2021-22 Shocker Women XC and Track and Field

[1972Shocker]

2022 NCAA Track & Field Championships

The NCAA splits the nation into an East Division and a West Division. With the exception of the decathlon/heptathlon the top 48 marks in each event in each division compete in the NCAA Preliminary Rounds. The West Preliminaries will be hosted by the University of Arkansas on March 25-28. Indiana University is hosting the east preliminaries. The top 12 finishers in each event in each Division (24 athletes per event) will move on to the NCAA Championship finals in Eugene, Oregon June 8-11. The top 24 decathletes and heptathletes scorers bypass the prelims and go directly to Eugene.

Looks like the Shocker men have 1 athlete qualifying for the West Preliminaries (The number preceding their name in where they are ranked coming into the meet)::

Shot Put
#46 - Amanda Kakoulias

Amanda has a sub-par performance in last weeks AAC Championships so I imagine she would like to have on last good performance to close out her Shocker career although her chances at a top 12 finish are close to nonexistent.

[goshox74]

Also in the field will be the 4x100m relay (the top-24 relays advance). You can find the full list of qualifiers here: https://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1outdoor22/

[1972Shocker]

Also in the field will be the 4x100m relay (the top-24 relays advance). You can find the full list of qualifiers here: https://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1outdoor22/

Thanks, it really never even occurred to me to look at the relays. Pretty amazing that the Shockers have no 100m times in the Top 48 of the West yet they have a Top 24 relay team. The must be really good with their baton exchanges.

[goshox74]

They have two very good sprinters in Faith Turner (who missed qualifying in the 100m by .02) and Paula Garcia (missed the 200m by .16). The AAC is one of the toughest sprint conferences in the country. For example those girls would be multiple time MVC championships in their events, but it's hard to score in the AAC in the sprints. So when put together on a relay, compared to most other conferences, they are very good. Finishing 3rd in the AAC 4x1 was a big accomplishment.

[1972Shocker]

Amanda Kakoulias who had a sub-par performance at the AAC Championships bounced back to close out her Shocker career with a good put of 50-1.25 on her 2nd of three attempts at the NCAA West Preliminaries. She finished in 35th place which was 11 spots better than her #46 seed. Amanda, who is not your prototype shot putter, made herself into a very solid shot putter during her career as a Shocker.

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers' 4×100 relay team of Faith Turner, Paula Garcia, Sydney Johnson and Brianna Utecht ran a 45 43 to finish 18th which was 6 spots higher than their seeding and just off their PB as a group of 45.25.

I think this it for Paula's Shocker career. However, I believe Faith, Sydney and Brianna are all true freshman. So, hopefully they can find a good replacement for Paula and be even better over the coming years.

[SubGod22]

Go Shockers - Shocker Newcomers Hit the Ground Running

WICHITA – The Wichita State track and field team's 15 new male and 19 new female athletes logged their first practice at Cessna Stadium on Monday afternoon.

"These recruiting classes come together over time, and you don't realize until you sit in front of them in a newcomers meeting that, 'son of a gun, this is a heck of a group,' and it really is," director of track and field/cross country Steve Rainbolt said.

Of the 33 newcomers, 24 are freshmen and nine are transfers, with the majority of new athletes joining the distance and sprints/hurdles groups.

"Coach Hunter really brought in a terrific group of distance runners," Rainbolt said. "I'm super excited about that bunch."

[1972Shocker]

Go Shockers - Shocker Newcomers Hit the Ground Running

I wondered when the T&F newcomer announcement was coming.

The women are still rebuilding IMHO. Hopefully, they can avoid the injuries that hurt them last year as well.

[WuDrWu]

I don't know who this Bryan Haney guy is from Lee's Summit but he's certainly managed to fly under the radar with a PR in the 400 Hurdles (38.01) that is more than 7 seconds faster than World Record Holder Karsten Warholm. Must have been a wind aided time, but still pretty darn quick.

[1972Shocker]

I don't know who this Bryan Haney guy is from Lee's Summit but he's certainly managed to fly under the radar with a PR in the 400 Hurdles (38.01) that is more than 7 seconds faster than World Record Holder Karsten Warholm. Must have been a wind aided time, but still pretty darn quick.

I noticed that. Thought maybe they meant 58.01, then saw in the list at the bottom that this was his 300h time in high school. Looks like an interesting recurit although with hurdlers you never know how they are going to make the transition to the higher hurdles in college.

[1972Shocker]

Coach Rainbolt, being a guy who loves his multi-event athletes, it was interesting to read his comments:

Rainbolt is excited about the addition of Mattelyn Swartz and his group of new female multi-event athletes. Swartz is a high jumper from Anthony, Kan. who has a personal best of 1.73m/5'8".

"I'm particularly excited about Mattelyn Swartz in the high jump," Rainbolt said. "I think that she's really good, and I think she's even better than what it appears."

Rainbolt compares his new group of female multis to the 2013 incoming class of Nikki Larch-Miller, Gavyn Yetter and Breanne Borman, who racked up three All-America and 28 all-conference honors between them.

I guess the group of multi-event athletes he is referring to are the 5 freshman women he signed in this class:

Abby Klipstein – FR/FR – Keller, TX – Fort Worth Christian HS – University of Nebraska
NEB: 60h 9.07, 100h 15.20, 800m 2:36, LJ 5.27m/17-3.5, Pent 3129
HS: 100h 15.03, 5.32m/LJ 17-5.5, SP 10.38m/34-1, JT 29.60m/97-1

Sadie Millard – FR/FR – Omaha, NE – Millard West HS
HS: 200m 25.69, 400m 56.8, LJ 5.56m/18-3

Lily Morrison – FR/FR – Ft. Collins, CO – Liberty Commons HS
HS: 200m 26.34, 400m 57.36

Tess Roman – FR/FR – Prairie Village, KS – Shawnee Mission East HS
HS: 100h 15.51, 1.62m/HJ 5-4, 5.43m/LJ 17-10, 11.22m/TJ 36-10

Emily Whorton – FR/FR – McPherson, KS – McPherson HS
HS: 200m 27.7, 400m 1:00.9, 800m 2:34, HJ 1.52m/5-0

Sadie Millard must be pretty good since they named her high school after her.

Comparing any group to Nikki, Gavyn and Breanne who have the 2nd, 4th and 3rd best heptathlon scores and the 2nd, 8th and 1st best pentathlon scores in Shocker history is setting the expectation way up there.

Furthermore, Sophomores Destiny Masters and Brianna Utecht plus Senior Maria Romero are pretty solid multi-event performers as well. Destiny in particular is intriguing but so far she has not really been able to show what she can really due to to Covid and to injuries. She finished 2nd in the AAC pentathlon despite last year despite battling injuries and was unable to compete in the heptathlon outdoors due to injury. Brianna 12th in the pentathlon at the AAC Indoor but their were 4 seniors ahead of her and she finished 6th in the heptathlon at the AAC Outdoor good for 3 points. Maria picked up a couple of points in the pentathlon at the AAC Indoor at in the heptathlon at the AAC Outdoor with a 7th place finishes in each event.

I am hoping Ryan Horn's training and conditioning approach which includes a focus on avoiding injury can be helpful to the Shocker multi-event track and field athletes. I would love to see what a healthy Destiny Master can do.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks sweep the Top 5 spots at the JK Gold (Rustbuster) Classic. As you can see Abeba Sullivan won with a time of 18:12.9.

AAC XC individual champion Yazmine Wright won this event for the Shockers last year in a time of 17:34.1.

The top 5 Shocker runners had a combined time of 1:34.31. Despite the 37.2 second deficit at the #1 spot that was slightly better than the 1:34.47 that last years top 5 Shockers ran.

[SubGod22]

Go Shockers - Shockers Look to Extend Postseason at NCAA Regionals

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Wichita State cross country team will race at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships Friday, Nov. 11 at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course.

The women's 6K is set for 11 a.m. with the men's 10K to follow at noon. Both races will be live streamed on YouTube.
.....
The Shocker women, on the other hand, are not in position to send a team to the NCAA Championships, but their top three runners will seek All-Region honors by aiming for a top-25 finish. Abeba Sullivan, Sarah Bertry and Miranda Dick have been running strong, with Sullivan and Bertry being named all-conference with their top-15 performances at the American Athletic Conference Championship.

"Abeba is looking to try to get in that top 25, and I wouldn't count out Sarah or Miranda," Hunter said. "They're running well right now, and they could make a big jump this week and maybe take a shot at getting in that top 25 themselves."