2018-19 Shocker Women XC and Track & Field

[1972Shocker]

https://goshockers.com/news/2019/1/1...the-track.aspx

Wichita State freshman Sidney Sapp is from Oklahoma, which is why she hesitated when asked about the rivalries present in the KU/KSU/WSU Triangular.

"It's a rivalry?" she asked track and field coach Steve Rainbolt.

"We'll talk about it," Rainbolt said with a smile.

Friday's meet at Anschutz Pavilion in Lawrence is a highlight of the indoor track and field season for Wichita State. It combines good competition in a team-scored meet with a bonus of in-state conflict. Watch ESPN will broadcast the meet, which begins at 3 p.m. The meet ends with a co-ed 1,600-meter relay.

Rainbolt considers the meet an important building block for the indoor season. He points WSU toward team championships and this meet gives the Shockers their first experience of the winter in that setting. On Feb. 22, the Shockers compete in the American Athletic Conference Championships, where it is expected that everyone focuses on the team scores, sprinters are expected to cheer for pole vaulters and exhausting yourself by competing in multiple events is part of the routine.

The Wichita State women should be strong in the distance runs with AAC cross country champion Winny Koskei entered in the 3,000 meters and Rebekah Topham, who won the 2017 Missouri Valley Conference indoor mile, running the mile and 800.

The women's 3k is schedule for 6:53 this evening. The women's mile is at 5:00 pm and the women's 800 is scheduled for 6:14. A quick turnaround fro Rebekah.

Assuming they score the meet the same as last year the scoring is 7-5-4-3-2-1 with only the top 2 marks from each tea,me being counted.

:poster_shocks:

[1972Shocker]

Sunflower Triangular Results:

Weight Throw: K-State finishes 1,2,3 & 5 but only get points for their top 2 but that is 12 points. Shockers Alex Adams and Kelsey Slawson finish 4 & 6 and collect 7 points. Alex just short of her PR and Kelsey set a new PR. KU scores the remaining 3 points.

In he long jump R-Fr Hannah Cole, Sr. R-Sr Raianna Maples and Fr Amiya Amona finished 4-5-6 but only Hannah and Rainna score points. KSU picks up 11 points, the Shocker get 5 points and KU scores 6 points. After two events it is KSU 23 - WSU 12 - KU 9.

R-So Sydney Wilson jumped 5-6 and Fr Sidney Sapp jumped 5-4.25, well off her 5-9.25 last week in Iowa) to finish 4th and 5th in the long jump. KU adds 8 points, KSU adds 9 points and the Shocks pick up 5 points. After 3 events it is KSU 32 - KU 17 - WSU 17.

Only 5 participants in the women's pole vault. Shocker Sr Alesa Frey jumps 12-9.5 to win the event and R-So Emily Gardner picks up 4th place points with a vault of 10-11.75. Shocks pick up 10 points, KU 9 points and KSU's only competitor no-heighted. After 4 events KSU 32 - WSU 27 - KU 26.

R-Jr Rebekah Topham wins the mile in 4:56.71 which is a somewhat pedestrian time for her but with the 800 coming up in an hour she probably didn't to too push to hard. Fr. Danielle Rinn picked up 5th place points with a time of 5:24.50. Shock score 9, KU 7, KSU 6. After 5 events it is KSU 38 - WSU 36 - KU 33

R-Jr Claudia Rojo (8.89), Fr Amiya Anoma, R-Fr Maria Romero and R-So Sidney Wilson went 4-5-6-7 in the 60 hurdles. Only Claudia and Amiya will score. KSU picks up 11 points, KU 6 points and the Shocks 5 points. After 6 events it is KSU 49 - WSU 41 - KU 39

In the 400m dash, not a strong event for the Shockers the Shockers pick up 5 points while Kansas picks up 12 and KSU picks up 5. After 7 events I have it at KSU 54 - KU 51 - WSU 46

R-So Daisha Bullocks ran a school record 1:24.44 to finish 3rd in the 600 yard run and R-Fr Yazmine Wright ran 1:26.34 to finish 5th. KU and KSU each pick up 8 points and the Shockers add 6. After 8 events I have it KSU 62 -KU 59 - WSU 52

R-So Paula Garcia sets a PR of 7.59 in winning the 60m dash. R-So Jacque Darby ran a solid 7.663 to finish 4th as the Shockers pick up 10 points. KU scores 9 points and KSU only eeks out 2 points. After 9 events I have it KU 68 - KSU 64 - WSU 62

R-Jr Rebekah Thompson ran a 2:14.07 to finish 3rd in the 800m run as the Shocks only managed 5 points. KU scored 10 points and KSU scored 7 points. After 10 events it is KU 78 - KSU 71 - WSU 67

The Lady Shocks only manage 5 points in the 1000m run as did KSU as they are starting to lose contact with KU who scored 12 points. After 11 events it is KU 90 - KSU 76 - WSU 72

The Shocks did okay in the 200m dash with R-So Jacque Darby (25.07) and R-Fr Taniyah McMillian (25.27) taking 2nd and 4th for 8 points. KU scored 11 and KSU scored only 2. After 12 events it is KU 101 - WSU 80 - KSU 78

Shocker Sr Kelsey Slawson put the shot 51-2.75 for a new indoor PR and new school record and a 2nd place while R-So Amanda Kakoulias (44-9) finished 5th. KSU picked up 10 points, the Shockers 7 and KU 5. After 13 events it is KU 106 - KSU 88 - WSU 87

Fr Amiya Amona (39-4.5) and So Skaila White (37-6) finished 3-4 in the triple jump for 7 points. KSU finished 1-2 for 12 points and KU only scored 2. After 14 events it is KU 108 - KSU 100 - WSU 94

R-So Winny Koskei wins the 3000m run in 9:53.11 and R-Fr Rita Schacker finishes 5th in 10:12.72 for 9 points. KU also scores 9 points and KSU 4. After 15 events it is KU 117 - KSU 104 - WSU 103

The only other event was a mixed 4x400 race alternating male and female legs. The order of finish in this race was KU - KSU - WSU but it does not appear to be factored into the scoring.

Congratulations to Sr Kelsey Slawson and to R-So Daisha Bullocks on setting new WSU school records.

On the men's side the scores were KU 111 - KSU 111 - WSU 108.

The combined scores tallied KU 228 - KSU 215 - WSU 211

GoShockers.com Recap

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Women with the Air Force Track & Field Invitational and recorded 8 top ten school marks in the process.

Freshman Amiya Anoma recorded the 3rd best triple jump in Shocker history at 41-6 in winning the triple jump.

Freshman Tianna Holmes and redshirt sophomore Jacque Darby each finished second in their respective events, while recording the fourth best marks in school history. Holmes ran 55.63 in the 400m and Darby ran a 24.60 200m.

Other Shocker top-10 marks include redshirt freshman Taniyah McMillian (No. 8 | 200m, 24.79), redshirt sophomore Amanda Kakoulias (No. 9 | shot put, 14.07m/46-2) and and redshirt sophomore Daysha Bullocks (No. 10 | 400m, 56.38).

Nice to see so many young Shockers making a mark in the Shocker records books early on in their careers.

https://goshockers.com/news/2019/1/26/track-and-field-shocker-women-win-air-force-invite-men-place-third.aspx

[1972Shocker]

The Shocker distance runners were in action at Pitt State today.

Rebekah Topham highlighted the day winning the 3000m with a time of 9:26.76, setting a Robert W. Plaster Center – Harvey Dean Track facility record. Teammate Winny Koskei followed in second with a personal best time of 9:30.76. Topham and Koskei each set all-time top-10 marks, Topham No. 4 and Koskei No. 6.

Yazmine Wright, Rita Schnacker and Destini Eskridge each recorded top-5 finishes. Yazmine Wright finished second in the 800m with a personal best time 2:11.8, the sixth fastest in Shocker history.

Schnacker finished second in the 5000m race with a personal best time of 17:32.38, while Eskridge placed fifth in her 5000m Shocker debut (18:26.05).

https://goshockers.com/news/2019/1/26/track-and-field-distance-team-runs-away-with-11-personal-bests.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Quotables: Post-Air Force

Comments from Coach 'Bolt, Jacque Darby and Rayvon Allen.

[1972Shocker]

A couple of Top 10 marks at the Shocker Invitational this weekend:

Amanda Kakoulias highlighted the day for the women winning the shot put with a personal best mark of 14.57m/47-9.75, the third consecutive week she has improved her mark. Kakoulias' mark ranks No. 6 on the Shocker all-time top-10 list.

Senior Alesa Frey won the pole vault clearing 4.01m/13-1.75, an indoor personal best. Frey moved to No. 5 on the Shocker all-time top-10 list.

[1972Shocker]

Redshirt freshman Taniyah McMillian recorded the second fastest indoor 200m time in Wichita State history winning the event with a time of 24.40 at the Fourth Annual Gorilla Classic. Her time eclipsed the 24.46 by Taylor Larch-Miller in 2017 and only trails Audacia Moore's 24.13 set in 2011. Still has a little ways to go to catch the top speedsters in the AAC but certainly a good start for the freshman.

Men's distance medley relay team of Yazmine Wright, Leah Reichenberger, Tianna Holmes and Halle Johnson finished second with a time of 12:00.18, currently the third fastest time in the American Athletic Conference.

Winny Koskei highlighted the day for the Shockers at the Husky Classic, hosted by University of Washington. The redshirt sophomore recorded the third fastest 5000m in Shocker history with a time of 16:05.55, improving her conference leading time by nearly 12 seconds

In a highly competitive weight throw competition at Arkansas, Alex Adams placed fifth with a mark of 17.71m/58-1.25.

[1972Shocker]

In the final warm-up before the AAC Championships (March 8 - March 9) the Shockers sent a bunch of sprinters (200m dash and 60m hurdles), pole vaulters, long jumpers and throwers to the Arkansas Qualifiers hosted by the University of Arkansas.

Highlighting the Shockers performances were 2 new school records. Senior Kelsey Slawson broke her own school record in the shot put of 51-2.75 set earlier this year with a put of 51-7 to win that event. Kelsey has the 2nd best throw in the AAC this year. Redshirt Freshman Taniyah McMillian broke Audacia Moore's 2011 record of 20.13 in the 200m dash with a time of 24.10. That is 9th best in the AAC this year. Only one other AAC freshman, Cincinnati's Caisja Chandler at 24.08, has run faster. The AAC is very storng in the sprints.

Sophomore Jacque Darby ran a PR of 24:36 in the 200m which puts her into 3rd place in the Shocker All-Time list moving ahead of Taylor Larch-Miller. That puts her at #12 on the AAC performance list for this year.

Freshmen Amiya Anoma (8.87) and redshirt freshman Anycia Cole finished (9.08) finished 6th and 8th in the 60 hurdle finals. Anycia ran 9.07 in the preliminaries. Pretty good times for the two youngsters but they probably need to be closer to 8.50 or better to score in the loaded AAC.

Redshirt Sophomore Emily Gardner set a PR in the pole vault at 12-6.75 to move into the Shocker All-Time top 10 at #8. Senior Alesa Frey who set her PR earlier this year at 13-1.75 could only clear 12-1. They probably will need to be right at 13' or better to score in the AAC.

Amiya Anoma lead the Shocker long jumpers at 17-8.25 well of her season best of 18-10.75. She will need to be at or around her season best to score in the AAC. Amiya was better in the triple jump leaping 41-2 which is just shy of her 41-6 PR set at the Air Force Academy meet. The triple jump seem to be the freshman's best event and a jump in the territory should put her in the top 5 in the AAC.

Freshman Sydney Sapp set a PR in the 200m dash which is not her primary event. Sydney currently sits #2 on the AAC Peformance list this year behind only Cincinnati's All-American Loretta Blaut, the 2-time defending AAC Champion.and the NCAA Runner-Up both indoors and outdoors last year. The challenge for Sydney, an many of the young Shockers, will be to perform at or near their best under the pressure of AAC Championship competition.

Now the Shocks have a week to fine tune and get healthy as possible heading into the AAC Championships.

I'm sure Coach 'Bolt will probably have an outlook the the Shocker chances in the AC Championships sometime between now and then.

[1972Shocker]

RH: Podcast Previewing AAC Indoor Track with John Wise

Assistant Director of Track and Field John Wise previews the 2018-19 AAC Indoor Track & Filed Championships at the outstanding Crossplex facility (where the NCAA Indoors are held) in Birmingham, Alabama.

Wise on Wichita State's women's strengths:

"There's a lot of parity on the women's side. Probably, the first team to 100 (points) will win the meet. We have some really good athletes – we've got (distance runners) Rebekah Topham and Winny Koskei at the top of their events. We've got Kelsey Slawson in the shot put. We've got a good pole vaulter. We've got a good triple jumper. Our relays look pretty solid. Every point is going to matter when it's maybe 90 points are going to win. I like our chances because we've got people everywhere."

Link to the 40 minute podcast: https://wichitastate.tv/podcast/roun...ith-john-wise/

I thought it was a very informative podcast. Worth the listen when you have some time.

[1972Shocker]

BTW, the AAC Indoor Championships are this Friday and Satruday.

Here is a link to the AAC Championship Sites:

http://theamerican.org/news/2019/2/19/indoor-track-field-american-athletic-conference-2019-indoor-track-and-field-championships-begin-friday.aspx

http://theamerican.org/sports/2018/12/19/2019ITFChampCentral.aspx?id=359&

Looks like video will be available on the American Digital Network.

[1972Shocker]

GoShockers.com Meet Notes and Links for this weekends AAC Indoor Championship

https://goshockers.com/news/2019/2/21/track-and-field-shockers-travel-to-alabama-for-aac-championships.aspx

The Shockers enter 32 men and 32 women in the two-day competition at the Birmingham CrossPlex. Action begins Friday, Feb. 22 at 9:00 a.m., with the women's pentathlon, followed by the start of the men's heptathlon at 11:00 a.m.

Live results will be streamed through xpresstiming.com and posted on the official @GoShockersTFXC twitter page. A live video stream will be produced by The American and streamed on Facebook Live.

THE SHOCKERS

In 2018, the women's team finished 12th with 16.33 points as they resdhirted more than half their roster (30+ redshirts) and did not even field a full complement of athletes for the AAC Championship. The Shocks knew that last year they would not be a factor. This year the Shocker women should be pretty competitive is everyone is healhy and they peform well.

The Shocker women enter the competition with 19 marks on the top-10 of The American performance lists. Winny Koskei are the lone Shocker women with a top ranking in the conference.
Koskei has the fastest time in the 5000m (16:05.65).

THE WOMEN'S FIELD

Cincinnati enters the competition as the slight favorite and return six podium finishers from last year's championship team. In 2018, the Bearcats won the competition with 147 points, the most points in conference history. Loretta Blaut, a four-time American high jump champion and two-time national runner up enters the competition with a conference leading height of 1.87m/6-1.5. Irati Mitxelena looks to defend her triple jump title and currently leads the conference with season best mark of 13.17m/43-2.5.

The USTFCCCA conference rankings have the Shockers finishing second, followed closely by UConn, Houston, UCF, ECU, Temple and SMU. Any of the teams are mixed in to finish anywhere between second and eighth.

So it looks like the women's side of the meet will be very competitive.

Coach John Wise said the 1st team to 100 probably wins. He said that a score in the 90's could win it depending on how things fall. By contrast the Shocker women dominated their final MVC Indoor Championship meet scoring a whopping 181 points. Clearly the level of competition in the AAC is well above that of the MVC. There were some really good individual performers in the MVC but the AAC has far more breadth and depth.

[1972Shocker]

As usual the AAC Indoor Championship will start with multi-events. Unlike the men's side where only 9 athletes are entered in the heptathlon there are 17 women entered in the pentathlon.

Both Wichita State and Cincinnati has 4 athletes entered. Houston has 3, East Carolina has 2 and SMU, USF, UConn and Tulane have 1 each.

Cincinnati's athletes include Sr. Naomi Urban who won last year's event with 3,805 points and Jr. Angelica Lightfoot who finished 3rd last year with 3,742 points. Last year's runner-up Kaitlyn Kirby of USF ( a freshman last year) is not entered according to the heat sheets.nor is Temple's Crystal Jones who finished 4th last year as a junior, ECU's Mackenzie Whitaker who finished 5th last year as a freshman or UCF's Natosha Jordan who finished 7th last year as a sophomore.

Last year Shocker R-So. finished just outside the scoring as a R-Fr with a score of 3,436 points.

Cincy has 1 senior, 2 juniors, and 1 freshman entered. The Shocks have 1 junior, 2 sophomores and 1 freshman. Experience goes a long way in he multi-events.

It looks to me like Cincy will jump out to an early lead with somewhere around 20 points in this event. I think R-So. Kendra Henry and either R-So. Sydney Wilson or R-JR Claudia Rojo could score for the Shockers. Maybe around 5 points total.

[1972Shocker]

Pentathlon Results:

The Shockers finish 5th (Claudia Rojo), 6th (Sydney Wilson), 8th (Maria Romero) and 16th (Kendra Henry) in the 60m hurdles. The speed events are not Kendra's strength but this was not a good race for her. She has run faster.

High Jump: Kendra and Sydney both cleared 5-5 for 795 points and Claudia cleared 5-3.75 for 759 points.

After 2 events Sydney is in 6th with 1,692 points, Claudia is in 7th with 1,688 points and Kendra is in 10th with 1,580 points.

Shot Put: Kendra finishes 2nd in shot put (40-4 = 680 points), Sydney is 7th (36-1.5 = 596 points) and Claudia was 9tj (33-3.5 = 539 points) in an event this seems generally quite challenging for the women pentathletes.

After 3 events Sydney hangs on to 6th with 2,288 points, Kendra moves up to 7th with 2,260 points and Claudia falls to 9th with 2,227 points.

Long Jump: Claudia had the 3rd best jump at 18-4.5 for 729 points, Sydney jumped 16-11.5 for 606 points and Kendra had a weak jump of 16.175 for 538

Heading into the final event Claudia is 6th, Sydney is 6th and Kendra is 8th. Need a good 800m run to finish off a full day of work.

I think the Shocks did pretty well in the 800. Gotta add up the points and see where we are.

Cincy's Angelica Lightfoot wins the heptahlon with a meet record 3,926 points. Jr. Claudia Rojo earns AAC All-Conference honors as she moved from 6th after 4 events to 3rd with a strong 800 giving her a total of 3,749 points edging the 4th place finisher by 10 points. So. Sydney finished 6th with 3,586 points and So. Kendra Henry finished in a 7th place tie with 3,517 points. I was hoping for 5 points in this event but the Lady Shockers out perform my hopes as they score 10.5 points I believe.

I was thinking Cincy night get 20 points in this event but they fell a little short of that with 16.5 so the Shockers are about 9 points closer to Cincy than I thought might be the case after this event.

Congratulations ladies. Good job.

[1972Shocker]

Friday Prelim Results:

400m Dash: A bit of a positive surprise for the Shocks as Fr. Tianna Holmes qualified 4th with a PR of 55:40 and moves into the finals on Saturday.
.
Mile Run: Shocker Jr. Rebekah Topham and Fr. Halle Johnson both qualify for Satruday's 12-runner finals.

800m Run: Fr. Yazmine Wright holds form as the #8 seed as she squeezes into the finals with a 2:11:00 flat for the 8th best time edging out the 9th place finisher by 0.37 seconds.

200m Dash: Not expecting any Shockers to qualify but Fr. Taniyah Micmillian just outside the qualifying with a 24.19 and So Jacque Darby in 11th with a 24.25 (a new PR for Jacque). Unfortunately, none of the top 8 qualifiers were seniors so Taniyah and Jacque may have to wait a couple years to move up the ladder.

[1972Shocker]

Friday Event Finals:

Long Jump: Top 9 after 3 jumps continue for 3 additional jumps. Shocker Fr. Amiya Amona tied for 9th with a jump of 18-7.25. They did not have a tiebreaker so 10 jumpers will continue for 3 more jumps. Amiya could not improve on her best jump in her final 3 efforts and will finish just outside a top 8 scoring finish. Amiya needs to improve her speed down the runway, which I think will happen, and she can move up the ladder.

5,000m Run: SMU's Hannah Miller and WSU's Winnie Koskei facing off once again. Hannah Miller trying to build a lead during the middle of the race and perhaps take away Winnie's strong finish. Winnie reeling her in with 800 meters to go. Winnie takes the lead with about 300m to go. Hannah gave it everything she had but Winnie held her off to win by about a 0.5 second. Great race between to very good runners. But SMU scored good points in this event with 14 vs Winnie's 10 as the lone Shocker scorer.

The Lady Shocks have already exceeding their point total for the entire meet last year 20.5 to 16.5.

Distance Medly Relay: What a freaking unbelievable 1,600 anchor leg by Shocker Jr. Rebekah Topham as she came from way, way, way, way back to win the DMR easily. One of the most impressive efforts you will ever see on the track. Just tremendous.

Pole Vault: Alesa Frey and Emily Gardner finished in a 5-way tied at 12-7.25 but after sorting them in the order of fewest misses Alesa finished 8th for 1 point and Emily finished 9th.