2023-2024 Men's XC and T&F

[1972Shocker]

Friends is hosting its First Chance Qualifier at the Heskett Center today. This is mostly NAIA and Juco athletes with a few D-II athletes with some of the Shockers' not ready for prime time athletes competing as the Shockers top athletes will be in Lawrence on Friday for the annual KU-KSU-WSU Triangular.

One thing I did notice was that Joseph Holthusen, competing unattached, easily had the fastest qualify time in the 60 meter hurdles at 7.96. I had thought that Joseph had completed his eligibility but he is listed on the Shocker roster as a redshirt senior. However, in looking at his bio I think that may only apply for the outdoor season and he has used up all his indoor eligibility. That would explain why he is running unattached in this meet and not running in the KU-KSU-WSU Triangular.

Looks like a few decent performances in the middle distance races for 3 true freshmen. Landon O'Neill, out of Andover Central, finished a close 2nd in the mile run at 4:26.71. That's 20 seconds away from the Shocker Top 10 list.. Brendan Kerr, out of KC Rockhurst, finished 3rd in the 600y race with a time of 1:24.04 which is about 11 seconds off of a WSU Top 10 time and Colin Graham, out of Rockford (MI) HS, won the 800m run with a time of 1:59.18. about 7 seconds off of a WSU Top 10 time. Seems like a pretty decent start for these newcomers. Perhaps worth following their progression as Shockers.

[1972Shocker]

KU-KSU-WSU Triangular - Notable Shocker Performances

The Triangular marks the only meet of the season that is scored as combined co-ed teams with a mixed 4x400-meter relay to finish it out.

The meet will be scored using the 7-5-4-3-2-1 system with only two athletes per team able to score in each event.

Men's Long Jump: Freshman Josh Parish, out of Olathe North, won the long jump with a leap of 23-03.25 with senior Yuben Goncalves also jumping 23-03.25 good for 2nd place (4 fouls on 6 jumps vs 2 for Josh).

Men's High Jump: Junior Brady Palen finished 2nd in the high jump with a solid season opening jump of 7-0.25.

Men's 60m Hurdles: Josh Parish double up with a win in a meet record time of 7.90 seconds which is the 6th fastest time in WSU history. Junior Jaleel Montgomery, out of Wichita West, was close behind at 7.93, also breaking the previous meet record and moving from 10th into 7th on the WSU All-Time Top 10 list in this event.

Men's 60m Dash: Jaleel Montgomery picks up his 2nd runner-up finish with a solid time of 6.88 seconds.

Men's 200m Dash: While not Jaleel Montgomery's best event he did manage to come in 3rd to raise his point contribution on the day to 14 which matches Josh Parish's total.

Men's 3000m Run: Jr. Zander Cobb finished in 8:26.15 setting a new personal best by about 10 seconds and So. Cesar Ramirez 4th in 8:33.97 setting a new personal best by about 12 seconds.

KU came out on top in the combined men's and women's score with 245.5 points, KSU was 2nd with 228 points while the Shocks finish with 190.5 points. The Shocks scored 198 points in this meet last year.

The Shocker men contributed 106.5 points and the women contributed 84 points.

[WstateU]

[1972Shocker]

Not sure how far back you would have to go to find a Shocker freshman debut to match this by Josh Parrish. Not sure there is one.

[WstateU]

[SubGod22]

Just a few other things from the past week or so

He finished right behind Josh Parrish (7.90)

[1972Shocker]

Buggs-Tipton has a high school best time in the 110m hurdles of 13.87 set as a junior last spring. By comparison current Shocker freshman standout, Josh Parrish had a high school best in the 110H of 13.92.

Josh's twin brother, Jason, was 2-time Kansas state champ in the 300m hurdles with a high school best time of 38.16. Buggs-Tipton's best time going into to his senior season is 38.33.

Buggs-Tipton also looks to be pretty solid in the long jump and the triple jump.

Would seem to be a very good get for Coach Rainbolt.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks are competing today in the Mark Colligan Memorial hosted by Nebraska.

In the 60m hurdles prelim junior Jaleel Montgomery qualified 1st with a new PB of 7.87 which moves him into a 5th place tie all-time with Lawson Montgomery (no relation). Jaleel, Josh Parish (8.01) and Adria Navajon (8.12) will all move on to the 8-man final.

Jaleel followed that up by winning the finals and improving his time to 7.79 secconds and is now tied for 3rd best All-Time at Wichita State. Freshman Josh Parrish finished 2nd at 7.96 and Adria Navajon was 4th at 8.19.

In the mile run junior Adam Rzentkowski set a new PB with a time of 4:08.16 beating his previous best time by 8 seconds in a winning effort. Adam needs to get around 4:06.30 to break into the Shocker All-Time Top 10. Redshirt freshman Jacob Meyers finished 5th with a new PB of 4:12.44.

Jaleel Montgomery struck again with a new PB of 21.68 in the 200 which is the 4th best time in the AAC this season and moving Jaleel into the Shokcer All-Time Top list at #9. Joakim Generoux recorded his season best of 21.87 which is 7th best int the AAC so far this season.

Freshman Colin Graham ran his initial indoor 3k in 8:31.57 to finish 3rd. That is the 10th best time in the AAC this year. Good event debut for the freshman.

Brady Palen cleared 7-0.5 to win the high jump. That ties Brady for the top spot in the AAC this year.

Trace Spires, RJ Hutchinson, JD Prinsloo and Joakim Generoux clocked in at 3:16.79 in the 4x400 which is 4th best in the AAC this year.

[1972Shocker]

Jaleel in Lane 4 and Josh in Lane 6:

[SubGod22]

Go Shockers - Montgomery, Palen Named AAC Athletes of the Week

The American Athletic Conference announced Jaleel Montgomery and Brady Palen as the AAC Track and Field Athletes of the Week Tuesday afternoon.

Montgomery claimed his first AAC Track Athlete of the Week award following his personal best performances at the Mark Colligan Memorial.

The junior from Wichita won the 60-meter hurdles with a conference leading time of 7.79, which now ranks him 27^th in the NCAA and third all-time in Shocker history. He went on to finish second in the 200-meter dash, running 21.68, which ranks him fourth in the conference and ninth all-time in school history.

Palen, the junior from Beloit, Kan., earned his fourth AAC Field Athlete of the Week award and first of the season, clearing 2.15m/7'0.5" to win the Mark Colligan Memorial high jump and tie for the conference lead. His mark currently ranks 25^th in the NCAA.

The Shockers return to the track Thursday through Saturday at home for the Wilson Invitational in the Heskett Center.

[1972Shocker]

Wilson Invitational to Honor Longtime Coaches Herm and Pat

Wichita State track and field is set to host the biggest meet the Heskett Center has ever seen with 29 teams and 891 athletes competing over the course of three days. That said this is pretty much a Juco, NAIA and D-II meet. Looks like Wichita State may be the only D-1 program with athletes competing. So perhaps mostly a recruiting event as far as Wichita State is concerned.

This is not exactly what I would describe as a fan friendly meet. For example in the 60m dash there are 12 heats for the women and 21 heats for the men. In the 200 there are 16 heats for the women and 19 heats for the mean.

With its current indoor facilities Wichita State is unlikely to draw much interest from other D-1 programs.

Wichita State will not compete its full team as a handful of athletes will use this week as a rest week before competing at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Feb. 2-3.

The meet, previously named the Herm Wilson Invitational, will be called the Wilson Invitational starting this year, to honor Wichita State's longtime pole vault coach Pat Wilson, who passed away this past August, as well as longtime head cross country and track and field coach Herm Wilson.

Brady Palen, who is tied for the top mark in the AAC this season, is competing in the high jump.

The Parrish Twins, Josh (#2 in the AAC) and Jason, are both running in the 60m hurdles.

Josh Parrish and Yuben Goncalves, #6 and #7 in the AAC, are competing in the long jump.

Adam Rzentkowski, # 5 in the AAC in the indoor mile, will be running in the 3k race.

[1972Shocker]

Steve Fritz Men's Heptathlon - Hosted By K-State (Feb 1st and 2nd)

Wichita State is sending four men to compete in the heptathlon as Adria Navajon, the reigning American Athletic Conference heptathlon champion will compete in his second multi-event competition of the year after winning the Shocker Multi with 5,200 points. Hudson Bailey, Luke Porter and Luke Czarnecki will also complete their second heptathlon of the season.

The Shockers will compete against athletes from Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Miami (Fla.) and Hendrix.

Day one of the heptathlon begins Thursday at noon and day two of the heptathlon starts Friday at 11 a.m.

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Looking forward to see if junior Adria Navajon is getting better physically. He was really banged up by the end of last year's outdoor season as he hobbled through the decathlon at the AAC Championships. He wasn't at full strength/speed when he won the Shocker Multi event with 5,200 points to open the indoor season this year. Avoiding and battling through injuries appears to the the bane of and challege for multi-athletes.

Junior Hudson Bailey scored 5,186 points at the Shocker Multi to open this year's indoor season. Would like to see continued growth from him. Another 200 points would put him in the Shocker All-Time Top 10 list for the heptathlon.

Sophomore Luke Porter has a PB of 4,752 points and freshman Luke Czarnecki scored 4,432 points in his collegiate debut in the heptathlon in the season opening Shocker Multi event.

[1972Shocker]

Coach Rainbolt and Coach Hetzendorf may have reeled in top notch spear chucker for the Shocks.

The two best javelin throwers in Shocker history are Taran Taylor (258-5) out of Arkansas City and Aaron True (254.3) out of Leroy. Bronson Krainak is not a small town Kansas kid but he is a small town Pennsylvania kid. Danville, PA has a population of 4,200.

Taran's high school best was 186-4 and Aaron's high school best was 202-0. Bronson's high school best so far 200-4 and I assume he has more opportunities to improve on that this spring.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/408730472520879/posts/6415023915224808/

[1972Shocker]

Steve Frits Heptathlon Results:

In the 60 yard dash Adria Navajon ran a 7-flat to finish 2nd. That's a solid mark good for 882 points. Adria's PB in this event is 6.91.

Hudson Bailey not listed in the results so he apparently is not competing as planned and Luke Porter is listed as a Did Not Start in this event. Freshman Luke Czarnecki ran a 7.43 good for 736 points. That's a new PR for Czarnecki.

Long Jump: Adria wins the event with a very respectable leap of 23.875 good for 869 points Adria's PB in the LJ is 24-4.25. Luke had a jump of 20.775 good for 650 points. After 2 events Adria has a slight 7 point lead over Miami's Edgar Compre at 1751 to 1744. Luke is in 6th place in what is a 8-man field.

Shot Put: Not a strong event for Adria and he did not have a good result finishing 8th with a put of 33-6 netting only 498 points. Miami's Campre had a very good put of 47-8.75 to score 762 points to move into 1st place after 3 events with 2,506 points. Adria falls to 3rd place with 2,249 points.

High Jump: Historically a strong event for Adria as he has a PB of 6-8.75. No today as Adria is only able to clear 6-.05 for 661 points and is in 5th place at the end of day 1. Makes me think his injury woes may not be behind him.

On Friday Adia ran a decent 8.14 in the 60m hurdles and cleared 14-9 in the pole vault but opted out of the the final event in the heptathlon, the 1,000m run.

Czarnecki had an 8.85 in the 60m hurldles and then opted out of the pole vault and the 1,000m run.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Wrap Up Husker Invitational

Brock Merz broke the Wichita State 600-meter school record at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational Friday and Saturday in the Bob Devaney Sports Complex. Merz won his section of the 600 meters, placing fourth overall with a school record-breaking time of 1:20.74.

A little hard to evaluate this time since the 600 meter race is not a real common race and, in fact, is not listed among the events on the Shockers All-Time Top 10 Lists. However, this time converts t about a 1:52 to 1:54 800m run which would be just outside a Top 10 Shocker time in the 800. Interestingly, Brock, a junior transfer from Emporia State, is primarily a hurdler. But maybe he can add the 800 to his repertoire of events.

Wichita State hurdlers Josh Parrish and Jaleel Montgomery were the lone Shockers to make it out of the day one 60m hurdle preliminaries, running 7.97 and 8.01, respectively, to qualify to Saturday's final. Parrish matched his prelim time in the final to place fifth and Montgomery ran 8.08 to place seventh. Parrish has now run sub-eight seconds in five races as a freshman. He also went on to place sixth in the long jump with a personal best of 7.15m/23'5.5" and ninth in the triple jump with a personal-best mark of 14.09m/46'2.75".

On the AAC performance charts Josh is #3 in the 60m hurdles, #8 in the long jump and #13 in the triple jump. Jaleel is #1 in the 60m hurdles.

Brady Palen placed third in the high jump with a season-best jump of 2.17m/7'1.5", the second-highest jump in the AAC this year and the No. 20 mark in the nation.

In the men's 3,000 meters Zander Cobb finished fifth with a personal-best time of 8:19.93. That is #12 on the AAC Performance charts.

Adam Rzentkowski ran a personal best in the mile, finishing fifth in 4:07.48, while assistant coach and Shocker alumnus Adam Moore took the win in 4:01.72. Adam's time is #7 in the AAC so far this year.