Shocker Women T&F 2013-14

[1972Shocker]

Coach Rainbolt announced a class of 14 for 2013-14.

It includes 11 incoming freshman (4 Kansas kids, 2 from Nebraska and 1 each from Oklahoma, Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Hungary) plus 3 JUCO transfers from Johnson County (via Wamego HS), Hutch CC (via Garden Plain HS) and Iowa Central CC.

This class is not nearly as focused on Kansas kids as normal unlike this year's men's recruiting class.

It's difficult to evaluate a T&F class talent-wise, at least for someone with my limited knowledge. However, I did compare the best performances of these athletes to the scoring performances in the MVC Outdoor Championships to see how they compare. The Ladies performances are not nearly as impressive as the men's recruiting classes but here are the highlights:

Ebiessa Nyandwi, Junior long distance runner transferring from Iowa Central CC. She was 6-tim NJCAA national champion in the 3K, 5K and 10K races which is pretty impressive. However, her best times would not have scored in the MVC Outdoor Meet so she has some work to do.

Macy Ebert, Junior high jumper transferring from Johnson County CC (Wamego HS). Her PB would have finished 5th in the MVC Outdoor Meet.

Megan Campbell, Sprints, Wellington HS. Her PB in the 100m would have been good for a 7th place finish in the MVC.

Sidney Hirsch, Distance, Millard West HS (Omaha). Her PB in the 1600m run converts to about a 5th place finish in last year's MVC Outdoor.

Lycia Holton, Distance, Springboro HS (OH). Her PB in the 1600m converts to a 9th place MVC finish.

McKenzee Kroeschell, Pole Vault, Oak Park HS (IL). Her PB would have placed her 5th in the MVC pole vault.

Nora Zajovics, Hurdles, Gyor, Hungary. Nora is the Hungarian national champion in the 400h and her PB would have been good for 3rd in the MVC Outdoor Championship last year. Looks like Natalie Morerod will have a teammate who will push her (and vice versa).

As I said not as impressive as the incoming men's class from what I can tell but Coach Rainbolt has shown a great knack for inducing great improvement out of his female recruits during their Shocker careers. My guess is there are a couple of surprise packages in this class as well.

It will be interesting to see how much improvement Coach Hunter can coax out of Ebiessa as she has huge shoes to fill with Aliphine moving on.

[WuDrWu]

I don't what the PP's say, Macy Ebert is a flat out superstar.

[goshox74]

I would agree with '72Shocker that this class doesn't seem to be as strong as the men's but if you remember last year had a significant amount of impact freshmen and it's possible that there isn't the amount of scholarship money available to recruit with for this year. That being said, WSU will have to find a way to replace the point of Aliphine and Tanya Friesen. With the depth in the multi events, covering Friesen's scoring should be something that Pinkston, Larch-Miller, and company can do. As for Aliphine, no one will be able to replace her. Ever. The Shocks will have to make it up around the track and field events overall, which I think they can. It will be interesting to see how it will affect the cross country team, who hasn't finished lower than 2nd in the MVC in a long, long time.

As with all recruiting classes, we won't know much for a couple years. I am aware of one more impact freshman who signed after this was released as well as a January transfer who should be significant.

It should also be of note that MVC Outdoor Champion Indiana State graduated a ton of points, so we should try to find who they signed as well. I only found this which lists 4 average signees. I'm sure they signed several more: http://www.gosycamores.com/ViewArtic...CLID=206594662

[1972Shocker]

Shocker women are picked to finish 4th in the preseason MVC Cross Country poll. The Lady Shocks finished 2nd last year.

The Lady Shocks finished only slightly ahead (68 to 65) of Bradley in the preseason voting. Bradley returns their entire team from last year so the Shocks may have their hands full holding off Bradley.

[1972Shocker]

@goshox74:

What is your assessment of the Shocker women for the upcoming indoor T&F season?

Who should we keep our eye on? Any sleepers?

Thanks.

[goshox74]

We are only 2 weeks away from the indoor season starting so thank you 1972 Shocker for starting the conversation!

It is really hard to say about this year's women team. The bad news is they have to try and replace Aliphine Tuliamuk and Tanya Friesen, who between them scored a load of points at the MVC meets. Replacing the best female athlete in WSU is impossible and the cross country season didn't go all that great so you would expect there to be a loss of points in that area. On top of that, entering the conference is Loyola, who is distance heavy, so scoring those points will be even tougher now.

Replacing Friesen in the multi won't be too difficult, WSU is stacked in that event for years to come, but her Long Jump and High Jump points will be tougher to find. There are some good newcomers on the roster but it's hard to imagine the Shockers will be as good as last year's team (MVC Indoor Champs, lost outdoor by 1 point to Indiana State).

That being said, I could see the whole conference being a bit more balanced and wide open. Usually it's been WSU and one other team battling for a victory but this year I could see WSU, Indiana State, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, maybe Missouri State as contenders indoor. This might be a rebuilding year for the WSU women but it's really hard to say until the season gets rolling and we see what everyone else has. I would imagine a top-3 finish is likely and a championship a little unlikely. There are only 7 seniors on the roster so 2015 should be much better.

[goshox74]

A statistical note to show how dominant WSU women's track has been: In the past 20 MVC Championships (10 indoor, 10 outdoor), WSU has been 1st or 2nd 18 times (in 2009 they were 4th indoor and outdoor).

[1972Shocker]

This sure won't help the Shockers chances this year:

WSU will be without its top female high jumper. Senior J’Lynn Ledesma is academically ineligible, according to coach Steve Rainbolt, ending her career at WSU.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/01/16/323...#storylink=cpy

[1972Shocker]

Lady Shocks picked to finish 3rd in MVC Indoor Championship.

I looked at heat sheets a while back for the Valley and kind of thought the Shocker Ladies would be 4th, possibly 3rd. Shocks look to be a pretty solid pick for 3rd. Is 2nd within our reach? @goshox74: would probably have to fill us in on that.

[isu87]

day 1 track results, full results, for the Shox track fans. Live video is free tomorrow at the UNI site

http://www.unipanthers.com/ViewContent.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=26200&CONTENT_ID=886504

[WuDrWu]

A quick glance at the results today did not look good at all for WSU, either men or the ladies.

[1972Shocker]

A quick glance at the results today did not look good at all for WSU, either men or the ladies.

That was also my impression @WuDrWu:.

[1972Shocker]

Well @WuDrWu shows you what you and I know. Both the Lady Shocks and the their male counterparts finished 2nd in the Valley Indoors. I know I'm dumber than dirt when it comes to Track & Field but I must say I am disappointed in you. :tongue-new:

The Lady Shocks were actually very competitive finishing with 117.43 to 129.86 for Indiana State.

http://www.mvc-sports.com/trackfield/news/2013-14/7091/2014-indoor-track--field-championship/

Good work Ladies. Looks like we have some good young talent on this team.

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers scored most of their points in the following events:

60 Yard Hurdles:
2nd - Fr. Taylor Larch-Miller (8) + 3rd - Jr. Shanice Andrews (6) + 6th - Sr. Natalie Morerod (3) + 8th - So. Taylor Thomas (1) = 18 points.

High Jump:
2nd - So. Ashley Peterson (8) + 3rd - Fr. Breanne Borman (6) + 4th - Jr. Jacklyn Abrahamian (5) = 19 points.

Triple Jump:
1st - Jr. Shanice Andrews = 10 points.

Pentathlon:
1st - Fr. Nikki Larch-Miller (10) + 3rd - Fr. Breanne Borman (6) + 4th - So. Gavyn Yetter (5) + 6th - Jr. Jacklyn Abrahamian ((3) = 24 points.

Not a lot of individual champions but a typical solid team performance with a bunch of terrific all-around athletes.

[WuDrWu]

Well @WuDrWu shows you what you and I know. Both the Lady Shocks and the their male counterparts finished 2nd in the Valley Indoors. I know I'm dumber than dirt when it comes to Track & Field but I must say I am disappointed in you. :tongue-new:

The Lady Shocks were actually very competitive finishing with 117.43 to 129.86 for Indiana State.

http://www.mvc-sports.com/trackfield/news/2013-14/7091/2014-indoor-track--field-championship/

Good work Ladies. Looks like we have some good young talent on this team.

I looked today and still didn't look like we were being all that competitive although the statistics were about impossible to follow thanks to the .05 effort from UNI.

The girls also met with some bad luck when Nikki Larch-Miller suffered a minor non-contact injury that probably caused poor times/finishes in the 60 and 60H as well as a relay. Not saying it would have made a difference in the final standings but you never know. When you add the events for the outdoors, they may just have a chance to challenge ISUb if they can stay healthy.