2012 Indoor Track Season

[trackster]

Yeah, I love the Arkansas 4 by 400 relay. I've been posting about them for two years now. Let's cross our fingers for another great run at the SECs this weekend.

In the meanwhile, one great video deserves one (or two) other(s). At these college meets, the two most exciting races, with everyone going all out for the team, are the 4 by 400 and the DMR (distance medley relay). Last night, at a big northwestern meet, we had a couple of great DMRs. The first was all about Katie Flood. Katie, a UW soph, has been running some of the best collegiate times ever this year. Here, she runs the anchor leg (one mile) on the DMR, taking the baton WAAY behind a group of great runners, including Kesslring, the defending national 800 champ. Katie simply stalks them and starts picking them off one by one until she's in the lead. Then Kesselring uses her 800 speed to regain the lead and it looks like she's going to put the race away--except that Katie Flood has ONE MORE GEAR and seemingly floats past Kesselring in the final straightaway. We've hardly talked about Flood, but she's in a class by herself now.


In the men's race, it's all about BYU's Miles Batty (who recently broke the NCAA mile record) and Chris Derrick (who's been a dominating distance man his entire career) on the anchor. At the exchange, Batty takes the baton in second, Derrick in third. You just feel sorry for poor Nick Happe, a fine runner himself, who has the misfortune of being in front of those two guys. Eventually Derrick does a phenomenal job of working his way up and taking the lead with only 400 to go. We're down to the last lap when suddenly Batty puts on a kick that just makes you think HOLY F---K. (pardon my French).

 

[white lightning]

Just in from the German Indoor Championships on day one. Christian Blum won the mens 60 meters finals in a time of 6.62 for the gold medal. What impressed me even more was the womens final in the 60 meters. My girl Verena Sailer won the championship in a blistering fast time of 7.15 seconds! Wow is that fast. She shoud be in good form heading into the summer season.

 

[jacknyc]

Cade Lindahl of BYU and formerly of UCLA ran 46.25 400m indoors today.
That's an excellent time.
He should be able to run low 45s outdoors.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Iowa's Erik Sowinski had a stellar weekend for the Hawkeyes. on Day One of the Big Ten Indoor Championships, the senior broke the school record in the 800 meters with a personal best time of 1:47.62, and earned himself a place in the finals. Sowinski's time is also a Big Ten meet record.

he followed that up with a win in the finals, finishing in 1:47.90. i don't know how that time compares to the best in the world, but a Championship title is always nice.

some other results of note from the Big Ten Indoor Championships ...

400-meter hurdles specialist Cody Wisslead from the University of Illinois took 2nd place in the 60-meter hurdles, with a time of 7.89.

Penn State sophomore Aaron Nadolsky ran a 47.01 to place 5th in the 400, but fellow Penn State sophomore Brady Gehret did not qualify for the final.

Gehret and Nadolsky ran well, along with Casimir Loxsom (and Brandon Bennett-Green) in the 4x400 relay, though, placing 2nd with a time of 3:08.71.

Penn State's freshman Robbie "Creese Lightning" took 3rd in the mile (4:07.01), behind a pair of juniors who finished neck-and-neck: Indiana's Andy Bayer (4:04.64) and Ohio State's Cory Leslie (4:04.69).

Nebraska sophomore Patrick Raedler took 2nd in the long jump, with a personal-best of 7.65 meters. he also placed 4th in the triple jump.

 

[trackster]

I can't figure out what's going on with Loxsom and Gehret. They've either lost their enthusiasm or they are being trained to peak later in the year for the outdoor season. At either rate, they just stunk up the joint at the indoors and really neither has done anything all season so far.

Just goes to show how hard it is to project these young athletes. Two years ago, I would have bet the farm on Gehret and Patrick Farmer being big in the 400, and I only belatedly picked up interest in Braddy. Since then, Gehret had a fine freshman year, a disastrous (so far) sophomore year, and Farmer has run maybe two races his entire career--I can't imagine he'll be allowed to keep his scholarship. On the other hand, Braddy has been phenomenal. Even as a freshman, he was made the anchor of one of the best relay teams in the country. This season, they have become the second best collegiate relay team of all time, and Braddy remains the anchor. Turns out he was the best of the bunch.

So Braddy and the Arkansas gang run today. I don't expect a relay record, as they will all be running earlier in solo finals. But the live stream will be available on ESPN 3, if you get a chance to watch it.

Also, you can watch the Brooks indoor meet live today--that's for the best high schoolers in the country and will include yet another round of Hannah Cunliffe v. Marybeth Sant. In addition, I believe there are probably some good names in the mile and two mile, but I can't remember.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

where/when will the high school meet air, trackster? perhaps you could pm me a link?

and you're spot on about projecting talent. you never know how athletes will react/develop when they go off to college. it's nice that an in-state Arkansas kid is making waves, though. :thumb:

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

i've posted about the South Dakota State basketball team quite a bit this year, thanks to their terrific point guard Nate Wolters. however, the best dunker on campus doesn't even play on the Jackrabbits' hoop team ...

Jared Vlastuin, a jumper on the men's track team, is phenomenal in the air whether it be the high jump and long jump (his specialties on the track) or on the hardwood with a basketball in his hand. yesterday, he broke his own SDSU school record in the high jump with a leap of 7-feet 1-inch en route to winning the Summit League high jump Indoor Championship. he also took 2nd place in the long jump, with a leap of 24-feet 5-inches (he missed the title by 1/2 inch).

on the basketball court, well, let the pictures to do the talking.

[video=youtube;_lLiDxyNJOg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lLiDxyNJOg[/video]

speaking of high flyers, Air Force freshman Kobi Rex took home the Mountain West Indoor high jump title with a leap of 7-feet 1/4-inch. not bad, especially when you consider he's only 6-feet-2.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Barrett Nugent clips the first hurdle with his trail leg and does not finish in the SEC 60-meter hurdles final. it was an unfortunate fall for Nugent, as he holds the fastest time in the SEC this indoor season.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

the men's 60-meter dash final in the SEC was not nearly as fast as advertised. some black dude from Auburn who i don't care about won in a time of 6.63 ...

 

[trackster]

Hi, Jimmy,

Here's the link to BROOKS INVITE, which is the big high school meet with Cunliffe/Van Sant and some good distance runners. It starts in about ten minutes (at 3:30), and I think the 60m will be very early, possibly the first event.

Let me know how it goes. I probably won't be able to watch today.

 

[trackster]

I had the time wrong on the Brooks--it's Pacific Time 3:30.

Anyway, Marek Niit is now the SEC CHAMPION at the 200. And sophomore Neil Braddy finished second in the SEC championship 400.

That's the SEC, gentleman. I don't have to tell you what that means.

 

[trackster]

In the 4 by 400, Arkansas sat Braddy and Skidmore and used scrubs instead, on account of the team having a huge lead in the overall standings.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

I had the time wrong on the Brooks--it's Pacific Time 3:30.

Anyway, Marek Niit is now the SEC CHAMPION at the 200. And sophomore Neil Braddy finished second in the SEC championship 400.

That's the SEC, gentleman. I don't have to tell you what that means.

AWESOME!!!!

so the Brooks begins in about 40 minutes? cool. i may be able to watch some of it ...

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

i went to actually play some basketball instead of watching the Brooks Invitational meet. how'd our people do?

 

[trackster]

Okay, it looks like Sant v. Cunliffe ended in a draw. Both ran extremely fast 7.48's in the finals to finish, I think, 5/6 or 6/7 overall. Not shabby, given Cunliffe is a sophomore and Sant is a junior running against the fastest girls in the entire country.

Tyler Smith, jr., took the scalp of Zavon Watkins in the 800, just days after articles about how superhuman Watkins is started proliferating on the net.

There were probably some other solid performances, but I haven't looked that closely.

 

[white lightning]

Christian Blum will be going to the World Indoor Champs. Coming off his 6.60 and 6.62 yesterday to win the German Indoor Champs in the 60 meters, he feels confident. He expects to run in the 6.50's range. I sure hope so as his p.b. still stands at 6.56 from 3 or 4 years ago. I'm just a little dissapointed that Julian Reuss didn't make the team after opening up the season with a 6.59 time.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

In the 4 by 400, Arkansas sat Braddy and Skidmore and used scrubs instead, on account of the team having a huge lead in the overall standings.

i should note that one of these "scrubs" is another White freshman, Nathanael Franks. he isn't even a 400-meter specialist, but rather he's yet another heptathlon/decathlon guy for the Razorbacks.

but despite that, Arkansas STILL took 3rd place in the 4x400. not bad at all, methinks.

oh, and this is what the best track team in the "most affletic" conference in the country looks like ... :thumb:

a bunch of blue collar, lunchpail, over-achieving, precise-route-running, hard working, high motor, gym rat, deceptively fast track champions.

 

[FootballDad]

We here at CF all know the "real" reason for the success of the Hog's track team. It's that they lull the "more athletic" competition to sleep with their sneaky speed!

 

[oldspeed]

Canada names its World Indoors team: http://athletics.ca/display_news.asp?newsid=1321

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

after reading the link oldspeed posted, i took a look at what Michael LeBlanc has been up to.

it turns out, he's healthy and running very well. he's just run a personal-best 6.61. here's a blurb about him:

Feb 26, 2012 - Michael LeBlanc: 6.61!!
Toronto- Over the past weekend ASEA's Michael LeBlanc won the 60m at the OntarioAthletics Championship in a time of 6.61. This perfromance, a further improvement on 6.65set earlier in January, establishes another New Brunswick record and qualifies Michael for the World Indoor IAAF Championship next month (March 9-11) in Istanbul, Turkey. Congratulations MIchael with all of our support.

a hat tip to oldspeed for prompting my investigation, and congratulations to LeBlanc for continuing his pursuit of athletics. :thumb:

 

[oldspeed]

Interesting as I don't believe he's actually run 6.65 this season (or ever), unless there's a meet I'm missing. He's run 6.64/6.63/6.61 so far this year.

Per concerns about Lemaitre & others not running low 6.5's. People are putting far too much stock into 60m times, especially when we're talking about differences of a few hundredths. Lemaitre's PR is 0.02 off what he's run this year, get a quicker reaction and that gap is closed. Vicaut dropped a crazy time largely thanks to a brilliant reaction.

I'm not saying 60m speed isn't important, but it's not the end all be all. Wallace Spearmon, one of the greatest 200m runners of all time had a 60m PR of 6.70 until this year's Tyson Invitational, where he ran 6.66. This is from a guy who's run 19.6, and has four World Championship medals. I know everyone is anxious to see a sub-9.9 Lemaitre, but that 19.80 is far more exciting.

 

[albinosprint]

Interesting as I don't believe he's actually run 6.65 this season (or ever), unless there's a meet I'm missing. He's run 6.64/6.63/6.61 so far this year.

Per concerns about Lemaitre & others not running low 6.5's. People are putting far too much stock into 60m times, especially when we're talking about differences of a few hundredths. Lemaitre's PR is 0.02 off what he's run this year, get a quicker reaction and that gap is closed. Vicaut dropped a crazy time largely thanks to a brilliant reaction.

I'm not saying 60m speed isn't important, but it's not the end all be all. Wallace Spearmon, one of the greatest 200m runners of all time had a 60m PR of 6.70 until this year's Tyson Invitational, where he ran 6.66. This is from a guy who's run 19.6, and has four World Championship medals. I know everyone is anxious to see a sub-9.9 Lemaitre, but that 19.80 is far more exciting.

well said.

 

[trackster]

This isn't really indoors, but I didn't see an AUS thread for 2012. Anyway, big news, Ryan Gregson is FINALLY back in form. Gregson is young Aussie mid-distance guy who was running with the best in the world at the age of 20 or 21 (I forget) a couple of years ago. Since then, he's endured non-stop injuries, and it was starting to look like he was too injury prone to make it. Even this year, he had to cancel his last two meets.

But at the Melbourne Track classic, which doubles as the Olympic tryouts for AUS, he beat Olympic gold medalist, Kenyan Asbel Kiprop! Handily, I might add. Plus, given the extreme wind, his time of 3:38 was quite good.

Oh, and the Kenyan finished fifth--behind Gregson, Torrence, Willis, and Risley. It's a Renaissance in mid-distance!

 

[Bk21]

Aussie Brendan Cole did 49.39 in Melbourne (hurdles 400)

 

[trackster]

Jeremy Wariner just snuck into a low key Arkansas meet and ran a 20.93 200. The time is nothing special (he finished sixth), but hopefully there will be follow-up articles telling us about his fitness.