2022-23 Shocker Women XC and Track & Field

[1972Shocker]

Sophomore Kylie Zimmer won the weight throw with a toss of 52-11. That's a new PB for Kylie and is the 9th best throw on the AAC so for this season. Still about 2.5 feet shy of being in the top 8 but if she keeps improving and getting stronger she might be able to score in this event for the Shockers in next year's AAC Indoor Championships.

[1972Shocker]

Destiny wins the high jump clearing 5-9.25 short of her PB by a couple of inches but still a very solid effort worth 924 points.

Destiny opened at 5-4.5 and cleared that on her first jump and than passed at 5.5-25 (which was the best height of the runner-up and then cleared 5-7 on her 1st attemot and 5-9.25 on her 2nd attempt before missing all 3 tries at 5-10.5.

Next up is the shot put which is her worst of the 5 pentathlon events. Of course, that's pretty much true for most pentathletes. She needs score in the neighborhood of 600 points in the shot put.

Destiny finishes 3d in the shot put behind two Oklahoma State athletes but in the process she puts a PB of 37-8.5 on the board good for 627 points and she is still on track with the long jump and the 800m run to go. She is pretty decent in the long jump and pretty average in the 800.

She needs 1,321 points in the final 2 events to reach the 3,900 mark. That is certainly doable for Destiny. The key will be to hit a good long jump mark.

[1972Shocker]

Destiny clocks in at 2:34.40, a new PB, in the 800m run scoring 639 points to finish with 4,043 points becoming only the 4th Shocker in school history to breach te 4,000 point total.

I think that should probably get her into this year's NCAA Indoor Championship.

That puts Destiny at the top of the AAC charts and at #8 nationally.

That ties Destiny with Tanya Friesen for 3rd all-time behind Breanne Borman (4,133) and Nikki Larch-Miller (4,121).

Pretty good company to keep.

[shoxlax]

Good thing to do on a Sat for 5 bucks.

[WuDrWu]

Then head over to the 1ST Pitch Banquet

[1972Shocker]

Masters Propels into NCAA Pentathlon Rankings

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/1/27/track-and-field-masters-propels-into-ncaa-pentathlon-rankings.aspx

"I am immensely proud of Destiny," Rainbolt said. "She has come a million miles from being a smalltown Kansas girl who was just a high jumper in high school. She has learned all these events and is doing beautifully and competing extremely well."

"I think if we can work through some of these little frustrating glitches in the high jump, she'll jump six feet and make it [to the NCAA Championships] in the high jump, too," Rainbolt said. "She's a marvelous athlete and a very good competitor."

"She has struggled badly with the 800 meters and had some emotionally difficult times facing that event, so she's come really far," Rainbolt said. "She hung in there and held tough and ran a PR."

"I'm very proud of Destiny, and today was a wonderful effort on her part," Rainbolt said. "I believe that she'll either make it to the national meet with that mark or go to the conference meet and score higher to solidify her position at the national meet."

[1972Shocker]

So. Destiny Masters (5-8.75),. Jr. Marissa Jensen (5-7) and Fr. Mattelyn Swartz (5-7) went 1-2-3 in the high jump. Destiny made only one jump. She passed on all previous heights through 5-7 at which point the 3 Shockers were the only remaining competitors in the event. Destiny cleared 5-8.75 on her first attempt. Marissa and Mattelyn missed all 3 of their attempts at the height and Destiny apparently declined to go higher. Nothing much to gain and she had accomplished what she wanted on Friday in the pentathlon. We know Destiny and Marissa are capable of more. Right now 5-7 seems to be the ceiling that the freshman Swartz keeps hitting. But all 3 should be in the hunt for points at the AAC Indoor Championship meet.

Maria Romero won the 1,000m run in 2:57.28 moving her in to the All-Time Shocker Top 10 at #7. Romero made the decision to move away from being a multi-event athlete and focus on the mid-distance events for her final collegiate season and now leads the team in both the 800 meters and 1,000 meters.

[1972Shocker]

Destiny Masters now sits at #20 in the nation with her current pentathlon mark so she will have put up a bigger number in her next pentathlon which I assume will be at the AAC Championships. She is just a couple points ahead of Kristen O'Handley of Tulane. She is only 20 points away from a top 16 finish, so it is doable at this point although she will have to be firing on all cylinders.

[1972Shocker]

At the Washburn Mid-Week Challenge today (I think the Shocks like that really nice indoor facility that Washburn has):

Jr. Zarrey Sams won the long jump with a leap of 19-5.25, a new PB for her. That might get in the scoring at the AAC meet but I'm thinking 19-6+ may be needed. So. Destiny Masters was 2nd with a jump of 19-0.75.

Destiny won the high jump with an okay, but not great, jump of 5-8.5. Jr. Marissa Jensen and Fr. Mattelyn Swarts finished 2nd and 3rd at 5-07.25. That was a new PB by a smidgen for Mattelyn.

Destiny also won the 60m hurdles in a solid time if 8.55.

So. Faith Turner broke her meet reccord set last year in the 60m dash with a PB of 7.43. That is 3rd best in the AAC so far this year.

So. Sydney Johnson won the 200m dash with a PB of 24.39. That's right on the fringe of a top 10 mark in the AAC this year but probably not quite good enough to score.

The Shocker women's 4X400 relay team won that event with a time of 3:47.98 which puts them at in the middle of the pack for AAC teams at this point.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocker distance runners are at the Ichabod Invitational in Topeka this weekend.

On Friday Lubna Aldulaimi and Sarah Bertry went 1-2 in the 5k with times of 17:34.94 and 17:35.43, respectively, Decent times but those would not have scored points in last year's AAC Indoor Championship. A time of around 17:15 or better would have been required.

On Friday So, Farrah MIller and Sr. Maria Romero each set new PB's in the 800m run at 2:11.72 and 2:12.79, respectively. Those marks put them at #7 and #9 on the AAC performance charts. So right on the edge of the top 8 scoring parameter. Both ladies also move into the Shocker All-Time Top 10 list in this event at #7 and #10.

[1972Shocker]

The AAC Indoor Championships are next weekend at the Birmingham CrossPlex. Last year the Shockers finished 10th with 31.5 points among the 11 AAC teams competing ahead of only Temple with 22 points. The were within 10 points of the 4 teams just ahead of them.

I think that this year the Shocks are looking at to be right around 30 points and another 10th place finish with Temple finishing last again.

So the interest for Shocker fans will be on how certain individuals perform in selected events:

60m Dash: Shocker sophomore Faith Turner is has the 3rd fastest time in this event this year but with the 2nd through the 7th fastest times separated by only .05 seconds there is a wide range of possibilities as to how Faith will fare in this event.

60m Hurdles: Sophomore Destiny Masters is ranked 8th. I suspect in addition to the pentathlon she will compete in this event, the long jump and the high jump.

800m Run: Sophomore Farrah Miller has the 7th best time in the AAC this season. Senior Maria Romero has the 9th best time. It would be nice to see both ladies in the scoring column (top 8 finish).

5000 Run: Jr. Lubna Aldulaimi and So. Sarah Bertry are currently ranked 7th and 8th in this event.

High Jump: Destiny Masters and Jr. Marissa Jensen are tied with one other athlete for the 4th best jump of the season at 5-9.25. There are 12 athletes who have cleared 5-7 or better including Shocker Fr. Mattelyn Swartz. So this may be one of the competitive events of he meet and potentially one the best event for the Shockers but they will need good performances from all 3 ladies.

Long Jump: Destiny Masters and Jr. Zarrey Sams are tied for the 8th best leap this season at 19-5.25.

Shot Put: Anna Zimmer has the 8th bet shot put of he season so has a chance to put a point on the board for the Shocks.

Weight Throw: Kylie Zimmer has the 9th best weight throw of the season but is 2.5' shy of being in the top 8 scoring group. So she would need a pretty big PB to score or have someone ahead of her have a bad day.

Pentathlon: Destiny Masters has the top pentathlon score in the AAC this season but is only 2 points ahead of Tulane Sr. Kristen O'Handley and 130 points ahead of another Tulane Sr., Margot Temines. Destiny's score of 4,064 is 3rd best all-time at WSU. Destiny is currently #20 in the nation. A score of around 4,100 might get her into the top 16 and a spot in the NCAA Championships. Not sure if she can get their at this stage of her career. She probably would have set a couple of new PB's and be close to her PB's in the other 3 events.

Just not a lot going for the Shocker women at this point outside of Destiny Masters and perhaps Faith Turner. Hopefully, the new facilities for the track and field team will start to have a positive effect on recruiting.

[1972Shocker]

The Wichita State track and field team is sending 19 female athletes to the Arkansas Qualifier in Fayetteville on Friday for either a final tune-up or to compete to secure a spot on the Shockers 32-athlete women's roster for next weeks AAC Indoor Championships.

These include the following athletes mentioned in my review of the AAC Championships in the post above:

Zarry Sams in the 60m hurdles. I don't think she will be a factor at the AAC's in this event. Maybe in the long jump.
Anna & Kylie Zimmer in the weight throw and shot put.
Destiny Masters and Mattelyn Swartz in the high jump.

[1972Shocker]

Destiny Masters won the high jump at the Arkansas Qualifier with a season best jump of 5-10.75. So hopefully she is peaking at the right time. Her position of #4 on the AAC performance charts did not change. If she can duplicate that in the pentathlon that would be worth 978 points.

Fr. Mattelyn Swartz jumped 5-7 and she has been consistently right around that mark all season long. However, that is probably a couple inches shy of what she would need to break into the scoring (top 8) at the AAC Championships.

[1972Shocker]

Friday is going to be a very challenging day for Destiny Masters at the AAC Indoor Championships as she is scheduled to compete in the pentathlon, 60m hurdle prelims, and the long jump.

Her schedule will be:

09:00 am Pentathlon 60m Hurdles
09:45 am (est.) Pentathlon High Jump
11:30 am (est.) Pentathlon Shot Put
12:45 pm (est.) Pentathlon Long Jump
01:35 pm Women's 60m Hurdle Prelims (winner of each of the 3 heats + 5 next fastest times move to Saturdays finals)
02:00 pm (est.) Pentathlon 800m run
02:00 pm Women's Long Jump (top 9 after 3 jumps qualify for 3 more jumps)

I'm sure she will be focused mostly on putting up the best score she can in the pentathlon. She currently sits at #20 in the nation. The top 16 scores qualify to compete at the NCAA National Indoor Championships. Looks like Destiny will need a personal best of at least 4,100 points to have a shot at that. That will be tough I think.

That Women's Long Jump competition following and 800m run in which Destiny will probably be going as hard as she can on (and she does not like the 800 and vice versa) plus the 5 previous events will be quite a challenge.

If Destiny makes the final 8 in the 60m hurdles her Saturday schedule (assuming she has survived Friday) will be:

9:45 pm Women's High Jump
12:10 pm Women's 60m Hurdles Finals (if qualifying)

[1972Shocker]

Destiny did not get off to a great start in the pentathlon. She ran an 8.60 good for 995 points but finished 4th in the event. That's not a bad score but her PB in this event 8.47. There are 21 athletes competing in the pentathlon so this will probably push the start times of the final 3 events back. There are 4 other Shockers in this event but none will be factors.

Destiny finished 2nd in the high jump with a leap of 1.77m/5-9.75 good for 941 points. Again pretty decent but just not quite up to her best.

Considering these 1st two events are her strongest events. I think she is going to need some PB performances in shot put, long jump and 800m run to have a shot at a top 16 national score and ticket to the NCAA National Championships. I think at this point that is quite a long shot.

Destiny has a small lead after two events over Spirit Morgan of Cincinnati and Kristen O'Handley of Tulane.

Destiny was right at her PB in the shot put at 11.48m/37-8 which is worth 627 points which was 4th best in the event. Destiny's lead over Tulane's O'Handley is now only 39 points.

With O'Handley currently leading in the long jump and being a much stronger 800m runner than Destiny things are looking good for Destiny.

Destiny was only able to jump 5.61,18-5 in the long jump finishing 4th. That is about a full foot shy of her PB. Destiny and O'Handley are tied at 3,295 points heading into the final event, the 800m run. 3 other are within 120 to 150 points behind. O'Handley is much better in the 800 so not looking like Destiny will capture an AAC title today and will not qualify for the NCAA finals.

Destiny also did not qualify for the finals in the women's 60m hurdles with her slowest time of the season at 8.70 seconds. I think she may be running out of gas.

Destiny actually ran a PB of 2:32.37 in the 800m run but that was only 13th fastest in the 21 runner field and the slowest of the 5 Shockers in the field. Tulanes's Kristen O'Handley ran a meet record 2:15.94 to pull away from the field winning the pentathlon with a total of 4,175 points. Destiny finished a distant 2nd with 3,958 points. So Destiny's goal of an AAC Championship and a berth in the National Finals did not happen. However, O'Handley has moved up to 9th in the country and will probalby take her AAC Championship on to the National Finals. Congratulation to O'Handley an a terrific performance. Destiny's performance wasn't bad just not quite good enough.

On the bright side O'Handley is a senior and Desinty is a sophomore. However, Destiny is in her 4th year at WSU. How long she plans on hanging around and putting herself through this ringer remains to be seen.

Destiny will now move over to the women's long jump. The event has already started but they are just finishing up Flight 1. Destiny is schedule to jump in Flight 3, so she will have a little time to recuperate. Whether on not she has anything left in the tank is the question.