Three Shocks
qualify to NCAA Finals
We took the most athletes in our school’s history to the
NCAA West Preliminaries (25) last week but were only able to get three through
to next week’s NCAA Finals. Even though
it may seem like we wouldn’t be happy with a 3/25 performance we actually are. Let me explain …
First of all, the NCAA Prelims are a pretty brutal
competition where all of the athletes are at a quality level. 48 athletes in each event are narrowed down
to 12. Field eventers only get three
attempts and there’s not much use in taking a “safety” attempt – this is why
you see so many athletes foul out in this meet.
On top of that we had massive weather issues in Lawrence, KS, where a
3-day schedule was basically reduced to a 2-day schedule. Without going into all the details of the
schedule changes, let’s just say we felt lucky that anyone advanced out of this
meet.
Another reason we thought the meet went well is because
of a scoring system we came up with to measure the success of our team at this
meet. Often there are athletes ranked
40+ that might not have a realistic goal of being in the top-12 so we talk
about “moving up” from their pre-meet ranking.
We score the meet, 48 points for first place, down to 1 point for 48th
place. With our 25 athletes we had a
pre-meet projected scored of 570 points and we finished with 617. That means, on average, our athletes finished
about two places higher than their rank coming in. It was a good meet overall for WSU!
The three Shockers advancing to Eugene next weekend are
Ashley Petersen in the High Jump, Skylar Arneson in the Hammer and Damien Odle
in the Javelin. Ashley will make her
second appearance at the NCAA Finals with Skylar and Damien will be making
their first.
What do I think
of the NCAA Preliminary format?
Since I began coaching at the Division I level in 1998
there has always been heated discussion and debate about how to qualify to the
NCAA Outdoor Championships and at the NCAA West Prelims I had several coaches
ask me what I thought of the current format.
You might remember I wrote a long blog that sort of went
viral earlier this year about the restructuring of NCAA Track & Field so,
obviously, I probably have some thoughts about this …
Whatever way the NCAA decides to have us qualify is fine
with me and we try to prepare our athletes the best we can to achieve that
goal. But if I have any opinion, I guess
I prefer there at least being a head-to-head competition for those spots rather
than just a descending order list from the season. Here’s some proof of why …
We have a good distance runner named Brady Johnson who
was one of the last guys to make it in the 10k in Lawrence. He was also one of the only athletes to make
it there from a meet that wasn’t run at Stanford or Mt SAC. He ran his qualifying time at our home meet –
the KT Woodman Classic. It was a little
breezy and he didn’t have a lot of competition but he ran fast enough to get to
the NCAA Prelims. Throughout the outdoor
season Brady raced in several smaller meets with terrific “racing” success that
led to a great double performance in the 5k/10k at the MVC Championships. Going into the NCAA Prelims he was ranked 46th
and “raced” another good effort all the way up to 16th place and was
in the hunt to qualify for the NCAA Finals until the last couple hundred of
meters.
Brady passed and left behind a couple dozen guys who had
qualified to this meet in much better conditions and time trials. It further proved my thoughts that just going
off a list, whether it be distance races, sprints or field events, is not the
best way to qualify to the national championships. This (and many other circumstances like this)
only validates my earlier posts about the changes we need to make in our sport
in terms of placing more importance on head-to-head competition. I think Brady is much more prepared to race
in “big meets” (which are typically tactical in the distance events) now more than
ever before because of the outdoor season and the races he competed in this
spring.
This is just one in a number of examples I can use. The current system, even though it’s a rather
odd meet to attend, seems better than going off a list. The NCAA Finals have been much better since
we’ve gone to this system so the end result is good. Is there a better way? I’m sure there is.
NCAA’s
With all that being said, the NCAA Outdoor Championships
are an incredible meet to attend and watch – especially at Hayward Field in
Eugene, Oregon. Even non-track fans will
get swept up in the enthusiasm and talent on display this week. ESPN will have a ton of coverage on their cable
channels as well as on ESPN3 so make sure to check it out!
Recruiting
I did not have an athlete advance to the NCAA Finals this
year so I will be on the road recruiting until the NCAA meet starts (which is a
recruiting dead period). Our 2016
recruiting class is coming along nicely and while we’re almost finished our
attention has started to shift more towards the class of 2017. We have a very senior laden group of women
next year so we will have quite a bit of scholarship money available to work
with. It will be very important for us
to hit some home runs in recruiting when you’re losing the likes of Nikki and
Taylor Larch-Miller, Sidney Hirsch, Jamesia Milton, Breanne Borman, Gavyn
Yetter … the list goes on and on. The
MVC will continue to get better and recruiting good athletes to compete at a
high level is something we can never lose focus of.
Next time
Even though the track season never seems to stop, the
NCAA Championships represent a “kind of” end to the season. I’m not sure when the next blog will be but I
am thinking of changing it up a bit. I’ve
been writing this blog for a couple of years now and I feel like I’m starting
to regurgitate some of the same things and I want it to be interesting for you
to read. Hopefully I’ll come up with
something entertaining!
Until next time, thanks for reading and go Shockers!