2023-2024 Men's XC and T&F

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

If Luke is close to as good as his brother he will be very good. Luke is quite a bigger than Joseph at 6-2, 180lb. Joseph was more like 5-9, 155 lbs. My guess is Joseph is quicker but Luke is more powerful. With Joseph a little better in the shorter races like the 60m hurdles and Luke perhaps will be better in the longer races. The 110m and 400m hurdles.

Luke's high school best times heading into his senior season are 14.40 in the 110m hurdles and 39.11 in the 300m hurdles. Joseph's high school bests in these 2 events were 14.23 and 38.42. So Luke still has some work to do to catch up to his smaller big bro. But he is not far behind heading into his senior year.

He is not quite at the level of Josh Parish and incoming freshman Assher Buggs-Tipton in the 110 hurdles but he is right there with Jason Parrish and Buggs-Tipton in the 300 hurdles. But if he shows he same determination and improvement his brother did than he will be quite good.

Luke also has a high school best long jump of 21-2. With this kids size and build it would not at all surprise me if Coach Rainbolt may have designs on developing Luke as a heptathete/decathlete. Although, Luke would have to be crazy enough and a glutton for punishment to want to volunteer for that. Since they are listing him as a hurdler on the signing announcement that probably is not in the cards.

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Highlights from the Ichabod Invitational (February 9-10)

This meet was populated mostly by D-II, NAIA, Juco programs. About the only other D-1 program I noticed was Western Illinois.

Brady Palen won the high jump winning the jump off with unattached jumper, Mayson Conner, at 2.13m/6'11.75" to set a new meet record. Brady is currently #2 on the AAC performance charts and should be in the hunt for an AAC Championship in this event in two weeks.

In the long jump, Yuben Goncalves jumped a personal-best 7.46m/24'5.75" to win the men's competition. That jump is 4th best in the AAC this year. Yuben has a history of coming through when conference championships roll around.

The men's distance medley relay team of Jacob Meyers, Bryan Haney, Brock Merz and Riley Vandaveer won the men's race in 10:09.53. That is the 2nd best time in the AAC this year but only four teams have run that event so far this year.

In the 4x400-meter relay, the Shocker men (Haney, Jason Parrish, JD Prinsloo and Trace Spires) clocked the seventh-fastest time in Shocker history at 3:14.29 to win the event. That time is 4th best in the AAC this year.

In the 400m race Spires recorded the ninth-best time in school history, 48.33, to finish second. However, it will probably take 47.8 or better to score at the AAC Championships.

In the men's 60-meter hurdles, Josh Parrish ran his sixth sub-eight second race, placing third with a time of 7.91, just 0.01 seconds off his personal best. Josh is currently #4 in the AAC in this event.

Jaleel Montgomery moved up the WSU 200 meters all-time list to eighth with a personal-best time of 21.66, finishing seventh. That time is only 12th best in the AAC this season so unlikely to be a scoring event for the Shocks.

In the men's 3,000-meter race, Adam Rzentkowski recorded the ninth-fastest time in program history, 8:16.50, to finish fourth. Adam currently sits 13th on the AAC charts in this event.

Wichita State will send a partial squad to the Arkansas Qualifier on Friday, Feb. 16 before heading to Birmingham, Ala. for the AAC Indoor Championships on Feb. 23-24.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocker men sent about 7 sprint and guys plus high jumper Brady Palen to the Arkansas Qualifier for a tune up before next weeks AAC Indoor Championships on Friday and Saturday at the CrossPlex in Birmingham.

The Shockers' freshman twins Josh and Jason Parrish rank in the 200m dash and in the 60m hurdles. Jason set a new personal best of 22.12 in the 200 and Jason, running his first collegiate indoor 200 ran a 22.21. Neither of the times are good enough to score at the AAC Championships. The need to lower those by almost a 2nd to be competitive at the top of the AAC. But running a 200 indoors is a different animal and I am not sure how much experience Jason and Josh have running on a banked track indoors.

In the 60m hurdles Jaleel Montgomery qualified for the finals where he ran a 7.89. A good time but a tenth of a second off his best time. Josh ran an 8.03 in the prelims and just missed qualifying for the 8-man finals. For the season Jaleel has the best time in the AAC at 7.79 and Josh has the 4th best time of 7.90. Sounds like a good tune-up.

Brady cleared 6-10.75 to finish 3rd in the high jump. That's a good jump but he has cleared 7-1.5 this year. But hopefully it was a good tune-up. Brady will want to get over the 7-foot mark in Birmingham next week so lets hope he is ready to go.

[1972Shocker]

[SubGod22]

Nice to see another Circle kid join the Shocker T&F family!

[1972Shocker]

Looks like Blake's best times (heading into his senior season)Bal are 4:39.92 in the indoor mile; 1:57.74 in the outdoor 800; 4:19.96 in the outdoor 1600m time and 9:36.51 in the outdoor 3200m race.

His time in the 1600m converts to about a 4:20 1500m time.

Adam Rzentkowski has the best indoor mile time for the Shocks this year at 4:07.48. It takes 4:06.39 to be in the Shocker All-Time Top 10. The Shockers best distance guy, Adrian Diaz-Lopez is not running XC or Indoor track this year. Not sure what is the story with him. He is still listed on the roster. ADL has run a 4:01.10 in the indoor mile, just 0.02 seconds off the school record.

Blake's 800 time is only about 7 seconds outside of the Shocker All-Time Top 10 list.

Blake's estimated 1500m time of 4:20 is about 33 seconds outside the Shocker Top 10 lists.

Blake's high school times will no doubt improve this spring. Looks like a potentially strong middle distance guy (800m/1500m/mile).

[1972Shocker]

2024 AAC INDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP

I expect Coach Rainbolt will be out with his overview of the AAC Track and Field Championships which starts on Friday. Cincinnati and Houston finished 1-2 in last year's 8 team Championship. UCF, SMU, and Temple do not have Men's Track and Field teams. 4 of the 6 AAC newbies (Charlotte, Rice, UNT, and UTSA) do have Men's Track and Field teams so the meet will expand to 10 teams this year.

Based on the performance charts South Florida looks like a heavy favorite to win this year's championship replacing Houston as the dominant speed merchants of the league. Points will be a bit more spread out this year with the additional 2 teams.

Based on the performance charts here are the projected finishes for the men:
1. South Florida - 146
2. Charlotte - 104
3. UTSA - 86
4. Wichita State - 67
5. Rice - 63
6. Tulsa - 48
7. North Texas - 44
8. Memphis - 39
9. East Carolina - 37
10. Tulane - 29

Only 4 of the 10 teams have recorded times in the Distance Medley Relay so that event is a bit of a wild card. Although of the 4 Charlotte has by far the best time. The other wild card, as always is which athletes are healthy and which are banged up or not available due to injury.

The Shockers are missing Adrian Diaz-Lopez who would be in the for a championship in the mile and the 3k races. ADL has not competed in either XC or indoor track this year although still listed on the roster. Not sure what the story is with him. As it is the Shockers are not expected to score in those two events costing them 15-20 points.

The strongest events for the Shocker men are the 60m hurdles with Jaleel Montgomery and Josh Parish, the high jump with Brady Palen and possibly freshman Luke Czarnecki, the long jump with Yuben Goncalves, Adria Navajon and possibly freshman Josh Parish and the heptathlon with Adria Navajon, Hudson Bailey, Luke Porter and possibly Luke Czarnecki.

I am not sure how sound Adria Navajon is physically. Not sure he he has totally recovered from whatever was afflicting him in last spring's AAC outdoor championships.

It is Ironic, that UAB does not have men's track and field and UAB may very well finish at the bottom on the women's side while the event is being held in one of the best indoor track and filed venues in the country, The CrossPlex, located in Brimginham.

[1972Shocker]

Nice Article on Shocker senior Yuben Goncalves:

RH: Shocker Hurdler Turns Jumper Again This Weekend

The performance chart is everything for Wichita State track coaches in preparation for and during a conference championship meet. It tells them how their athletes match up across the conference and how to set and reset their entrants to pick up points.

Senior Yuben Goncalves doesn't want to know any of that. Is he ranked first or seventh in the long jump and triple jump? Who are his toughest opponents? He says he avoids that information.

"We all start from the same spot," he said. "Run and don't let anyone beat you. It's me vs. me."

Don't interpret his ambivalence toward the rankings as ambivalence toward the team standings. Goncalves is winding down his final college season and is invested in winning the American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships starting Friday in Birmingham, Ala.

"It's going to be a little bit emotional for me," he said. "I'm not going to cry, but it's going to be special."

While he is done with outdoor track eligibility, he stayed at Wichita State to compete in his final season indoors. His main event is the 400-meter hurdles, not an indoor event, and he hopes to make Portugal's Olympic team this summer.

To help the Shockers, he will compete in the triple jump and long jump (and perhaps the 1,600-meter relay) this weekend. In 2022 and 2023, he made his season debut in the jumps in the outdoor AAC championships and scored to help WSU win those titles.

He owns five all-conference finishes in his three events by finishing second in the triple jump three times, second in the long jump and third in the 400 hurdles.

[1972Shocker]

Among the guys I think my favorite "Of Course" was Ridge Estes at about the 48 second mark:

I'm a thrower, of course I get blamed first when the snacks go missing.

Why do I think Ridge doesn't get too much push back about that.

BTW, what happened to Ridges fellow junior thrower Matty Everett. Matty won the discuss at the 2022 AAC Outdoor Championships and finished 5th last year. Ridge finished 1 spot behind Matty in both years. Matty is not listed on this year's roster.

In fact, this looks like one of the thinnest throws rosters the Shockers have had in a long time. Only 3 throwers listed for the Shocker men:

Ridge Estes: Discus and Shot Put (although Ridge has not put the shot during this indoor season).

Creighton Camp: Shot Put, Weight Throw (Indoors), Hammer Throw and Discus.

Beau Kerschen: Shot Put, Weight Throw (Indoors), Hammer Throw

Camp and Kerschen look to be pretty mediocre and unlikely to score points in either the indoor or outdoor AAC Championships.

Quite surprisingly, it doesn't look like we have any javelin throwers on this year's roster. An event the Shockers have been very strong in the past.

Not sure what is going on with this part of the program but in the past we could usually count on some pretty good scoring from the throws group. This year not so much. That will hurt, especially when the outdoor season rolls around.

The women aren't much different with only 4 throwers. 3 of those appear to be pretty mediocre. Samantha Marx, a sophomore out of Andale, looks pretty strong in the javelin and perhaps has some potential in the hammer throw.

All in all though looks like the Shocks are about as weak as they have ever been in the throws. Not good for a team that has thrived on the field event in the past.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Seek High Team Finishes at AAC Indoor Championships

Based on the Championship Start Lists and the TFRSS Performance Charts the Shocks the Shocker Men are predicted to finish 6th among 9 teams.

SHOCKER PODIUM WATCH

• Jaleel Montgomery leads the conference in the 60-meter hurdles with a season- and personal-best time of 7.79, which he recorded at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational.
• Montgomery is the lone Shocker man to lead the AAC in an event going into the championship meet.
• Josh Parrish is seeded just outside the podium in the hurdles, ranking fourth with a time of 7.90 in the season opener. He is just 0.01 seconds behind East Carolina's Terence Booth.
• Only six athletes have run sub-eight seconds, and Parrish has run under eight seconds six times this season as a freshman.
• A men's 60-meter hurdles win would be the Shockers' first-ever AAC title in the event and first conference title (MVC) in the event since Todd McKown in 2012.
• Brady Palen ranks second in the conference in the high jump with a clearance of 2.17m/7'1.5", just one centimeter behind Rice's Ese Amata. Palen has finished second in the last two AAC indoor high jump competitions and seeks his first AAC title in the event.
• A high jump win would be the Shockers' first AAC title in the event and first conference title (MVC) in the event since Kerry Graber in 2013.
• Adria Navajon, the reigning AAC heptathlon champion, going back-to-back in 2022 and 2023, enters the meet seeded second behind Rice's freshman Vincent Arousell. Navajon's personal best from a season ago is better than Arousell's, so the title will go to whoever can put together a full multi.
• Hudson Bailey is ranked third in the heptathlon going into the meet and is looking for his first-ever conference podium finish.
• In the long jump, Shockers Yuben Goncalves and Navajon rank just outside the podium in fourth and fifth, respectively. UTSA's Gabriel Binion leads the conference in the event by a foot. Navajon placed fourth in the event in 2022 eighth last season.
• The Wichita State 4x400-meter relay team has finished third in the last two indoor championships after being seeded third in 2023 and sixth in 2022.

[1972Shocker]

AAC Indoor Heptathlon - Day 1

11 guys entered in the heptathlon (compared to 22 entered in the women's pentathlon). 4 of those are Shockers: Jr. Adria Navajon, Jr. Hudson Bailey, So. Luke Porter and Fr. Luke Czarnecki. Adria if fully healthy has a chance to win. But I do not know that is the case. Rice has 3 guys entered.

Event 1 - 60m Dash: Seems like they were about 45 minutes late in getting this started. Adria runs a very strong 6.92 seconds which is only 0.01 off his personal best to top the field and earn 911 points. Rice's 3 guys finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th for a strong start. Luke C, Luke P and Hudson finished 7th, 8th and 9th in this event. Luke C had ran a new PB 7.33 seconds.

Event 2 - Long Jump: Good result for Adria has he tops the field with a leap of 23-10.75 to take a 146 point lead over Rice's Vincent Arousell who had a decent pretty solid jump of 22-9.25. Hudson matched that 22-9.25 on his final jump and moved up from 9th place after the 60 into 4th place. Rice's Augustus Henry, who was in 2nd after the 60 failed to mark and has fallen to last place. Looks like he only took 1 of his 3 attempts and fouled. May indicate he was injured.

Event 3 - Shot Put: This is a pretty weak event for Adria and that is how it played out. Adria could only manage a put of 35-4.5 while Rice's Arousell uncorked a 44-3.5. That moves Arousell into 1st place 36 points ahead of Adria. The Shocks Hudson Bailey edges into 3rd place overall with a put of 39-3.

Event 4 - High Jump: Rice's Arousell extends his lead with winning jump of 6-7. Luke Czarnecki is 2nd at 6-6 followed by Adria Navajon at 6-4.75 and Hudson Bailey at 6-2.5.

At the end of Day 1:

1. Vincent Arousell - Rice 3,174
2. Adria Navajon - WSU 3,083 (-91)
3. Hudson Bailey - WSU 2,844 (-330)
4. Luke Czarnecki - WSU 2,757 (-417)
5. Phil Cotton - UNT 2632 (-542)

With 3 events left, which include the 60m hurdles, poke vault and 1000m run, it would appear to be a 2-man race for the top spot. It would be great if Hudson and Luke could hang on to the 3rd and 4th spots worth a combined 11 team points.

Best Marks for Vincent Arousell and Adria Navajon in the 3 remain events are:

60m Hurdles: Arousell 8.29; Navajon 8:04 (8:14 is his best this year)
Pole Vault: Arousell 13-11.25; Navajon 15-2.25 (14-9 is his best this year)
1000m Run: Arousell 2:47.73; Navajon 2:43.27 (2:52.51 is his best time this year)

Arousell is a freshman so all his marks are also season bests.

If both Arousell and Navajon hit their season best marks Arousell would hang on to win by 31 points.

However, if Navajon can match Arousell's time in the 1000 and they both hit their season best marks in the hurdles and vault Navajon would win by 21 points. Again I am just not sure how sound Adria is right now.

[1972Shocker]

AAC Indoor - Other Events - Friday

Mile Prelims: Jr. Adam Rzentkowski ran a PR of 4:07.43 to finish 8th and qualify for the 12-man finals.

High Jump: Rice's Ese Amata who opened the competition at 6-9 which he cleared on his 3rd and final try. The Shocks' Brady Palen opened up at 6-7.5 and made that on his first try. Brady then cleared 6-9 on his first try. Brady cleared 6-10.75 on his first try while Amata missed all 3 attempts to give Brady the AAC Championship win. Brady 7-0.25 on his 2nd try and a season best 7-1.75 on his 3rd try before missing all his first 2 attempts at 7-2.5 and the passing on a 3rd atempt. Congratulation to Brady who had to wait for USF's NCAA national high jump champion, Romaine Beckford, to move on to get his shot at the gold and he took advantage of it. Fr. Luke Czarnecki cleared 6-7.5 to finish 3rd to pick up an unexpected 6 points to go along with Brady's 10 points. Luke was awarded 3rd, I guess, for only missing once at 6-7.5 vs 2 other athletes that missed twice before clearly that height.

60m Hurdle Prelims: One of the Shockers better events in terms of depth. Jaleel Montgomery (8.0), Adria Navajon (8.14) and Josh Parish (8.14) all qualify for Saturday's 8-man final.

60m Dash Prelims: Jaleel Montgomery runs a personal best 6.82 but unfortunately not good enough to qualify for the 8-man final in this speedy league. South Florida had the top 4 qualifying times. North Texas and East Carolina each had 2 qualifiers. Jaleel missed qualifying by 0.05 seconds.

Weight Throw: Junior Creighton Camp came in as the 10th seed a good 4.5 feet behind the 8th seed and was not being counted on to score. But he let loose with a personal best mark of 57-2.75 to finish 6th and chip in 3 points to the Shocker kitty.

800m Run Prelims: Freshman Jacob Meyer finished 2nd in his heat to qualify for Saturday's 8-man final with a time of 1:53.93.

Long Jump: Adria Navajon jumped a season best 24-2.5 to finish 5th, Yuben Gocalves jumps 24-1.75 to finish 6th and Josh Parish jumps 23-8 to finish 8th as the Shock pickup 8 points. UTSA went 1,2,3 and 7 in this event to score 26 points.

5000m Run: Shocks freshman Aidan Reyna ran a new PB of 14:43.53 finishing just outside the scoring in 9th place.

DMR: The Shockers finish 4th in a time of 10:02.72 with Jacob Meyers (1200) to Trace Spires (400) to Brock Merz (800) to Adam Rzentkowski (1600).

[1972Shocker]

AAC Indoor Heptathlon - Day 2

At the end of Day 1:
1. Vincent Arousell - Rice 3,174
2. Adria Navajon - WSU 3,083 (-91)
3. Hudson Bailey - WSU 2,844 (-330)
4. Luke Czarnecki - WSU 2,757 (-417)
5. Phil Cotton - UNT 2632 (-542)

60m Hurdles: Adria wins the 60 hurdles in 8.22 for for 927 points. Not his best time but not bad. More importantly Arousell ran an 8.62, well of his best time for 832 points. Adria picks up 95 points to move back into first by 4 points. Hudson Bailey was finished 2nd with an 8.31 second time. Luke C ws 5th at 8.81.

Pole Vault: Adria clears a season best 14-+11 for 775 points with Arousell matching his season best of 13-11.25 as Adria picks up another 87 points to extend his lead to 91 points heading into the final event. Hudson matched his PB with a vault of 13-11.25.

Adria has done exactly what he needed to in the first two events. Now he just needs to stay relatively close to Arousell in the 1000m run to win another AAC heptathlon championship.

1000m Run: Adria gets it done as he runs a 2:48.34 which was a fraction ahead of Arousell who ran a 2:48.37 with both guys scoring 783 points.

Final Results:
1. Adria Navajon- WSU 5,568
2. Vincent Arousell - Rice 5,477 (Impressive outing for a freshman)
3. Hudson Bailey - WSU 5,048
5. Luke Czarnecki - WSU 4,705
7. Luke Porter - WSU 4,557

Really good result for the Shocks. 22 team points. Congratulations to Adria who won his 3rd consecutive AAC Heptathlon Championship. The 5,568 was a little below his previous two championships but I think Adria may still be operating at a little less than 100% after finishing last year's outdoor season pretty banged up.

[1972Shocker]

AAC Indoor - Other Events - Saturday

60m Hurdles: Jaleel Montgomery was disqualified for grabbing a hurdle. That's a new one for me. Josh Parish finished 5th running an 8.04 for 4 points and Adria Navajon picked up a couple points with a 7th place finish with an 8.22. So that did not work out as well as the Shockers hoped for.

800M Run: Freshman Jacob Meyers finished 5th with a new personal best time of 1:52.12 which is about .2 of a second shy of making the Shocker All-Time Top 10 list. Nice work by the freshman.

4x400 Relay: The Shocks with a nice 3rd place finish with a season best time of 3:14.08. Joakim Generoux to Jason Parrish to Bryan Haney to Trace Spires. That is the 7th best time in school history.