2017-18 Shocker Women XC and Track & Field

[1972Shocker]

Tulsa finishes 3rd in the 4x400 relay and the Shockers finish 10h.

So Tulsa edges the Lady Shocks 49 to 45.5 and pick up 3 Havoc in the Hearltand points.

Actually a pretty good showing by the Lady Shocks. The did pull ahead of UCF, Temple and USF to finish 9th.

I projected that they would score around 45 points and they did that almost exactly thanks largley to Winny Koskei.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocker women are going through a major rebuild and will most likely finish at or near the bottom of the upcoming AAC Outdoor Track and Field Chapionships next Friday, Satruday and Sunday I thought I would see where the Shocker women might pick up a few points based on the AAC Performance Charts as they now stand. I

If you are not familiar withe the scoring the Top 8 finishers in each event score points receving from 1st thru 8th: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1

Here are the Shocker women who are currently ranked in the Top 10 on the AAC Performance Charts:

5000m - Fr. Winny Koskei - 2nd - 16:30.16 (Result: 16:49.01 - 1st - 10 Points)

10000m - Fr. Winny Kiskei - 2nd - 34:47.00 (Result: 35:21.14 - 1st - 10 Points)

4 x 100 Relay - Wichita State - 10th - 46.94 (Result:46.66 - 9th - No Points)

High Jump - Jr. Katie Murray - 5th (3-Way Tie) - 5-8 (Result: 5-7 - T7th - 1.5 Points)

Pole Vault - Jr. Alesa Frye - 5th (2-Way Tie) - 12-8.25 (Result: No Heighted - No Score)

Triple Jump - Sr. Meghan Holmes - 7th - 39-11.5 (Result: 39-7.75 - 9th Place - No Points)

Shot Put - Jr. Kelsey Slawson - 5th - 51-.075 (Result: 50-8.75 - 6th Place - 3 Points)

Discus - Sr. Tyra Bickham - 6th - 169-3 (Result: Did Not Compete)

Javelin - Jr. Carlea Miles - 3rd - 156-5 (Result: 163-2 - 3rd - 6 Points)
Javelin - Fr. Kendra Henry - 7th - 144-0 (Result:156-6 - 4th - 5 Points)
Javelin - Sr. Kelsey Tenbrink - 8th - 137-0 (Result: 140-10 - 9th- No Score)

Heptathlon - Fr. Kendra Henry - 5th - 4,561 (Result: 5,018 - 1st - 10 Points)
Heptathlon - Jr. Carlea Miles - 9th - 3,977 (Appears to have been injured on he final event of Day 1)

By my calculations based on a finish equal to the current performance charts would produce about 45 points for the Shocker women. In last year's AAC Championships that would be good for a 9th place finish. All 12 AAC schools field women's track and field.

Of course, points aren't awarded for your best peformance during the season but the actual results next weekend.

The Shocker men or the Shocker women need to outscore Tulsa to win the inaugural Havoc in the Heartlnad Trophy.The Shocker men chart out at around 130 points vs 70 for the Tulsa men and the Shocker women chart out at around 45 points vs 35 for the Tulsa women. Maybe we get all 6 Havoc poiints remaining to be had.

I projected 45 points for the Lady Shocks. They scored 45.5 and that was, in fact, good enough for 9th place.

We were short of expectations in the pole vault and discuss but the performances of Freshmen Winny Koskei and Kendra Henry made up for that.

Next year the Shocks get Rebecca Topham back after a redshirt year and about 25 other redshirt athletes as well. Hopefully, the Lady Shocks will be a bit more competitive next year overall and much better in a couple of years.

Team Scores: http://live.finishtiming.com/#/resul...01800171/score

[1972Shocker]

Freshman Winny Koskei became the third female Shocker to win both the 5000m and 10,000m title at the same outdoor championships, joining elite company of Tonya Nero (2010) and Aliphine Tuliamuk (2012, 2013).

While Winny's 5k PR is only 11 seconds behind Tonya's Shocker PR she has a way to go to catch Aliphine's time in the 5k and both Tonya's and Aliphine's times in the 10k. Of course, Winny is a redshirt freshman and has 3 more years to get there. Should be interesting to watch.

Actually Winny does not even have the best 5k time on the current Shocker team. Jr. Rebekah Topham. last years MVC 5k champion who is redshirting this year, has a PR in the 5k about 13.5 seconds faster than Winny. So some of the best 5k races the next two years might be in practice or intrasquad meets between Winny and Rebekah.

Could be some interesting battles the next couple of years between Winny, Rebekah and SMU's Hannah Miller.

3 Shocker women earned AAC All-Conference honors (top 3 finish);

Kendra Henry - Heptathlon (Champion)
Winny Koskei - 5000m (Champion
Winny Koskei - 10,000m (Champion)
Carlea Miles - Javelin (Third)

All 3 will return next year.

[Cdizzle]

Freshman Winny Koskei became the third female Shocker to win both the 5000m and 10,000m title at the same outdoor championships, joining elite company of Tonya Nero (2010) and Aliphine Tuliamuk (2012, 2013).

While Winny's 5k PR is only 11 seconds behind Tonya's Shocker PR she has a way to go to catch Aliphine's time in the 5k and both Tonya's and Aliphine's times in the 10k. Of course, Winny is a redshirt freshman and has 3 more years to get there. Should be interesting to watch.

Actually Winny does not even have the best 5k time on the current Shocker team. Jr. Rebekah Topham. last years MVC 5k champion who is redshirting this year, has a PR in the 5k about 13.5 seconds faster than Winny. So some of the best 5k races the next two years might be in practice or intrasquad meets between Winny and Rebekah.

Could be some interesting battles the next couple of years between Winny, Rebekah and SMU's Hannah Miller.

3 Shocker women earned AAC All-Conference honors (top 3 finish);

Kendra Henry - Heptathlon (Champion)
Winny Koskei - 5000m (Champion
Winny Koskei - 10,000m (Champion)
Carlea Miles - Javelin (Third)

All 3 will return next year.

Wow. Fantastic. Looks like strength in Women's distance is set up to continue for WSU.

Congratulations to Winny on a great weekend! While the team finish wasn't great this weekend, as you have pointed out, the pipeline looks good to improve that competitiveness quickly.

Wonder if there is any young local sprint talent....seems like both men's and women's may be in need of such help going forward.

[1972Shocker]

Wonder if there is any young local sprint talent....seems like both men's and women's may be in need of such help going forward.

That will really be tough. Houston is speed city. Not only do they have a plethora of talent in their own backyard but the Head Coach is former world record holder Leroy Burrell and the sprints coach is some guy named Carl Lewis.

With track and field having pretty restrictive scholarship limits (18.0 for the women and 12.6 for the men) you tend to probably look for athletes that qualify for in-state tuition to to make those scholarship dollars go as far as possible.

The hayseeds (and I use that term lovingly) that dominate the Shockers natural recuriting area generally are country strong with great stamina and great work ethics. World class sprinters are not really abundant. Hopefully the expansion of in-state tuition down the I-35 corridor will help that situation and expand the talent pool available to Coach Rainbolt and staff.

As far as the current team is concerned there may be some hope with RFr. Paula Garcia out of Madrid, Spain. She was around the 5th best freshman in the AAC this year in the 100 and 200 but she will need to continue her improvement if she is to be a factor in future AAC Championships.

So. Jacque Darby out of Olathe South who redshirted this year also has potential.

Coach Rainbolt did somehow manage to pull a rabbit out of his hat with the Larch-Miller twins but those two may well have been a once in a lifetime scenario.

Occassionally, the Shocks will strike gold in their own back yard such as Alicia McQueen in the 1980's and more recently her daughter, Audacia Moore.

[1972Shocker]

4 Shocker women have qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in Sacramento, CA on May 24-26. There are 2 preliminary meets. West and East.

The top 48 marks in each event in each Region qualifies. The top 12 finishers in the West and the top 12 finishers in the East advance to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, OR on June 6-9.

The Shocker qualifiers, their seed marks and their seeds (ranks) are as follows:

Javelin: Jr. Carlea Miles (49.75m/163-2) #21
Javelin: Fr. Kendra Henry (47.71m/156-6) #29

10,000m Run: Fr. Winny Koskeu (34:47.00) #48

Shot Put: Jr. Kelsey Slawson (15.56m/51-0.75) #34

Unlikely that any of the Shocker women will advance to Eugene. But it should be a good experience and all 4 will be back next year.

http://goshockers.com/news/2018/5/17...t-prelims.aspx

[WuDrWu]

I won't be surprised at all if Winny qualifies. I'll admit naiveté, but I think she's got a lot left in the tank and wouldn't at all be surprised if she were to hang with the lead pack and manage to crack the top 12. I will be watching.

[Cdizzle]

I won't be surprised at all if Winny qualifies. I'll admit naiveté, but I think she's got a lot left in the tank and wouldn't at all be surprised if she were to hang with the lead pack and manage to crack the top 12. I will be watching.

Can you direct to how to watch? When/where? If you don't know off-hand I suppose I could go to the ridiculous effort of looking it up for myself.

[1972Shocker]

I won't be surprised at all if Winny qualifies. I'll admit naiveté, but I think she's got a lot left in the tank and wouldn't at all be surprised if she were to hang with the lead pack and manage to crack the top 12. I will be watching.

You never know on these long races as the way the race is run tactically can have an impact. But the Top 12 runners in the West all have times of around 33:20 or better and there are 35 runners between that and Winny's PR of 34:47. So if the top runners run close to their PR's, which they may not do depending on the conditions and how the race is run, Winny would have to knock 1:27 or so or her best time. That is an awful lot to ask.

At this point for Winny I would happy with any new PR and/or any finish that improves on her seed.

[1972Shocker]

Here are the Shocker women (with West Region ranking in their event) participating in the NCAA regionals - I assuming times listed on the schedule are Pacific Times:

Thursday, May 24th:

Javelin - 2:00 pm CT - Jr. Carlea Miles (#21) and Fr. Kendra Henry (#30) - 3 Throws - Advance Top 12 to Eugene
There are 3 flights - Carlea and Kendra are both in Flight 2.

Shot Put - 6:30 pm CT - Jr. Kesley Slawson (#35) - 3 Attempts - Advance Top 12 to Eugene
There are 4 flights - Kelsey is in Flight 2.

10000m Run - 11:40 pm CT - Fr. Winny Koskei (#57) - Advance To 12 to Eugene

Saturday, May 26th:

5000m Run - 10:45 pm CT - Fr. Winny Koskei (#67) - 2 Heats - Top 5 From Each Heat Plus Next 2 Fastest Times Advance to Eugene

http://goshockers.com/news/2018/5/23...-regional.aspx

I am not really expecting any of the Shocker women to advance to Eugen but sitll is great experience for them. A successful meet would be to set a new PR and/or to finish higher than their seeding.

[1972Shocker]

Not sure if the conditions for throwing the javelin are poor today but the top 12 throws so far have ranged from 161-5 to 178-6 which are relatively pedestrian throws. Coming into th meet the top 12 throws in the West Region ranged from 173-6 to 192-4.

Carlea's best throw so far of 140-11 is about 23 feet short of her PR. Likewise Kendra Henry's best throw so far of 132-0 which, like Carlea is about 24 feet short of her PR set at the AAC Championships.

Not sure how many throws are left but the competition is apparently still in progress...

i think I have this figured out now. The weakest 16 throwers coming in were in Flight 1. The middle 16 in Flight two. And the Top 16 throwers are in Flight 3 which is currently throwing.

Flight 1 and 2 appear to be done. Looks like the throws for Carlea and Kendra mentioned above are their best attempts. Carlea likely to finish 33rd (no better than 32nd) and Kenrdra will finish 44th.

Somewhat of a disappointing performance even though most competitors have thrown below their bests.

Hopefully, the Shocker men will fare better on Saturday.

https://www.ncaa.com/sites/default/f...1_compiled.htm

[1972Shocker]

Kelsey Slawson put the shot 48-0.5. Not terrible but only good for 42nd in this competition.

All that remains is Winnys's 2 races.

[1972Shocker]

Heckuva effort by Winny in the 10k. She came in as the #48 seed and finished 21st with a time of 33:30.31 which knocks 1:16.69 off her previous personal best. That is the 3rd best time in Shocker history behind Aliphine Tuliamuk and Tonya Nero. She was only about 20 seconds slower than Tonya's best and about 1:23 behind school record holder Aliphine.

While she did not qualify for Eugene it was finally a performance Shocker fans can feel really good about. Winny salvages what was otherwise a somewhat disappointing day.

9 of the runners that finished in front of her were seniors. This must have been a race that was run at a relatively quick pace. There were a whopping 27 personal bests set by the field including 2 school records. Not sure how common something like that is but I'm guessing not very.

Will be interesting to what she has left in the 5k on Saturday although I think the 10k is her better event.

[1972Shocker]

Coach Rainbolt was on the drive yesterday afternoon. At that point the women's javelin had been completed. He did say that the results for Carlea and Kendra were disappointing. He said Kendra probably had a Freshman moment and made one poor throw and fouled twice. Carlea apparently tweaked her elbow at the AAC Championships and it was still bothering her.

[1972Shocker]

Winny Koskei finishes her season with a 30th place finish in the 5k with a time of 16:19.47. However, that time was a new personal best by close to 11 seconds. Excellent season for Winny and her improvement over the past year has been stellar. If she continues that over the next 3 years we have potential Shocker great on our hands.

Winny's time doesn't move her up on the all time list but she is now only 0.3 of second behind Tona Nero for 5th All-Times at WSU. And she is only a couple of seconds behind Rebekah Topham for 4th place all-time. I would expect both Rebekah and Winny will pass Desiraye Osburn's 15:53.51 in hte next couple of years. Whether either can catch the all-time Shocker record of 15:18.86 by Aliphine The Machine Tuliamuk remains to be seen and won't be easy.