2023-24 Shocker Women's XC and Track & Field

[1972Shocker]

[WstateU]

[WuDrWu]

Just love stories like that. Amazing student athletes.

[1972Shocker]

Lucy Ndungu recorded an almost full minute personal best in the 5,000 meters, running 16:29.17, the seventh-fastest time in school history in her 5K season debut. She finished 17^th, beating American Athletic Conference opponent Tamara Reeves of Tulsa who finished 18^th. Ndungu's time ranks fourth in the conference going into the conference championship.

[1972Shocker]

At the KSU Ward Haylett Invite

Nice season best jump by Marisa who perhaps has been dealing with an injury as her jumping has been well below par for her so far this season. That's the 5th best mark in the AAC so far this year.

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Shocker PV Coach Aliyah Welter wins the pole vault clearing 13-9.75 but she may be more proud of her student athlete, Arantxa Cortez who finished 2nd with a clearnance of 12-10 which is a new PB for Arantxa bettering her previous best mark of 12-3.5 by a significant margin. That moves her from 12th in the AAC charts to 6th on the season.

This jump of 12-10 us ab automatic qualifying mark for the U23 South American Championships. Nice speed on her approach. Just a little more upper body strength and Arantxa could clear 13'.

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New PB of 40-7.75 for Chidera. 9th best jump in the AAC so far this season.

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Freshman Kate Campos recorded her fourth sub-14 second 100-meter hurdles race of the season, finishing third in 13.92 (+4.0w). Campos went on to claim her second 400-meter hurdles win of the season, running a personal best time of 1:01.67. The 400m hurdle time is 8th best in the AAC this season.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Seek High Team Finish, Individual Titles at AAC Outdoor Championships

Wichita State track and field is set for the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships from May 10-12 at the Park West Athletic Complex in San Antonio. The Shockers are aiming for a finish in the women's competition.

NO. 1 SEEDS
Lucy Ndungu – 10,000m – 33:41.31
Destiny Masters – Heptathlon – 5,749 points

NDUNGU'S REDEMPTION ARC
Junior Lucy Ndungu made an immediate impact for the Shockers after transferring from Cloud County CC this year. She was the AAC Cross Country runner up and finished fifth in the 3,000 meters at the indoor championships. An unfortunate decision by the officials in the 5,000 meters disqualified Ndungu after she was knocked off the track by a fall by another runner. After getting back in the race, she finished fourth but ultimately was disqualified. She enters the outdoor championship meet as the No. 1 seed in the 10,000 meters and the No. 4 seed in the 5,000 meters and looks to be a big scorer for the Shockers.

FRESHY ON FIRE
Kate Campos enters the competition as the 11 seed in the 400-meter hurdles and the 12 seed in the 100-meter hurdles, and she will also run the second leg of the 4x100-meter relay.

WOMEN'S TEAM PROJECTIONS (based on championship start lists and TFRRS standings)

1. Charlotte
2. South Florida
3. Rice
4. East Carolina
5. Wichita State
6. UTSA
7. Memphis
8. North Texas
9. SMU
10. Tulsa
11. Tulane
12. Temple
13. Florida Atlantic
14. UAB

ROAD TO EUGENE
The NCAA Division I Championships will take place June 5-8 in Eugene, Ore. at Hayward Field. This year for the west region, the road to Eugene goes through Fayetteville, Ark., where the top 48 individual athletes and the top 24 relays in the region will compete at the NCAA West Preliminaries (NCAA First Round) May 22-25 for a spot at the NCAA Championships. The top 12 in each event advance to the championship. Combined event athletes (heptathlon and decathlon) do not attend the First Rounds, but instead, the top 24 athletes overall advance directly to the NCAA Championship in Eugene.

SHOCKER WOMEN IN THE NCAA WEST TOP 50
26. Lucy Ndungu – 10,000m – 33:41.31
14. Destiny Masters – HJ – 1.81m/5'11.25"
39. Marissa Jensen – HJ – 1.75m/5'8.75"
45. Destiny Masters – Jav – 47.46m/155'8"

MULTIS IN THE NCAA TOP 25
11. Destiny Masters – Heptathlon – 5,749 points

[1972Shocker]

AAC Championships - Friday Results

10000m Run: Lucy Ndungu finished second with a time of 37:53.73 behind Tulsa Sr. Chloe Hershenow's time of 37:47.04. Lucy and Chloe had the top 2 times coming into this race. However, the marks they put up today are about 4 minutes slower than their best marks of the season. Looking at the San Antonio weather the culprit appears to be warm conditions (not hot) but more importantly high humidity. In any case, Lucy picks up 8 points for the Lady Shocks and earns AAC All-Conference honors with a podium finish.

Lucy recovered from a mid-race fall to come back and take the silver in the 10K and score the first Shocker points of the meet! Perhaps not too surprising that Lucy would take a fall she is a tiny thing:

Women's Javelin: So. Tess Roman earned 3 points with her 6th place finish with a personal best throw of 144-05

Women's 1500m Prelims - Top 12 advance: So. Lea Jerkovic qualified 5th in the 1500m run with a season best time of 4:35.36

[shoxlax]

AAC Championships - Friday Results

10000m Run: Lucy Ndungu finished second with a time of 37:53.73 behind Tulsa Sr. Chloe Hershenow's time of 37:47.04. Lucy and Chloe had the top 2 times coming into this race. However, the marks they put up today are about 4 minutes slower than their best marks of the season. Looking at the San Antonio weather the culprit appears to be warm conditions (not hot) but more importantly high humidity. In any case, Lucy picks up 8 points for the Lady Shocks and earns AAC All-Conference honors with a podium finish.

What took you so long to report that race?

[1972Shocker]

What took you so long to report that race?

It was the humidity.

[1972Shocker]

AAC Championships - Heptathlon - Day 1

A much larger field for the ladies in the heptathlon at 18 athletes compared to the guys who have 10 athletes entered in the decathlon. The favorites have to be Eliza Kraule of Rice and the Shocker's Destiny Masters. Kraule edged out Destiny for the AAC indoor pentathlon championship this past winter.

100m Hurdles: Kraule is off to a great start winning the 100m hurdles in 13.49 seconds good for 1,052 points. Destiny was 2nd with a solid time of 13.84 seconds for 1001 points. Shocker Jr. Kenisa Meyer was 3rd at 14.01 good for 977 points.

High Jump: The live stats are not tracking the high jump as it goes. So I logged into ESPN+. Looks a bit windy in San Atntonio today. Destiny has her upper left thigh pretty heavily wrapped but she is looing okay. The high jump has come down to Destiny, Kraule and another Rice athlete. Alice Taylor who all look to be strong jumpers. Destiny does well clearing 6-0.75 for a new outdoor PR good for 1,041 points. Rice's Taylor won the event jumping 6-3.25 good for 1,119 points. Kraule, who is a very strong looking athlete, finished 3rd at 5-10.5 for 966 points. Destiny has a slight lead after 24 points over Kraule after 2 events.

Shot Put: Kraule put the shot 39-8.50 for 668 points and Destiny puts it 39-0.5 for 654 points which cuts Destiny's lead to 10 points with the final event of Day 1 coming up.

200m Dash: Kraule runs a 24.70 for 915 points while Destiny runs a 25.22 for 867 points as Kraule moves into 1st place 38 points ahead of Destiny. Looked like that thigh might have bothered Destiny just a little.

The Ladies finish up tomorrow with the long jump, javelin and 800m run. I don't think Destiny probably can beat Kraule. She would have to have a big long jump and big javelin to do that. Not sure that is in the books with whatever is going on with her thigh/hamstring especially if that thing tightens up overnight.

[1972Shocker]

A little more detail on Lucy Ndungu's 10,000m run trials and tribulations:

In the first race of the day, Lucy Ndungu took a tumble in 17th lap of the 10,000 meters and had get up and fight about 15 meters to get back up into the front of lead pack. Ndungu suffered a similar fate in the 5,000 meters at the AAC Indoor Championships in February when she got knocked off the track, fought back into the race to finish fourth but was ultimately disqualified for being off the track. This time, she battled right back into the race and fought for the silver in a race to the finish with Charlotte's Lauren Johnston. Ndungu out-leaned the 49er by .03 seconds to take second. Tulsa's Chloe Hershenow claimed gold in the race.

"That was an emotional race for me to watch because of what happened to Lucy at the indoor championship.," head coach Steve Rainbolt said. "Worse than the 15 meters [that she lost] is the toll that it takes on your body to fall and have to scramble back up. It's a major struggle to recover and collect yourself and get back into a race like that, and she did. She battled right back up toward the front and then was in a race at the end, and she fought so hard. I was not able to contain my emotions at the end of that race because it was such a valiant effort."

[1972Shocker]

AAC Championships - Heptathlon - Day 2

Long Jump: Destiny with a very solid effort at 19-4.25 for 819 points but Rice's extremely athletic Eliza Kraule was even better with a season best 20-1.75 for 893 points extending Kraule's lead to 112 points.

Javelin Throw: Shocker sophomore Tess Roman picked up an impressive win in the javelin with a personal best throw of 151-9 worth 788 points. Destiny was 4th at 126-4 for 639 and Kraule was 10th with a throw of 101-8 for 495 points. Destiny picks up 144 points to regain the lead by 32 points heading into the final event, the 800m run where Kraule has a clear advantage.

800m Run: Shocker Sadie Millard picks up the event win at 2:16.78 earning 868 points. Rice's Kraule is 3rd in 2:22.90 for 785 points and Destiny is a distant 12th at 2:39.35 good for only 580 points as Kraule erases the 32 point deficit to by 173 points over Destiny with a score of 5,774 points to 5,601 for Destiny.

Destiny earns AAC All-Conference Honors with her 2nd place finish. But right now Kruale seems to haver her number and that will probably continue as long as the disparity in the 800m run continues to be an achilles heel for Destiny.

Sadie Millard move from 7th to 5th with her win in the 800m rund and scored a new personal best 5,179 points. Tess Roman moved from 15th place to 8th place over the last 2 events finishing with 4,911 points.

Overall the Shocks picked up 13 points in the heptathlon. Rice also scored 13 points in the heptathlon

[1972Shocker]

Saturday Field Events

Long Jump: Jr. Chidera Okoro tied for 5th place with a personal best 19-9 and Destiny Masters picked up a point with and 8th place finish with a jump of 19-4.75.

Shot Put: Sr. Anna Zimmer finished 5th with a personal best put of 47-7. That puts Anna in 6th place on the Shocker All-Time Top 10 list. Nice way for Anna to finish off her Shocker career.

Pole Vault: So. Arantxa Cortez finished 8th with a vualt of 11-9.

Saturday Track Events

800m Run Prelims - Top 8 Advance: Senior Farrah Miller qualifed for the finals winning heat 3 of 4 with a time of 2:13.33. If she had not won her heat she would not have qualified for the finals based on time.

3000m Steeplechase: Jr. Jenna Muma finished 4th with a personal best time of 10:50.73 and Sr. Miranda Dick finished 8th in 11:03.85.

[1972Shocker]

Sunday Field Events

Triple Jump: Jr. Chidera Okoro finished 6th with a personal best hop, skip and jump of 41-3.75 to pick up 3 points for the Shocks.

High Jump: Jr. Destiny Masters finished tied for 2nd with a leap of 5-10.75 and Jr. Marissa Jensen finished 6th with a jump of 5-7.75 to gather 10 points for the Shocker cause.

Sunday Running Events

800m Run Finals: Sr. Farrah Miller finished 2nd in the 800 with a new personal best time 2:06.24 which is just .12 of a second off the all-time Shocker mark of 2:06.12 set by Kellyn Johnson in 2009.

5000m Run: Lucy Dnungu finished 2nd in the 5k with a time of 16:46.49 to go along with her 2nd place finish in the 10k on Fridaty morning. I'm calling it right now. Little Lucy will win both the 5k and the 10k next year.

[1972Shocker]

Women’s Scores
1. Charlotte 142
2. Rice 122
3. South Florida 76
4. Wichita State 69
5. East Carolina 67
5. SMU 67
7. Memphis 66
8. Tulsa 58
9. North Texas 48
10. UTSA 39.5
11. Tulane 26
12. Florida Atlantic 15
13. Temple 13
14. UAB 9.5

The Shocks did just enough to squeeze by ECU, SMU, and MemphEX for 4th place. A good solid finish for them. Charlotte and Rice appear to have very good track and field programs.