2018-19 Shocker Women XC and Track & Field

[1972Shocker]

With the Shocks pulling out the win at the AAC XC Championships by the narrowest of margins they needed the best team effort of the season. Everyone of the Top 5 Shockers scores was important. The Shocks beat Tulsa by 2 points and Temple by 4 points. Look at these runners bunched behind Winnie KIbet and Yazmine Wright and you get a feel for how on the edge this win was.

15 Winnie Kibet JR 00:23:28.09 Wichita State
16 Grace Moore JR 00:23:29.08 Temple
17 Kira von Ehren JR 00:23:31.49 Temple
18 Yazmine Wright SO 00:23:32.89 Wichita State
19 Alyssa Bolliger SR 00:23:34.74 Tulsa
20 Katie Leisher SR 00:23:36.31 Temple (6th best Temple time - not factored into scoring)
21 Alice Newcombe FR 00:23:39.94 Tulsa

SMU had the strongest Top 3 with a 2nd, 4th and 8th place finish but their 4th and 5th runners were 31st and 43rd.

Despite the great perfourmances by Winny, Rebekah, Winnie and Yazmine the Shocks don't get it done without Rita Schnacker finishing 27th or better. Rita finished 26th.

[1972Shocker]

Coach 'Bolt reflects on AAC XC Championship

https://shockertrack.smugmug.com/AAC-XC-Conference-2018/Coach-Bolt-Reflects-on-American-XC-Meet/i-wPqKb46

[1972Shocker]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1057712869742202882

[1972Shocker]

Winny Koskei Shines Again - Punches Ticket to NCAA Championships

Winny finished third at the NCAA Midwest Regional with a personal best time of 20:23.0. The redshirt sophomore started out of the box slow running the first 2,000m in 6:48.4. Koskei picked up the pace moving from 20th to eighth place by the 4,000m mark. Less than 1,000m to go she made her final kick moving into the top-5 finishing the 6,000m course in third.

Koskei becomes the first Shocker to reach the NCAA Championships since 2012 when Aliphine Tuliamuk placed second in the regionals and advanced to a fourth place finish in the national race.

Aliphine's 6K XC school record is 19:57.7. Winny has 2 more years to try to catch and break Aliphine's record.

Redshirt junior Rebekah Tompham also ran a strong race finishing 17th at 20:59.2. Apparently Rebekah has not been at 100% this fall although I do not know what has been ailing her.

Hopefully Rebekah will be able to get back to full health the the Indoor and/or Outdoor track seasons.

The Shockers return all 5 of their top 5 runners next year so if all can stay healthy the Shocks will be in a good position to defend their AAC Championship.

Good luck to Winny on November 17th at the NCAA Championships in Madison, Wisconsin.

[1972Shocker]

Koskei Travels North for NCAA Championship

Winny Koskei will be up against 361 runners, including 34 individual qualifiers and 31 qualified teams. Top-40 finishers earn All-America honors.

The Women's 6K race is scheduled for Saturday at 10:45 a.m.

Koskei makes her second appearance on the Thomas Zimmer course of the 2018 season, on Oct. 13 she finished 11th in the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals 6K race with a then personal best time of 20:28.9. Winny improved that PR with a 20:23.0 in the Midwest Regionals in Peoria although XC times are difficult to compare due course and weather variability.

Good luck, Winny!

:poster_shocks:

[1972Shocker]

This distance runner could become WSU’s first All-American since 2012 this weekend

BY TAYLOR ELDRIDGE

https://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article221779875.html

Projections don’t have Wichita State sophomore Winny Koskei very high for Saturday’s 6-kilometer race at the NCAA cross country championships in in Madison, Wis.

For those outside the WSU program, Koskei’s emergence this season has been a surprise. She wasn’t supposed to win the American Athletic Conference championship, but she did. She wasn’t supposed to be able to hang with the top runners in last week’s NCAA Midwest Regional, but she finished third.

Now Koskei wants to prove the projections wrong once again, as the Kenyan has her sights set on a top-40 finish on Saturday to achieve All-American status.

[1972Shocker]

Winny is in 57th place at the 2K split

Winny moves up to 45th place at the 4K split.

Needs to pick up 5 more places to secure All-American honors.

Winny finishes in 20:32.05 good for............................................... .....




35th place and we have a another Shocker All-American. Congratulations Winny! :yahoo:

[ShockTalk]

Great run, Winny!! :applouse::wsu_posters::triumphant:

[WstateU]

#Winny

[1972Shocker]

https://goshockers.com/news/2018/11/...-american.aspx

http://theamerican.org/news/2018/11/...ar-honors.aspx

Women’s Runner of the Year
Winny Koskei, So., Wichita State *

* Unanimous selection

Koskei was voted The American’s unanimous Women’s Runner of the Year on the heels of an outstanding sophomore campaign. Koskei improved 17 spots from last year’s conference championship race, winning the individual American crown, while leading the Shockers to their first league title. Koskei, who also won The American’s outdoor track and field 5,000 and 10,000-meter races, earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship following a third-place performance at the Midwest Regional race. She moved up 21 spots over the final 4,000 meters in the national meet, clocking a time of 20:32.05 to finish 35th overall. In addition to earning All-Region accolades, Koskei received USTFCCCA All-America honors for her top-40 finish. In regular-season action, she had top-three performances in four of five races entered and finished 11th in the prestigious Pre-National race in Madison, Wis.

[ShockTalk]

Sorry I could only put 1 like on this post.

Great season, Winny!!

[WstateU]

https://media.giphy.com/media/14cilFdQzr8hG0/giphy.gif

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Host Multi to Start 2019 Indoor Season

The Shocks open the 2019 Indoor season with the annual Shocker Multi at the Heskett Center on Friday, November 30th, and Saturday, December 1st.

This is almost an intrasquad meet in that WSU is the only D-1 school participating. Two D-II schools, Fort Hays State and Maryville University, will send some athletes to compete as will NAIA Friends.

On the women's side Wichita State will enter eight student-athletes in the pentathlon, including six that redshirted the 2018 season. Claudia Rojo enters the competition as the favorite, her personal best score of 3,695 ranks No. 9 on the Shocker all-time list. Before redshirting the 2018 season, Rojo showed some promise completing three pentathlons and placing fifth at the MVC Indoor Championships in 2017.

Sydney Wilson, Kendra Henry, Carlea Miles, Maria Romero, Hannah Cole, Jalen Milligan and Kyleigh Severa each enter the pentathlon. Henry and Miles look to continue their successes from the 2018 season, Miles completed three pentathlons, bettering her score each meet. Henry completed four pentathlons, including three top-three finishes.

Admission to the event is free.

[1972Shocker]

Sophomore Kendra Henry won the Shocker Multi pentathlon with a PR of 3,572 points. Junior Claudia Rojo, coming off a redshirt year, was a close second with 3,560 points. Both performances would be top 6 in the AAC if last year is any guide but neither are close to challenging the top 4 from last year. We'll have to see how the season goes. Kendra and Claudia appear very close with Kendra stronger in the shot put and Claudia a better long jumper. Hopefully, the will push each other to be their best this year and next.

Shocker senior Carlea Miles was entered but apparently withdrew prior to the competition.

https://goshockers.com/documents/2018/12/1//Women_s_Results.pdf

[1972Shocker]

Junior Rebekah Topham and So. Winny Koskei headed to the east coast on Saturday to run in the 3k and the 5k races, respectively, at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener hosted by Boston University.

Rebekah finished 4th in the 3k with a time of 9:36.36 which is just 0.23 of her PR which seems pretty good for the 1st race of the season.

Winnie finished 24th in the 5k which was ran in 4 sections but her time of 16:17.22 was a new PR for her in this event.

Both Rebekah's 3k time and Winny's 5k time would have won these races in the AAC Indoor Championships a year ago.

Good start to the year ladies.

[1972Shocker]

Hawkeye Invitational Performances of Note:

Soph. Alex Adams set a PR in the weight throw at 17.58m/57-8.25 good for a 5th place finish. That PR moves her into #3 all-time at WSU. Probably will need to be over 18m to have a chance of scoring in the AAC meet but I look for Alex to do some scoring in the AAC in this event in Junior and Senior years.

Sidney Sapp making noise in her Shocker debut, the true freshman equaled the fourth best height in school history. Sapp won the event in a jump-off clearing 1.76m/5-9.25. What a great debut. This jump would have taken 2nd in last year's AAC Indoor.

Kelsey Slawson finished 3rd in the shot put with a heave of 14.89m/48-10.25. That's amount the minimum she will need to score in the AAC Championship but Kelsey is capable of going 50+.

Rebekah Topham wins the mile in 4:53.06 and Winny Koskei finished 5th in 4:57.37 which is a new PR for her. Both laidies are strongest in the longer runs. This was primarily a training run for them.

True Freshman Amiya Anoma finished 2nd in the triple jump with a hop,skip and jump of 40-7.5 which is #7 all-time at Wichita State and a jump that could score points in the AAC Championship. Another excellent debut by a Freshman.

Senior Alesa Frey with a very solid season opening pole vault of 12-11.75 to improve slightly on her previous PR of 12-10. If she can do that in the AAC Championships she should score a handful of points.

Looking forward to following the Shocker careers of Sidney Sapp and Amiya Anoma. Great start this weekend for these young ladies.

[1972Shocker]

5th Annual KU/KSU/WSU Indoor Track & Field Triangular -- Friday, January 18th at Lawrrence

HEAD COACH STEVE RAINBOLT ON....

...KSU-KU-WSU Triangular:
"KU, K-State and Wichita State are the three NCAA Division I schools in the state of Kansas, this is our fifth year doing this meet. I am so appreciative and pleased that us three coaches were able to get together about six years ago and put this together. I think it's appropriate to have a triangular between the three Division I schools in Kansas and I think it's been a wonderful meet. I love the rotation, it started at K-State five years ago, went to KU and we hosted it two years ago. I love team scored events, I'm a team track and field guy and from my perspective, this is terrific team track and field."

One of the more fun meets on the Shocker indoor schedule. Each school is allowed to enter 26 men and 26 women.

KU and KSU have each won 2 of the 1st four triangulars. Shockers looking for their 1st win. Should be back in Wichita next year.