2017-18 Shocker Men XC and Track & Field

[1972Shocker]

Wichita State's cross country teams will open its seasons with a home contest Saturday morning at the 69th Annual J.K. Gold Classic at the Four Mile Creek Resort - formerly R.A.F.T. Course.

The field this year is actually one of the better fields this tournament has hosted. Typically this is the opening race of the WSU XC season and has usually consisted of WSU, mostly smaller colleges and jucos. This year a very strong Missouri team, K-State and Missouri State will all have teams in the field.

The Shocker Men return four of their top five runners from last year's team that finished 2nd in the Valley. So the Shocks have good depth on the men's team. What the quality of that depth is remains to be established.

GoShockers.com Preview

Wichita Eagle Preview

[1972Shocker]

Wichita State's men's team defeated Missouri 23-33, and Kansas State 15-46 to win the 69th Annual J.K. Gold Classic.

Shocker senior Joe Harter finished first overall with a time of 18:21.3. Shocker senior Nathan Wickoren, who was running unattached, ran 18:26.4 to finish second.

[1972Shocker]

Wichita Eagle Article on the J.K. Gold Races

As Hunter expected, the Shockers showed solid depth. Eleven Shockers, five running unattached, finished in the top 20.

Some nice coverage by the Eagle and Paul for the XC athletes and programs.

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Sr. Joe Harter was named the American Conference Male XC Athlete of the Week.

Way to go Joe!

:encouragement:

[1972Shocker]

This morning was the first time for the Shockers to race against American Athletic Conference foe, Tulsa. The Tulsa men entered the week No. 4 in the NCAA Midwest Regional Rankings and No. 21 nationally. Tulsa finished 15th in a mostly D-II field so I'm thinking they did not run their top guys.

Wichita St T&F/XC @GoShockersTFXC 2 hours ago

Shocker men finish with five runners in the top 15 to win the Southern Stampede. #watchus

[1972Shocker]

The AAC championships next Saturday in Philadelphia will be the first AAC postseason event for Wichita State.

Last week three of WSU’s top runners – Joe Harter, Zack Penrod, and Gage Garcia – were affected by sickness. Hunter thinks the time in between meets will help.

But if Wichita State runs near its peak, the men believe they have a chance to compete for a conference title.

[1972Shocker]

The Wichita State Flatlanders a/k/a the Shocker Cross Country teams will have their work cut out for them when the travel to Philly this Saturday for the AAC Cross Country Championship. When the course has hills named Flagpole Hill, Parachute HIll (a/k/s Suicide Hill) and Nursery Hill you know you are in for a challenge especially if your train and compete mostly in the flatlands of the Midwest.

Good luck to both the Shocker men and women but this sounds like it will be a real challenge for them.

In addition the men's team as battle quite a bit of illness this fall. The women's team is quite young and are not expect to compete at the top of the standings. This is primarily a learning experience for them.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocker men finished 5th in the 10 team AAC Championship filed today in Philly. Probably a bit of a disappointment for the Shocks but illness and injuries this fall definitely had a negative impact on the Shocks ability to compete. I'm sure the guys gave it everything they had,

[1972Shocker]

The Shocker multi-event athletes opened their indoor season today at the Wichita State Shocker Multi competition in the Heskett Center. Today the men competed in the first 4 events of the Indoor Heptathlon. The 60m dash, long jump, shot put and high jump.

Of course, all eyes will be on how does Shocker Sr. All-American Hunter Veith look heading into his final season as a Shocker.

After today's 4 events I would say he is looking pretty good. He is sitting at 3,409 points with the 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1,000m run on tap for tomorrow. Not sure how that 1st score compares to his previous best but looks pretty good to me. In fact, he not only has a shot at breaking his own school record of 5,813 points in the heptathlon but he has shot at breaking the 6,000 point barrier which obviously would make him the 1st Shocker in history to breach that rarified air.

Please lord keep this young man healthy this year. I would love to see how far a healthy Hunter Veith can go. He is a stud.

Shocker Jr. Ben Johnson is in 2nd place at 2,985 points and he has a shot a setting a new PR which is currently 5,304 points.

Shocker Jr. Kaden Grffin and Shocker Fr. Chandler Stiawalt had pretty decent 1st days as well scoring 2,899 and 2,808. I would think that Coach Rainbolt would be especially pleased with Chandler's score as a freshman especially his 6-6.25 high jump. Kaden and Chandler are both competing unattached so perhaps they are both redshirting this indoor season.

If you like Shocker teams that have local or in-state talent you will like these guys. Hunter is from Cheney, Ben is from Tonganoxie, Kaden is a Wichita South product and Chandler is from Ness City.

:poster_shocks:

[1972Shocker]

Oh my goodness. Hunter came within a gnat's eyelash of putting up a 6,000 point heptahtlon. He finishes his 1st heptathlon of the indoor season at 5, 998 points. Yep, he missed 6k by 2 lousy points. Still he set a new PR by 185 points, a new Wichtia State all-time best and he may very well already have a score that qualifies him for the NCAA National Championships (not sure about this latter point).

Hunter wasn't the only Shocker multi-eventer to PR. Jr. Ben Johnson broke his PR by 143 points at 5,447.

Kaden Griffin finished 3rd at 4,995. Fr. Chandler Stiawalt fell off the pace with poor showings in the 60m hurdles and pole vault (tough events for a newbie) and finished 5th as he was passed by fellow Shocker freshman Grant Downes.

http://results.tfmeetpro.com/Shocker_Track_Club/Wichita_State_Shocker_Multi/results_1.html

[1972Shocker]

Coach Rainbolt is very confident that Hunter's season opening performance probably locks him into a spot in the NCAA National Indoor Championships in the heptathlon and they will have a lot of flexibility on how they can train between now and March 9th.

[1972Shocker]

In a total non-surprise Hunter Veith is this week's American Athletic Conference Field Event Athlete of the Week. Hunter set a new Wichita State and a new AAC record with his 5.998 point heptathlon at the Shocker Multi in the Hesket center. Hunter's score converts to 6,023. I am not 100% sure about the conversion but my guess is the Heskett Center track is a bit undersized and this conversion is from an undersized flat track to a standard sized flat track. In any case, while very early in the indoor season this score is #1 in the nation.

[1972Shocker]

I didn't realize there was a magazine dedicated solely to the pole vault but I guess there is and the Shocker vaulters are on the cover the January 2018 issue.




http://vaultermagazine.com/january-2...e-on-sale-now/

The Shocker men shown above from left to right:

Bryce Bearden, FR, Platte City, MO (PR 14-10)
Zack Kudlinski, R-SO, Blue Springs, MO (PR 13-1.75)
Garrett, Kennedy, SO, Goodard, KS (PR 15-7.75)
Hayden Bugner, JR, Andale, KS (PR 16-4.75)
Hunter Veith, SR, Cheney, KS (PR 16-8.75) - Of course Hunter is known to particpate in a few other events as well
Eric Etie, FR, Keller, TX (PR 15-9)

[ShockTalk]

COOL!!!!! :wsu_posters::applause: