Men's Indoor Track thread

[goshox74]

Thought I'd get this started since the T&F teams have their annual Intersquad Meet Friday in the Heskett Center. If you're on campus for the women's or men's bball games you should swing by the Heskett between games to check out this year's teams.

One of the hidden gems of the athletic department and one of the main reasons WSU has been so successful in winning the all-sports trophies recently is the track teams. They have 6 home meets this year so lots of opportunities to see them!

The men are coming off winning both the indoor and outdoor MVC championships and should be strong again this year. Come check them out!

[goshox74]

Shocker men win their season opener at home scoring 159 points beating back D2 #7 Emporia State (142), Sam Houston (124), and Oral Roberts (80). It was a solid opening meet for WSU, here are some of the highlights .....

-Dylan Hartnett looked good in winning the 200m (22.28) and anchoring the 4x4 team to an easy win (3:16). The Shox graduated a bunch of 400 guys last year but it appears their 4x4 team will stay strong with some new additions.
-Jake Wike looked strong with an easy in in the 1000m (2:31) by about 4 seconds. He may be someone to watch out for in the distance races this year!
-Newcomer Lawson Montgomery (transfer from KU) won the 60m hurdles in 8.01, beating teammate Todd McKown (8.16), who won the MVC title last year. Looks like a big year in store for the hurdlers with several others running strong!
-Brandon Childs had a nice meet going 6-10 in he HJ and 23-2 in the LJ as well as running the 60m (made the final) for the first time.
-Good news/bad news - Tyler Simmons jumped 24-3 in the LJ Wednesday night but sprained his ankle on his final jump and was on crutches the next day. Hopefully he'll recover quickly because the all-American is an important part of the team's success.
-Josh Crawford won a terrific TJ competition on his final jump (51-0)!
-Freshman Jeff Conner had a nice debut in the SP (49-5 2nd) and Weight (49-0).

Next week the Shockers head to Nebraska for a little better competition against the Huskers, Missouri, Houston, and Air Force. Nice job Shox!

[goshox74]

Shocker men are a bit banged up right now and it showed in Nebraska. All-American Tyler Simmons didn't make the trip and top-10 NCAA ranked Josh Crawford (Triple Jump) was limited. Some good performances but I think these Shockers have some work to do. Indiana St is looking good so far as well as UNI and SIU.

Team Score: #17 Nebraska 179, Houston 134, Air Force 92, Missouri 68, Wichita St 50.

Highlights ....
-Men's hurdles dominate with Lawson Montgomery edging Todd McKown 7.90 to 7.93. LM also ran 7.88 in the prelims. Big time runs!
-Jake Wike runs 4:12 in his first mile of the year, nice run for the soph.
-Dylan Hartnett goes 2nd in the 400 in 48.37, his first run at that distance this year.

That's about it, hopefully the upcoming week off will do the Shocks some good. In two weeks they host the Shocker Quad, a meet that will include a heptathlon - one of WSU's strongest events.

[goshox74]

Shocks host their final indoor meet of the season Friday and Saturday at the Heskett Center. Here's a link to all the info for the meet --> http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...ATCLID=1584218

Swing by before the men's basketball game on Sunday and see some of the best athletes in the nation!

[1972Shocker]

Shocks host their final indoor meet of the season Friday and Saturday at the Heskett Center. Here's a link to all the info for the meet --> http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticl...ATCLID=1584218

Swing by before the men's basketball game on Sunday and see some of the best athletes in the nation!

I assume you mean on Saturday.

BTW, thanks for keeping us updated on the track teams performances and meets.

No disrespect to Doane College and Butler Juco, but is it that difficult to attract more than one other D-1 program to this meet?

[goshox74]

1972Shocker,
Thanks of course I should've said Saturday! :)

As for your question about getting more D1 teams at the meet. Short answer - yes. Long answer - I've heard Coach Rainbolt talk about K-State hosting multiple meets during the indoor season with ZERO D1 teams in attendance. To bring in lots of QUALITY D1 teams you have to give them guarantees ($$$), and in the world of track in the MVC not a lot of that is going on. There are a lot of NON-QUALITY D1 teams out there like Oklahoma State. Also while the Heskett Center is probably an above average indoor facility it doesn't compare to some of the tracks like Nebraska, Iowa St, Texas A&M, etc. Now for the outdoor season, I'm not sure if you've heard but Nebraska and UNI will be coming for the season opener and 5 of the best non-BCS D1 schools with be at Cessna Stadium April 30th for the BCS Buster Invitational. Hope this helps and believe me the WSU staff tries hard to bring in good competition for the home meets!

And fyi, Doane College has a really good team and provided more competition this weekend than many D1 schools in the area. Track is a little different in that respect than the more common team sports. Great question and I hope you make it out to many more meets this year!

As for the highlights ....
-The men lost a close team battle with UT-Arlington 169-155 with Doane and Butler trailing. The Shockers are still without all-American Tyler Simmons and top-MVC TJ'er Josh Crawford only sprinted. Both are dinged up with injuries.
-The highlight of the meet had to be Krzysztof Slupkowski's 5668 Heptathlon that broke Chris Dickman's school record (5652) from last year and put him #7 in the NCAA. What a great performance by Slup!
-Freshman Austin Bahner, who may break all the multi-event records before he's done, placed 2nd with 5173 in his first official Heptathlon with Jordan Zerr also scoring 5156. Once again it's going to be a great year for the men's multi's.
-Dylan Hartnett won an exciting 400m in 48.92, lots of beatin' and bangin' going on and DH survived it to the line first. He also ran the anchor leg on the 4x4 to bring back the Shockers to beat UTA at the line.
-Lawson Montgomery won his 3rd straight hurdle competition in 7.42 (55h) after blazing a 7.31 in the prelims to move into the top-20 nationally. Todd McKown finished 3rd in the hurdles and came back to run a very fast 200m dash in 21.66.
-Brandon Childs cleared 7-0.25 in the high jump to win the competition.

Other than that there were a lot of solid improvements for the Shockers up and down the line. Indiana State appears to be the favorite heading into the MVC in 3 weeks but the Shockers have made some headway and look to have a fighting chance. UNI and SIU also have very good teams and it could be a 4-way battle!

[ABC]

Thanks for all of the info.

I think if WSU finally makes a decision that football won't be coming back, then we should build a first-rate indoor track.

[goshox74]

Amen ABC!

[WuDrWu]

Personally, I'd like to see WSU/Bolt host a big time indoor event similar to a Millrose games of the midwest @ IBA.

Call me crazy, but I think it would work.


Krzysztof Slupkowski's 5668 in the Heptathlon puts him in the discussion for All America honors. It should be a fantastic battle for Valley champion with he and UNI star Daniel Gooris going head to head.

[goshox74]

WuDrWu, that would be awesome! I agree I think it would work too, being so centralized I think it could work. There would have to be some major sponsors step up to bring in a track (it would have to be built and taken down - not an easy task) but thats what places like Millrose do.

As for this weekend, the Shockers are quietly sneaking up on the rest of the Valley. The defending indoor and outdoor champs have been battling injuries but had some solid marks at Iowa State and Air Force. I don't have time to detail all of it but check out Goshockers.com for full details.

Just a couple things were Dylan Hartnett taking down the 400m school record and the hurdlers (McKown and Montgomery) running fast again.

Hopefully these guys will get healthy and give Indiana State, UNI, and SIU a run for their money in 2 weeks!