2021-22 Shocker Women XC and Track and Field

[1972Shocker]

Yazmine Wright Named American Athlete of the Week

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/9/7...-the-week.aspx

Wichita State's Yazmine Wright was named the American Athletic Conference Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week.

Wright ran a personal-best time of 17:34.10 in the 5,000 meters, winning her first-ever collegiate cross country meet at Saturday's JK Gold Classic. She crossed the line 39 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Wright earned all-conference honors for her fifth-place finish at last year's American Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships. She also earned all-conference honors in 2019 for her 13th-place performance.

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Women Welcome 13 Newcomers to the Track

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/9/9/track-and-field-shockers-welcome-23-newcomers-to-the-track.aspx

"This COVID period has affected recruiting significantly," head track and field coach Steve Rainbolt said. "There were times I wondered whether or not we would be able to put together a recruiting class that was representative of Shocker track and field at the level we have established, but we did."

Wichita State welcomes four transfer athletes, including NJCAA DII Cross Country Champion and All-American Lubna Suied.

The throws group also added Samantha Marx and Kylie Zimmer .

"Really, I'm excited about all of the newcomers," Hetzendorf said. "We have athletes already trending in the right direction, and I'm looking forward to seeing where they go."

Heptathlete, Brianna Utecht from Marshfield, Mois kind of the star of the group out of high school. We think she could be a terrific heptathlete."

Summer Stevenson is another newcomer that is joining the jumps squad from California as a long and triple jumper.

"I'm excited about Summer," horizontal jumps coach Heidi Benton said. "She's a really good athlete, and I'm excited about the potential she has. I'm excited to work with the whole group and see who can step up."

"There are some darn good athletes in all the event areas that really ended up making this recruiting class a pleasant surprise," Rainbolt said. "I'm very pleased with how they're doing in their early workouts, and I feel like I'm seeing a lot of athletes that are really into it and excited to be Shockers."

Below you'll find personal bests for each of the Shocker track and field newcomers.

WOMEN
Alli Burke – Valley Center, Kan. – Valley Center HS – Baker University
Baker: did not compete
HS: 100m - 12.18, PV - 3.20m/10-6
Lillie Diaz – Maize, KS – Maize HS
HS: PV - 3.28m/10-9
Elontae Hackney-Cooper – Wichita, Kan. – Southeast HS
HS: 200m – 26.5, 400m – 59.1, 800m – 2:35
Lea Jerkovic – Ashland, Ohio – Ashland HS
HS: 5K XC – 18:59.90, 800m – 2:15.96, 1600m – 5:18.68
Sydney Johnson – Ozark, Mo. – Ozark HS
HS: 100m - 12.07, 200m - 24.86, 400m - 58.12
Aracely Martinez –Asuncion, Paraguay – Colegio del Sol
HS: 400m - 1:00.05, 800m - 2:22.55
Samantha Marx – Andale, Kan. – Andale HS
HS: HT - 49.26m/161-7, JT - 44.38m/145-7
Jenna Muma – Lincoln, Neb. – Lincoln HS
HS: 800m - 2:17, 1600m - 5:00, 3200m - 11:16, 5000m - 18:16
Peyton Pogge – Neola, Iowa – Tri-Center
HS: 800m - 2:19, 1500m - 4:51, 3000m - 10:33
Lubna Suied – Tomball, TX – Tomball HS – Cowley CC
CCC: 1000m - 3:15.73, 1500m - 4:43.34, Mile - 5:09.71, 3000m - 10:09.87, 5000m - 17:36.18, 10k - 38:50.60
CCCXC: 4000m - 15:12, 5000m - 18:05
HS: 800m - 2:26, 1600m - 5:22, 3200m - 11:34, 5000m - 20:18
Summer Stevenson – Temecula, Calif. – Great Oak HS
HS: LJ – 5.79m/19-0, TJ – 12.37m/40-7
Brianna Utecht – Marshfield, Mo. – Marshfield HS
HS: 100m - 11.84, 200m - 24.35, 400m - 57.36, 100h - 14.22, HJ - 5-5, LJ - 18-10, Hept - 4730
Kylie Zimmer – Moore, Mont. – Fergus HS
HS: SP - 13.45m/44-1.5, DT - 44.34m/145-6

[1972Shocker]

In the final warm up before the upcoming AAC Cross Country Championships in Tampa on October 29th, Shocker Sr. Yazmine Wright, out of Hutchinson, claimed her 3rd individual win of the season covering the 6k course at the Bradley Pink Classic in a new PR of 20:35.8. Her previous 6k PR was 2 weeks ago when she won at Mizzou in 20:53.9. That's a pretty significant drop in time but in XC comparing one race to another is very difficult at the the course terrain and weather conditions from race to race highly variable. Yazmine won the 5k JK Classic to open the season.

Yazmine is an interesting case. I think was primarily an 800m runner when she came to WSU and has developed into a top notch XC runner. Not the most common thing you will see. She still a pretty solid 800m runner as she sits at #4 in the Shocker All-Time record book. She uses that 800m speed well to finish of her XC races. She just needs to make sure she doesn't take off too soon.

I think Yazmine will be in the hunt for an AAC individual championship in Tampa. Unfortunately, the Shocker's women's team does not have much depth behind Yazmine and will not be in contention for an AAC team championship this year. At best, they are looking at a middle-of-the-pack team finish this year.

[1972Shocker]

Wright Tabs Third American Athlete of the Week Award

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/10/19/cross-country-wright-tabs-third-american-athlete-of-the-week-award.aspx

[1972Shocker]

2021 American Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships

http://theamerican.org/tournaments/?id=253

Friday, October 29 | Holloway Park | Lakeland, Florida | WATCH ON ESPN+

• Men's 8K Race / 8 a.m. ET, 7 a.m. CT / Men's 8K Race Map
• Women's 6K Race / 8:50 a.m. ET, 7:50 a.m. CT / Women's 6K Race Map
• Award ceremony to follow both races at approximately 9:40 a.m. ET, 8:40 a.m. CT

All 11 AAC teams participate in the XC Championship. The Lady Shocks will not be in contention for a team chamionship this. However, Sr. Yazmine Wright could very well contend for an individual championship. RS So. Danielle Rinn finished 16th last year so she might have a shot at top 15 finish and All-Conference honors that go with that.

However, the Lady Shocks lack quality depth behind Yazmine and Danielle. I'm thinking a 5th or 6th place finish for this Shocker team is probably about the best this team could hope for, although this is really hard to judge.

[1972Shocker]

Nice RoundHouse article by Paul Suellentrop on Shocker Senior Yazmine Wright

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/10/...mpionship.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Watching the vidoe stream on ESPN+. Very nice coverage by ESPN. Yazimine running comfortable with the lead pack at the halfway mark. Lead group is down to 5 runners.

The course is a litte wet. Rained for 7 hours yesterday.

Yazmine breaks out to about a 60m gap with a little over a mile to go. Hopefully, she did not make her move too soon.

Yazmine wins a with a dominant performance. Congratulations to the Hutchinson, Kansas native. SMU freshman Kaitlyn Gearin finished 2nd trailing Yazmine by about 15 seconds.

Very nice post race interview by Yazimine who has a great smile.

Danielle Rinn finished in 11 places and will earn All-Conference honors. Congrats to Danielle.

The next three Shockers finished 45-54-58 (44-53-56 in scoring places) giving the Shockers 165 points good for a 6th place finish which is inline with expectations. The favorite coming in was Tulsa and the Golden Hurricane did prevail with a score of 4-6-7-15-16 = 48 points.

[1972Shocker]

Wright Crowned AAC Champ, Men Take Second

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/10/...ke-second.aspx

"The race plan went perfectly," Hunter said. "It honestly went a little easier than we expected. We expected to try a couple things in the last mile, but she didn't end up needing to."

Danielle Rinn battled to an 11^th-place (22:02.50) finish to medal and earn all-conference honors after missing all-conference by just one place last season.

"I just had that chip on my shoulder," Rinn said. "With 400 meters to go, coach told me I was in 16^th and I told myself, 'this is not happening again,' so I started kicking it into that second gear. I passed a few girls and got the medal."

[1972Shocker]

Wright Named American Athletic Conference XC Runner of the Year

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/12/1/cross-country-wright-named-american-athletic-conference-runner-of-the-year.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Kind of flew under the radar. Wichita State opened the indoor season with the WSU Shocker Multi competition at the beginning of December. This is primarily an intra-squae event although a couple of athletes from Friends and Washburn also competed.

An athlete to keep an eye for the Lady Shockers is 2nd year freshman or super-freshman or covid-freshman or whatever you call them, Destiny Masters. Masters won four of the five events in the pentathlon, scoring the sixth-highest pentathlon total in Shocker history (3877). She earned personal-best marks in the 60-meter hurdles (8.65), high jump (1.82m; 5-11.5) and shot put (11.04m;36-2.75). Her high jump mark moved her into second all-time in Wichita State history. She is only about 256 points shy of the WSU school record and has 4 years to make that up. Destiny is from El Dorado, Kansas. She is a good looking young athlete. Destiny's 2 weakest events in the pentathlon are the shot put and the 800m run. I would think she will improve in these for no other reason than gaining physical strength and maturity as time passes. She should also be very competitive in the individual high jump competition.

Maria Romero took second in the pentathlon with a score of 3707, winning the 800m in 2:26.37 and placing second in the other four events. She recorded a personal best in high jump with a leap of 1.64m (5-4.5). Maria's score is about 47 points shy of making the Shocker All-Time Top 10 list in the pentathlon.

Both scores would be very competitive in the AAC Indoor Championships. In fact, Destiny's total would have been best in the AAC last year and Maria's score would have been 3rd best. However, the AAC did not hold an Indoor Championship last year. In the 2019-20 season Destiny's score would have placed 2nd nd Maria's score would have been good for 4th (1 point behind 3rd) in the AAC indoor Championship/

Destiny's high jump mark would have been 2nd best in the AAC last year and would have won the 2019-20 AAC Indoor Championship high jump.

I think this event is mostly a let's see where we are and what we need to focus on going into the season.

[WuDrWu]

Umm, I am assuming that she's challenging Nicki Larch Miller's record.....and I'm sorry but that cannot be allowed to happen.

[1972Shocker]

Umm, I am assuming that she's challenging Nicki Larch Miller's record.....and I'm sorry but that cannot be allowed to happen.

Doc, I think that can be allowed to happen and I will in explain in detail why. I am confident this is far more than you really wanted to know but I had fun compiling this information and dreaming about what may be to come.

Actually, Breanne Borman set the Shocker school record in pentathlon in with a top score of 4,133 in 2016. Nikki is second with a top score of 4,121 points in 2017. Tanya Friesen is 3rd with 4,043 points in 2013. Those are the only 3 Shockers to break 4,000 points in the pentathlon.

In the outdoor heptathlon, Tanya Friesen is the Shocker record holder with 5,899 points in 2013. Nikki is second at 5,812 in 2015 and Breanne is third at 5,640 points in 2017.

Nikki's individual records inlcude the following:

Indoor 60m at 7.38
Indoor 400m at 54.57
A member of the indoor 4x400 relay team record at 3:40.88 (also on the 3rd and 5th fastest groups)
Outdoor 100m at 11.38
Outdoor 200m at 23.23
Outdoor 100m hurdles at 13.08
A member of the outdoor 4x100 relay team record at 44.30 (also on the 2nd, 4th and 8th fastest groups)

Nikki would also be the Indoor 60m hurdle record holder except that her sister Taylor is the recordholder at 8.21. Nikki is second at 8.22 and I think that occurred in the same race in 2017.

It's also a little strange that Nikki is only 7th in the indoor 200m race. I guess she didn't like the extra turn in that race.

As a redhirt freshman Breanne Borman's top pentathlon score was 3,847, Nikki's best as a true freshman was 3,294 but she only participated in one home event that season. As a sophomore Nikki's best pentathlon was 3,996 points, and Tanya's scored 3,433 at the MVC Championships as a true freshman.

Destiny Masters is starting her 3rd year as a Shocker although she is a freshman in eligibility. In 2019-2020 she redshirted but did compete in a few events as an unattached participant. Destiny competed in 2 pentathlons that year with her high score being a 3,129. Nothing to get too excited about. She did not compete pentathlons in her Covid-shirt year last year. So her 3,877 point performance to open this year's indoor season was quite an eye-opener. She has only competed in 1 outdoor heptathlon. That was in last year's AAC Outdoor Championships where she took 6th with 4,949 points.

Destiny competed in track and field for 2 years at Bluestem High School (Class 2A) in the Leon, Kansas. Not sure if she moved into that school district as a junior or if she just did not compete in track and field her first 2 years in high school. As a junior she made the podium at the state championships in the high jump (2^nd), long jump (5^th), 100m hurdles (5^th) and 100m (8^th)…Was a state champion as a senior in long jump winning with a mark of 17-1.75, also placed third in high jump clearing 5’2” and placed 10^thin the 100m dash (13.08). Personal bests: High Jump – 5-2; long jump – 17-4.75; 100m hurdles – 16.01. So it looks to me like Destiny was recruited as a mulit event athlete due to her versatility and not necessarily as a standout specialist.

So she has gone from a high school PR in the high jump of 5-2 to a collegiate PR of 5-11.50 (2nd best ever at WSU). She has lowered her 100m hurdle PR from 16.01 in HS to 14.54 at WSU last spring. She has raised her long jump from a HS PR of 17-4.75 to 18-9.75 last spring. So there is some serious learning and development curve going on with Destiny although you would expect that curve to start flattening out at some point and you never know when an athlete will hit a wall. Could be that at this point she is benefitting from a much higher level of coaching.

Of the top 3 all-time Shockers I think Destiny perhaps compares most favorably to Tanya Friesen with with Breanne Borman beign a stronger athlete and Nikki Larch-Miller a faster athlete. But time will tell on that.

The pentathlon consists of the 60m dash, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800m run. Destiny's strongest event by far is the high jump and she is pretty decent in the 60m run and the long jump. Her weakest events are the shot put and 800m run which is not uncommon for multi event athletes.

The heptathlon consists of the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m dash, long jump, javelin and the 800m run.

Here is a comparison of Destiny's very early in her career best marks in this events to Nikki, Breane and Tanya.

Pentathlon:
60m hurdles: DM 8.65 - NLM 8.22 - BB 8.64 - TF 8.64
High Jump: DM 5-11.50 - NLM 5.525 - BB 5-8.75 - TF 5-10.5
Shot Put: DM 36-2.275 - NLM 39-3.75 - BB 44-.05 - TF 36.125
Long Jump: DM 18-9.75 - NLM 20-1 - BB 19-2.5 - TF 20-2.5
800m Run: DM 2:35.74 - NLM 2:16.66 - BB 2:23.21 TF 2:17.89

Heptathlon:
100m Hurdles: DM 14.54 - NLM 13.15 - BB 14.08 - TF 13.83
High Jump: DM 5-11.50 - NLM 5.525 - BB 5-.875 - TF 5-10.5
Shot Put:: DM 36-2.275 - NLM 39-3.75 - BB 44-.05 - TF 36.125
200m Dash: DM 26.34 - NLM 23.83 - BB 25.25 - TF 24.45
Long Jump: DM 18-9.75 - NLM 20-1 - BB 19-2.5 - TF 20-3.5
Javelin: DM 116-0 - NLM 131-4 - BB 150-11 - TF - 137-7
800m Run: 2:35.74 - NLM 2:16.66 - BB 2:23.21 TF 2:17.89

Clearly Nikki was a superstar in the sprints. I don't think she has too much to worry about with her individual sprint records for awhile. Perhap a very long while. Destiny has a very good shot at setting the school record in the high jump. She would have to exceed 6-1.25 and become only the 3rd Shocker woman to clear 6' to do that. But she is only 2" short of that mark at this point.

I think Destiny has a legitimate chance to set the Pentathlon and Heptathlon records if she continues to improve over the remainder of her career. Of course, with these events you have to be able withstand the phsyical and mental grind and you have to stay healthy. Even NLM was impacted by injury at the end of her career.

Looks like Destiny needs the most work in the shot put, 800m run, 200m dash, and the javelin. No reason no to expect inprovement there over the next 4 seasons.

If Destiny could put up marks of 8.4 seconds in the 60m hurdles, 6-0 in the high jump, 39-4.5 in the shot put, 19-8.25 in the long jump and 2:25 in the 800m run, all of which I think are very doable based on where she is now, she would score 4,323 points breaking Breanne's school record by around 200 points.

If Destiny could put up those same marks in the high jump, shot put, long jump and 800m runs plus a 14.75 in the 100m hurdles, a 24.5 second 200m dash and 134.5 foot javelin throw she would score 5,917 points to just edge past Tanya's school record by about 20 points. I think these marks are in reach of Destiny as well, but may be a bit tougher than breaking the pentathlon record. My dream is to see Destiny become the first 6,000 point woman in Shocker history but that may be a bit too much to ask. Only two athletes broke the 6,000 point barrier in last years NCAA outdoor championship.

Records are made to be broken and my guess is that Breanne, Tonya and Nikkie will all be pulling for Destiny to get these records and I don't think you need to worry about any of Nikki's individual school records being broken perhaps for a very long time.

Okay, Destiny, the bar is set. Looking forward to seeing if she can clear it.

[1972Shocker]

I noticed the Shocker Track & Field team is in Topeka tomorrow at the All-Kansas invite tomorrow hosted by Washburn. The competition at this meet is mostly D-II, NAIA and Juco. However, I think the Shocks like competing at Washburn because of their new indoor track facility which has a banked track which is what the Shocks will compete on for the AAC Championships in Birmignham. In fact, this is the first of 3 meets the in which the Shocks will be competing at this facility this indoor season. Makes good sense to get as much work as possible on a banked track. But I have to say I am a bit envious of Washburn's indoor track facility.

https://wusports.com/sports/2021/1/1...sportfile.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Congrats to Shocker senior Paula Garcia with a new school record in the indoor 200m run. Her 23.82 in Topeka today is the 1st sub-24 second indoor 200m run in school history. Not sure if there is any kind of banked track to flat track conversion needed nor not.

[1972Shocker]

Freshman Destiny Masters won the hight jump with a leap of 5-10, just off of her PR and won the long jump with a new PR of 19-0.75