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**1972Shocker** · February 13, 2018, 10:10 AM

Also on Saturday Zach Penrod set a new PR in the indoor mile at 4:03.39 beating his previous best time by 3.5 seconds. That puts him 2nd on the AAC charts about 0.5 seconds behind Michael O'Donnell of UConn.

That time moves Zach into 3rd all-time at WSU behind Alan Walker 4:01.50 (1979) and .Azis Girts 4:01.80 (2008).

**1972Shocker** · February 21, 2018, 03:18 PM

Coach Rainbolt held a press conference on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming AAC Indoor Track & Field Championships this Friday and Saturday (Feb 23-24) in Brimhingham, AL.

On the men's side "We feel like we are in the hunt for a conference championship...We've got it out on a form chart and it looks like UConn and Houston are going to be tough opponents. Right now I would have to say those are the favorites to battle for first and second, but we're only 13 or 14 points behind."

He mentioned he was very excited to watch Hunter Vieth purue a Men's Indoor Heptathlon National Title (that will be March 21st and 22nd) but the article did not report anything on how Hunter will be used this weekend. Hunter would be the heavy favorite to win the AAC Heptathlon with teammates Ben Johnson (seeded #3), Jake Horsch (seeded #6) and Kaden Griffin (seeded #7) capable of scoring 21 points if they hold to form. Howevrer, Hunter is good enough in several events that he can potentially generate more points skipping the hetptathlon (and he is already safely qulaified for the Nationals) and competing in those individual events. Hunter would be the #2 seed in the 60H, the #3 seed in the long jump, the #5 seed in the pole vault, the #8 seed in the triple jump and the #9 seed in the high jump (any questions on this guy's athletic ability?). Based on previous comments from Coach Rainbolit this is what they plan on doing. Without Hunter the Shockers can score about 15 points in the heptathlon (they lose Hunter's 10 but the other 3 guys move up a spot) so they only lose 6 points. Hunter is capable of scoring around 20 points in the previously mentioned events. Not sure if he will do all 5 of them but I would guess he will do at least 4 of them.

Houston will dominate the sprints (the 60 and the 200) and Memphis also looks strong in those events. Houston will also probably win the 400 but are not as deep as they are in the shorter races. Memphis looks strong int he 400 with 3 of the top 8 times coming in.

In the midddle distance the Shockers will pin their hopes on Zack Penrod. Zack is seeded #6 in the 800 and #2 in the mile. I am assuming he will run both but there are no heat sheets that I can see yet. He would have to run 4 races as the trials are on Friday and the Finals on Satruday. The two events are about 2 hours apart. Reno Law might be able to sneak into the scoring for a point or two in the mile.

UConn looks strong in the 3k and 5k races as is Tulsa.

In the 60H I mentioned above that Hunter is the 2 seed.

The Shockers have the 2nd best time this year in the Distance Medley hehind UConn.

Miles Griffith (seeded #4), Austin Chippeaux (#7) and Hunter Veith (#9) will vie for points in the high jump. Kole Konrade (#10) would probably need a big PR to sneak into the scoring.

In the pole vault Hayden Bugner (seeded #3) and Hunter Veith (#5) will compete for points. Hayden has been a bit inconsistent this year and, of course, Hunter is not a specialist so he doesn't work on this event as much as the other guys who specialize in the event do.

The long jump could be a good event for the Shocks. Hunter is the #3 seed, Jared Belardo is the #4 seed and Rayon Allen is the #7 seed.

The triple jump will be very important to the Shocker cause. Jared Belardo is the #2 seed, Rayvon Allen #3, Kaden Griffin #4, and Hunter Vieth #8. I don't think Hunter works much on the triple jump since it is not an event in the heptathlon or the decathlon but it is something he did in high school and apparently he is still pretty good at it.

The Shockers will not be a factor in the Shot put but in the 35lb. Weight Throw Isaiah Evans has the 3rd best throw in the conference this year.

If they are going to win it they probalby need just about everyone to match the form chart and have a handful of guys setting new PR's. Odd's are against them pulling out a win but they should make a very representatvie showing.

**1972Shocker** · February 21, 2018, 04:20 PM

Here is the AAC preview of the meet: http://theamerican.org/news/2018/2/2...feb-23-24.aspx

Championship Central: http://theamerican.org/sports/2018/2...8.aspx?id=320&

The Birmingham Crossplex looks like a fantastic venue for Indoor Track: http://www.birminghamcrossplex.com/f...ack-and-field/

Looks like they will be running on a banked track (except for the 60m dash and the 60m hurdles for which they have 8 lanes in the infield).

I think Arkansas and Nebraska have bank tracks but I don't think many of our key athletes went to those meets. It will be interesting to see how running on this banked track iimpacts our performances in the running events.

**1972Shocker** · February 22, 2018, 11:58 AM

Here is a What to Watch For preview from GoShockers.com.

The artcile does confirm that Hunter Veith will not compete in the heptathlon, but will compete in the 60m hurdles, high jump, pole vault, long jump and triple jump.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 02:09 PM

The AAC could be doing a better job with their "live results" which aren't really live. They have done okay with the Women's Pentathlon but have reported nothing for the Men's Heptathlon even though the 2nd of two events was completed 30 minutes ago.

Very Misouri Valley like.

You can catch some updates on the Shocker's TFXC twitter page: https://twitter.com/GoShockersTFXC

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 02:14 PM

Zach Penrod won the mile qualifying race and Ben Flowers and Reno Law also qualified for the 12-man finals tomorrow.

UConn qualified 4 runners.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 02:16 PM

In the Heptathlon the men's long jump results are up but no scores for the 1st event the 60m dash. Shocks did okay in the long jump although Ben Johnson was well below his PR.

The Shocks did have 5 of the top 10 marks in the long jump.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 02:36 PM

Hunter Veith and Ben Johnson qualify for the 8-man final in the 60 hurdles. Louis Rivers missed qualifying by .03 of a second.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 02:43 PM

Sophomore Denvoir Griffin squeaked into the 60m finals qualfying 8th at 6.82 which is pretty fast. Got plenty of burners in the AAC. 4 of the 9 qualifiers were from Houston.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 03:24 PM

Ben Johnson won the heptathlon shot put and moves up to 4th place after 3 events. Shockers also sitting in 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th. Final event of Day 1, the high jump, remains.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 04:13 PM

25 runners were vying for 8 qualifyring spots in the men's 400m race. Shokcer So. Austin Corley won his heat with a very nice come from behind effort. Unfutuantley, his time was 9th best and he missed qulifying by .04 of a second. I kind of wonder if Austin may have ran his first lap just a bit too conservatively.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 04:17 PM

Jr. Hayden Bugner finsihed 3rd in the pole vault with a very nice jump of 16-8.25. I don't know how Hunter Veith did as the AAC hasn't posted the results although this event has been over for quite awhile now.

Update: Hunter did finish at 16-2.5. So the Shocks picked up 9 points in this event.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 04:22 PM

Zack Penrod did qualify for the 800m final at #7. So he will be in both the 1 Mile and 800 meter finals on Saturday. Reno Law finished in 9th about 1 second out of 8th and the last qualifying spot.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 06:24 PM

Ben Johnson finished 2nd in the heptathlon high jump with a PR of 6-6 to maintian his 4th place position at the end of Day 1. However, Cincy's Alex Bloom extended his lead at the end of Day 1 with a big 6-10.75 high jump.

Kaden Griffin is 6th, Davis Bahner is 6th and Jake Horsch is 10th for the Shockers.

Cincy's Bloom then came back to win the open high jump of 6-11.

The guys finish up tomorrow with the 60H, Pole Vault and 1,000M run.

**1972Shocker** · February 23, 2018, 06:44 PM

One event the Shocks hoped to do very well in was the long jump. Jr. Jared Belardo won the event with a 25-3.25 jump. Fr. Rayon Allen was 3rd, Sr. Hunter Veith was 4rh and Jr. Kaden Griffin was 8th. So the Shocks accumualted a total of 22 points.

Outstanding job on his interview by Jared.

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2017-18 Shocker Men XC and Track & Field

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