Men's Indoor Track

[goshox74]

Check out a preview of the Men's Track and Field team Friday at the Heskett Center in their annual intersquad meet. Field events begin at 11am, running events at 1pm. Free admission!

Link to goshockers.com info ... http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...DB_OEM_ID=7500

[goshox74]

A season ticket punch pass is being offered for WSU's Track meets this year. It's a great deal, especially if you plan on attending the MVC Outdoor Championships in Cessna Stadium this spring. Only $15 and you can use it in a variety of ways. Check it out!

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205349424&DB_OEM_ID=7500

[goshox74]

The Shocker indoor season officially gets underway tomorrow night (Wednesday) and Thursday at the Heskett Center. Goshockers.com has put together a terrific "meet central" page that has all kinds of info including a link to live streaming video of the meet. Here is the link: http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...CLID=205357214

The men's team has some great athletes competing this year, hopefully they can get over the hump after 2 narrow MVC losses last year.

Wednesday night admission is free, Thursday is only $3.

[goshox74]

The WSU men's T&F team easily won their season opener with 231 points over Emporia St (155), Oral Roberts (146), Fort Hays (116), and Butler Co. (36).

Highlights from the Herm Wilson Inv at the Heskett Center ...
---Seniors Lawson Montgomery and Todd McKown both broke the previous facility records in the 60 hurdle prelims, then Montgomery came back to win the final in 7.95 while McKown was not able to finish with an injury. Hopefully the defending MVC champ isn't out for long.
---Senior Dylan Hartnett looked strong in winning the 200m (22.20) and leading off the 4x4 which ended up 2nd.
---Junior Tomas Cotter and sophomore Ryan Hocker went 1-2 in the 1000m (2:29, 2:32). They both looked very good in this race.
---Junior Jake Wike ran away with a huge win in the mile. His 4:14 was a Heskett Center record.
---Junior Brandon Childs lost a great battle in the high jump but his 6-10 clearance is the early MVC leader.
---Shocks go 1-2-3 in the men's shot put with sophomore Chris Dubree winning (50-6).

[WuDrWu]

As always '74, great update and thanks!

What do you think of the men's team, specifically, are they going to be able to compete more closely with the top of the Valley in the distance events and strength events......events we've struggled to score at the Valley meets in the last few years?

[goshox74]

WuDrWu, thanks!

I think that the Shocks will do better than recent history in the distance and throws but I wouldn't expect any dominance. The improvement in men's cross country from 7th to 4th this year is part of the progress and I'd say the strongest part of that crew is the 800/1500 guys mentioned above. Cotter could really be a stud. As for the throws, Coach Hetzendorf brought in a lot of new guys this year but I wouldn't expect any immediate results this year except for possibly a few points in the shot put. Outdoor WSU is always strong in the javelin and they should continue that tradition with the JUCO national champ added to the squad.

Not sure if you've noticed but the women's throwing events in the MVC is the top conference in the nation. If you take a look at the national list the MVC is 1-2 in the shot put and 1-2-3-6-10 in the weight throw. AMAZING!

Here is that list: http://www.tfrrs.org/lists/769.html?gender=f#68

[goshox74]

Not a great weekend for the men's team, they are battling some injuries - most specifically MVC hurdle and 200m champion Todd McKown - and finished 5th at Nebraska. Tough field as Nebraska is ranked #5, Iowa #16, and Houston is very good as well. Highlights:

---Lawson Montgomery is running amazingly consistent in the 60m hurdles. Here are his times this year: 7.95, 7.95, 7.95, 7.96, 7.97, 8.00. Pretty crazy. He also ran a nice 200m in 22.02 and looks to be stepping up in McKown's absence.
---Backing up LM was Cory Beenken who ran 8.12 in the 600m hurdles and 22.46 in the 200m. Both nice PR's.
---Tomas Cotter blazed a 4:10 mile, stamping himself as the top newcomer on the team and one to watch this year. Outdoor he is a very good steeplechaser as well.
---Dylan Hartnett opened up his 400m season with a 48.68 to put him #2 on the MVC list. Freshman Alex Reed ran a nice 49.39 as well.

Light week for WSU coming up as only a few athletes will compete at KU Friday. Hopefully they will continue to get healthy in the coming weeks.

[1972Shocker]

Thanks goshox74. What is going on with Todd McKown injury wise? Hamstring?

[goshox74]

Heel bruise I believe, which isn't good for a hurdler. He may be back for the next home meet next weekend but not sure.

[goshox74]

The Shocks will be hosting a great track meet this weekend at the Heskett Center. Teams coming will be Oklahoma, UT-Arlington, Sam Houston St, UMKC, and Doane College. It's a 2-day meet with most of the running events on Saturday afternoon. It would be a great way to spend your Saturday before heading to the Shocker basketball game! This will be your last chance during the indoor season to see stars like Lawson Montgomery, Dylan Hartnett, and Todd McKown compete at home!

Here is the info for the meet ... http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...CLID=205318453

[goshox74]

The Shockers showed a lot of improvement this past weekend as they won their home Varsity Apartments Invitational with 163 points over UT-Arlington (109), Doane (86), Sam Houston (68), and UMKC (38).

---Lawson Montgomery had another great meet, running a season best 7.89 in the 60h and placing 4th in the 200m (22.29).
---Dylan Hartnett won the 400m (49.00) and anchored the winning 4x400m relay to end the meet.
---In the most exciting race of the day, Jake Wike came from way back to win the 800m in 1:53.16. What an exciting finish!
---Freshman Sterling Spencer looked impressive in winning the 3000m in 8:38.77. Great to see the freshman distance kid take the victory!
---Todd McKown was back in action, and although he wasn't 100% he still finished 3rd in the 60m hurdles. Good to see him back.
---Chris Dubree had a big PR of 55-5.5 to win the Shot Put.
---Austin Bahner and Aaron Young both scored over 5300 points to lead a strong Heptathlon competition for the Shocks.

The competition will get much stronger this week as WSU travels to Northeast Ohio to take part in the SPIRE Collegiate Invitational with several of the top teams in the NCAA. This will be the final major competition until the MVC Indoor Championships in just over 2 weeks. Indiana State and SIU look to be the favorites in the Valley right now but this men's team is improving at the right time, hopefully they will challenge for the title!

[goshox74]

Nice to see Jake Wike (Derby HS) named the MVC Track Athlete of the Week for his 4:08 mile and 2:24 1000m efforts, here are some other highlights from the Shockers who went to Ohio this past weekend ...

---Tomas Cotter had a nice double with 2:26 in the 1000m and 8:24 in the 3000m.
---Dylan Hartnett tied his own school record in the 400m (47.91) and added a 21.80 in the 200m. He also had an exciting anchor leg on the 4x4 than ran 3:16.01.
---Lawson Montgomery had another very good weekend placing 4th in a loaded hurdle field with a season best 7.88. He also ran a PR 21.81 in the 200m and the 4x4.
---Todd McKown continues to round back into shape with 8.06 and 8.08 hurdle runs.
---Jeff Connor had a huge PR in the weight throw of 59-10.

This weekend is low-key as some athletes will go to Nebraska and some to K-State Friday for a final tune-up before next week's MVC Indoor Championships.