2021-22 Shocker Women XC and Track and Field

[1972Shocker]

Not a whole lot going on in Nebraska this weekend for the Lady Shockers. In fact, a worrisome number of no shows cropping up. For example, Destiny Masters was schedule to compete in the high jump, long jump and 60 hurldes and she was a DNS in all three of those events. Hopefully, if it is injury it is nothing too serious.

However, Yazmine Wright did etch her name on her FOURTH indoor WSU all-time list with her second-place finish in today's mile running a PR of 4:48.48 which moves her to the top of the AAC Indoor performance chart in the mile this year.

Also, Paula Garcia entered her third individual indoor all-time list at #4 with her 400m victory with a time of 55.33. That's 5th best in the AAC so far this year.

Danielle Rinn broke her previous best by a whopping 30 seconds in the 2k with a 9:55.88 clocking to finish 2nd. That's 4th best in the AAC this year.

[Kung Wu]

Think a woman will ever break the 4 minute mile mark? I'd say never say never, but it might be a long while yet.

[1972Shocker]

Think a woman will ever break the 4 minute mile mark? I'd say never say never, but it might be a long while yet.

Are you restricting that to biological women?

Actually, I think that probably will happen some time in the future. The current world record in the outdoor mile is 4:12.33 set in 2019. Whether or not you ever see that at the collegiate level where the current record is around 4:30 is more questionable. Distance runners generally peak around 8-12 years after college.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks hosted the Herm Wilson Invitational at the Heskett Center. Definitely not a major event. Mostly Jucos and a few D-2 and NAIA schools participating. On the wosmen's side I think the only non-WSU athlete competing were 3 from Oklahoma State in the pentathlon. In addition, a scaled back Shocker squad participated in this one. With all the juco athletes participating I wonder if this is a much a recruiting event for Coach Rainbolt as anything.

The two most notable results for he Shockers were:

Yazmine Wright won the 3k race with a time of 9:36.62 to make her 5th WSU all-time top-10 list at No. 8 in the indoor 3k. with a 9:36.62 Currently, Yazmine's mark this season are good for 2nd in the 800m run, 2nd in the mile run and 3rd in the 3k on the AAC performance charts. Her 9:36.62 on the Heskett Center track, which apprently is a smaller track converts to a 9:31.72 on the AAC performance charts. But either way she will still be 3rd on the AAC charts. It reamins to be seen how many events Yazmine will be able to compete in at the AAC Championships.

Margaux Thompson cleared two personal-best bars in the pole vault, winning the event with her 3.86m/12-8 clearance. That beats her previous best by 6 inches. With that jump Marguax enters the Shocker indoor pole vault Top 10 at number 8. That also moves Margaux into 3rd place on this seasons AAC performance charts. Question is can she repeat this perfermance. That is a big improvement over her previous best.

The only other thing I would note is Destiny Masters, who is capable of getting the Shocker good points in the pentathlon, high jump and long jump after being a scratch last week in the 3 events she was scheduled for at Nebraska.

I don't expect the Lady Shocks to compete for an AAC Indoor Championship this year but Yazmine and Destiny, if she is healthy, will be the Shockers two best chances for chunks of points. The AAC Championships are in 3 weeks so hopefully Destiny will be ready to go by then, but I have no idea what is going on with her.

[1972Shocker]

A contingent of Shocker athletes headed back to Washburn in Topeka on Thursday for the Ichabod Mid-Week Challenge:

The Spaniard, senior Paula Garcia, certainly seems to find the banked track at Washburn to her liking as she broke her own school record in the 200m dash set earlier this year at the Washburn indoor facility as she blazed to a 23.61 breaking her school and facility record of 23.82 three weeks ago. This also puts Paula at the top of the 2022 AAC indoor performance charts.

In the 60-meter dash, Faith Turner moved up to tie for second on the WSU all-time list with a 7.44, winning the event. That ties the Shocker freshman for 7th on the speedy AAC peformance charts. Turner also placed third in the long jump with a personal-best jump of 5.86m/19-2.75.

Amanda Kakoulias added another event win for the Shockers with a season-best toss of 14.80m/48-6.75 in the shot put. That mark is 4th best in the AAC this year.

I was especially happy to see that freshman Destiny Master was back in action in this meet and performed well. Destiny found success in two events, setting PB's and entering the Shocker top-10 lists in both the 60-meter hurdles with her winning time of 8.59 and the long jump with a leap of 5.94m/19-6 to take second. Those marks will score very well in the pentathlon, if Destiny does compete in that in the AAC Championships, and the long jump is also 3rd best in the AAC this season.

[1972Shocker]

Shocker senior Yazmine Wright back at work in the mile today at Washurn where she clocked an new PB of 4:45.47 to set a new facility record moving in the #4 spot all-time at WSU behind Kellyn Johnson, Desiraye Osburn and Rebekah Topham. Yaz is only 0.05 of a second behind Rebekah.

[SubGod22]

She's in good company on that list

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks sent a small contingent of athletes to the Arkansas qualifier this weekend but most of the team is focusing on being ready for the AAC Indoor Championships next weekend.

A couple of notable performances for the Shocker women.

Margaux Thompson matched her PB in the pole vault at 12-8. That's 4th best in the AAC this season.

Amanda Kakoulias smashed her PB in the shot put with a toss of 52-0.5 besting her previous best mark by a little over 3 feet and moving into 2nd on the AAC 2022 form charts.

[1972Shocker]

AAC Indoor Track & Field Championship - Friday (Feb 25) & Saturday (Feb 26) - Birmingham Crossplex

The AAC did not hold an Indoor T&F Championship last winter due to Covid. Unlike the men, with only 7 schools participating all 11 schools filed women's track and filed teams.

The Women's scores from the last AAC indoor meet 2 years ago were as follows:
1) Houston 84
2) Cincinnati 83.5
3) Temple 71
4) SMU 60.5
5) Wichita State 59
6) East Carolina 57
7) Memphis 54
8) UCF 52
9) Connecticut 43 (Off to the Big East)
10) Tulane 37
T-11) Tulsa 31 and South Florida 31

How the Shockers will do this year will largely depend on how seniors Paula Garcia and Yazmine Wright along with redshirt freshman Destiny Masters can perform in multiple events.

Paula is ranked #1 in the AAC in the 200 meters #7 in the 400 meters. However, ASDTF John Wise is reporting that Paula is nursing a sprained ankle and may not run. If that's the case, then even if she does run she is unlikely going to be at the top of her game.

Yazmine is #6 in the 800m, #3 in the mile and #4 in the 3000m. The coaches are trying to decide how use her. She also could run in the Medley Relay. Yazmine is a gamer for sure.

Destiny Master graduated from high school (Bluestem HS near El Dorado) a year early and was not highly recruited. She redshirted 2 years ago and had her free Covid year last year so she is a a redshirt freshman eligibility wise in her 3rd year at WSU. As with most multi-event athletes Destiny deals with the typical aches and pains. Right now she has a sore ankle. Destiny is ranked #1 in the AAC in the pentathlon this year but has 3 competitors from Tulane, Cincinnati and UCF right on her heels (2 of them are seniors). Destiny is also ranked #1 in the high jump.and #5 in the long jump. We'll have to see how much that sore ankle bothers her.

The sore ankle for Paula and Destiny could be a big deal and greatly impact where the Shocks will finish as a team.

Other athletes to keep an eye on:

Senior Amanda Kakoulias has come on lately and set the school record for the indoor shot put just recently with a toss of 52-0.5 that ranks 2nd in the AAC.

Senior Margaux Thompson is at #4 in the AAC in the high jump. She has cleared 12-8 a couple of times this year and will need to do that again to score.

Overall the Shockers are quite young this year. A couple of freshman who might surprise would be Faith Turner and Breanna Utecht. Faith is 7th in the AAC in the 60m dash and #9 in the long jump. So she might not score at all are she might score 10 points with a breakout meet. Breanna is a true freshman, and unlike Destiny, was highly recruited out of Marshfield, Missouri. She will be competing in the pentathlon 10th but Coach Wise thinks she is starting to bring things together and has a chance to move into a Top 8 scoring position.

My expectations for the Lady Shocks in this meet are pretty guarded with the sore ankles that two of our potential big scorers are dealing with. Because of that I am hoping for a middle of the pack finish although it could easily be a lower third finish.

[1972Shocker]

The Roundhouse podcast with Assistant Director of Track & Field John Wise. Coach Wise provides a preview of the AAC Indoor Championship this Friday and Saturday and provides much better insights than I ever could. Also talks about how the coming AAC changes will or could impact the Track & Field program. Finished off with a discussion of his Traveling With the Wise Guy youtube videos.

https://wichitastate.tv/series/roundhouse/

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Ready for AAC Indoor Championships

https://goshockers.com/news/2022/2/2...pionships.aspx

"We go to every championship meet with a vision for team success," Rainbolt said. "Top-three finishes are certainly our goal, but on the women's side, right now, a top-four finish is probably more realistic. It's going to be challenging. You really never know exactly how it's all going to play out."

"We've got a variety of aches and pains that are causing us difficulty, so ultimately going to the track meet and feeling like the athletes performed well and rose to the occasion for championship track and field is what will make me leave feeling good," Rainbolt said.

Freshman Destiny Masters is entered in the Pentathlon and the Long Jump on Friday. The Pentathlon Long Jump is estimated to start at 12:45 pm and the Pentathlon 800m race is estimated to start at 2:00 pm. The regular Long Jump is slate to start t 2:00 pm but Destiny be in the 2nd flight. On top of that Destiny is reportedly nursing s sore ankle. Friday will be a huge challenge for Destiny. Hope her ankle hold up to 6 events over a 5 to 6 hour time period. If Destiny survives Friday she is also entered in the regular long jump at 9:45 am Saturday. While this is her best individual event it remains to be seen how well she will be able to perform on a sore ankle.

Senior Yazmine Wright is entered in the mile on Friday at 12:25 pm. My guess is she may also be part of the Shocker distance medley relay team scheduled to run at 5:00 pm on Friday. However, can't tell for sure at this point and that might be a race time decision. Yazmine is also entered in Satruday's 3,000m race schedule for 1:40 pm

[1972Shocker]

Women's Pentathlon:

60m Hurdles: The Shockers are off to a decent start with Destiny Master finishing 3rd at 8.79 seconds. This is 0.2 of a second of Destiny's PB but not to bad considering the sore ankle. Junior Maria Romero clocked in at 8.86 to finish 5th and freshman Brianna Utecht ran 8.86 to finish 6th.



High Jump: Should be starting shortly. This will tell us a lot about how sound Destiny is physically. Destiney was about 4 inches shy of her PB with a jump of 5-7.75 but that was good enough to take the top spot in the pentathlon high jump. While she is leading the pentathlon after 2 event by 93 points with a score of 1,833 it does look like she may be hampered somewhat by her ankle. Let's hope it holds out. Maria finished 5th in the high jump and is 5th after 2 events with a score of 1,710 points. Brianna had a poor high jump and has fallen to 14th after 2 events with 1,538 points.



Shot Put: Probably Destiny's weakest event of the 5 pentathlon events. Not unusual. Multi-event athletes are not usually built to excel in the shot put. But this event, along with the 800m run, can often separate the wheat from the chaff.

SMU's Olivia Dobson has a big shot put with at heave of 46-8.625 worth 810 points to move into 1st place with 2,472 points after 3 events.. Destiny could only muster 34-7.75 for 566 points and drops to 2nd with 2,399 points. Maria falls to 9th place 25 points out of 8th.

Long Jump: This is a better event for Destiny normally. Destiny is only able to jump 17-9 which is well short of her PB of 19-6 and only worth 674 points dropping her down to 4th place overall. May have just been one of those days are it may be an indication he ankle is breaking down. Maria is in 11th and Brianna is in 12th after 4 events.

800m Run: The final event. Not the strongest event for Destiny and if her ankle is, in fact, hurting it may be too much to ask to gain much ground, if any, in this event. Destiny just didn't have it and this is not one of her better events in any case. Destiny drops down to 7th overall one spot behind teammate Maria Romero who used a strong 800m race to move from 11th to 6th.

I'm sure Destiny will be a bit disappointed but I think she gave it everything she had.

[1972Shocker]

Video stream available on ESPN+

https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player...d93#bucketId=1

Yazmine Wright will be running her heat shortly in the mile prelims.

Yazmine wins her heat and easily moves into the finals Saturday at 11:20 am.

[1972Shocker]

Destiny Masters is also entered in the regular long jump. Question is will she withdraw. She just finished her pentathlon and did not have a great pentathlon long jump and doesn't seem to be operating in top physical condition.

[Kung Wu]

Destiny Masters is also entered in the regular long jump. Question is will she withdraw. She just finished her pentathlon and did not have a great pentathlon long jump and doesn't seem to be operating in top physical condition.

She was kinda laughing at herself in disbelief. Must be frustrating.