuries almost pulled it off.The WSU men’s team made the team race closer than expected with Houston, the No. 8-ranked team in the country. The Cougars entered as heavy favorites, but a good meet from WSU and injury pull-outs from Houston led to a one-point race with Houston leading entering the final two events of the meet, the 5,000 and 1,600 relay.
However, injuries (I presume) did impact the Shockers to some degree in this meet. In addition to the injury with Corley the Shocks were without their 2nd best javelin thrower as sophomore Taran Taylor, who finished 2nd last year in the javelin behind Aaron True with a huge throw of 243-8, was out this season and they were without there 2nd best decathlete as sophomore Jake Horsch, who was 3rd in last year's decathlon with 7,080 points was also out this season. Haven't heard anything on what is going on with those guys but hopefully they will be back and fully healthy next year.
Obviously injuries can be a significant factor in track and field. Not sure whether they hurt Houston more or the Shockers more this year.
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However, otoh, with the I-35 corridor being added to in state costs, that should help us recruit Texas in the future, and go head to head with Houston for very good sprinters. Texas athletes can afford WSU on a par with other Texas Universities, and the distance to Wichita is far enough away but not too far for those athletes who want to get away from home.Originally posted by 1972Shocker View PostComment
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I guess I have to agree with that since I made that point a few posts ago.
As far as going head-to-head with Houston I don't see us winning too many of those battles and as long as Leroy Burrell and Carl Lewis are running that program and as previously stated Coach Rainbolt seems to be very satisfied with his approach to building a competitve team. Obviously he'll take a top sprinter if he can get one but he is not going to take a bet the farm approach on the sprints like Houston has.
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The American Athletic Conference has announced the winners of the 2019 Outdoor Track and Field Most Outstanding Performance awards, as student-athletes from Cincinnati, Houston, SMU and Wichita State collected honors.
https://goshockers.com/news/2019/5/1...rformance.aspx
https://theamerican.org/news/2019/5/...ce-awards.aspx
MEN’S OUTDOOR FIELD MOST OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE
Ben Johnson * Wichita State * R-Senior * Decathlon
After earning the conference’s Indoor Field Most Outstanding Performance honor in February, Johnson completes the sweep of the award in 2019, capturing the outdoor accolade with the nation’s 18th-best decathlon score recorded at the conference’s title meet. Johnson punched his ticket to the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships after winning The American’s decathlon competition with a score of 7,413. Johnson’s points total is the second-most recorded at The American Outdoor Championships. He finished top three in all but one decathlon event, winning the shot put (14.15 meters) and pole vault (4.55 meters).
The top 24 marks in the nation qualify for the NCAA Championship. The GoShockers.com press release stated that will next be in action at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 5-8 in Austin, Texas so apparently it's now official that Ben is in.
I think Ben has more in him if he can stay healthy. In the AAC Championships I thought his pole vault performance was a bit below average and looked like his elbow might have been bothering him a bit in the javelin although that may be something he will just have to deal with. Maybe the elbow bothered him in the pole vault as well. He is capable of breaking 7,500 points if he is on his game.
Here is a guy that I think has maxed out about every ounce of his god-given abilities and talent to get to this point.
It looks like a very formidable decathlon field this year. Ben needs a top 8 finish to earn 1st team All-American honors. That probably won't happen. However, a finish between 9th and 16th garners 2nd team All-American honors and I think that is a possibility for Ben if he is on.
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