2012 Outdoor Track Season

[white is right]

Who's the 'roider on the left? :heh:

MLF junior prodigy who was supposed to be Bolt before Bolt. He has been a dud as senior. He had a big contract when he turned pro and bought a sports car and learned to eat Mcdonalds and got fat and unmotivated. He is a cautionary tale for young athletes about the pitfalls of success too early. Really he isn't much bigger than these guys he just eats crap so he looks bulkier.

 

[trackster]

Another interesting meet (also available online for anyone with the time) is the Oregon Relays this weekend. Once again, an idiosyncratic list of stories to watch:

women's 200--fascinating. First, Hannah Cunliffe, a hs sophomore, will be running against the college girls. Second, supergirl, Laura Roesler, an 800 specialist whom many think could be the best 400 runner in the country if given the chance, will be in the race. This is incredible, given that Laura has run mostly 1500's this season. She's probably not in sprint shape, but we'll see what happens. Also, heptathlete Brianne Thiessen is in this race. She's an unreal athlete.

women's 800--Roesler is in the longer race as well, going against teammate and NCAA champ Kesselring and a pro runner.

Women's javelin--first field event I've ever mentioned, but HS junior Haley Crouser deserves mention. She is a striking blonde who recently broke the national record AND also happens to be so fast and athletic that she's good at a whole range of events, basically a one-woman track team. Here she'll be competing against college and pro throwers.

Men's 1500--Elijah Greer (Oregon) versus the pros. Also our first glimpse of young Freddy Ovett, son of Steve Ovett.

So between Oregon and the Mt. SAC relays (previewed above) a lot to look forward to this weekend.

 

[trackster]

A lot of runners have dropped out of their scheduled races (and there's plenty coming up today), but here are some of the best results from Thursday and Friday:

1) Cam Levins!! In an epic display of ballsiness pushed the pace late against the "unbeatable" Lawi Lalang (Kenyan who trains with convicted cheat Bernard Lagat) and even after it looked like he would lose, came back with a phenomenal 55 second kick to win the 5k. Kudos to the Canadian with the Brady Bunch perm. Here's the video: Levins! The end is incredible. Don't watch the "race finish" video on Flotrack. Better to use the link I gave you to the full race and, if you like, fast forward to about 13:30. It's a better, more professional video.

2) Hannah Cunliffe and Laura Roesler ran the 200 in Oregon but neither PRed. Hannah did better (24.46), which was not as good as her Arcadia run two weeks ago. Laura ran 24.78, but, remember, she's been running 1500's all year, so that it was odd she was even in the race.

3) There's a lot of buzz about Evan Jager, who has never really lived up to his potential. His coach switched him to the steeplechase, and all he did was dominate the field in one of the best steeplechase debuts ever. Kudos to the Leif Garret-lookalike.

4) Webb and Ritzenhein did not run.

5) Andy Baddely won the 1500 at Mount SAC. Hard to tell if he's back to Olympic form.

6) Katie Flood--wow, she kicks ass. Always impressive. Dropped about 7 seconds (!) off her 1500 time as she crushed the Mt. SAC competition in the last lap. Only a freshman at UWA. Here's the video.

7) Speaking of young ladies who kick ass...perhaps some of you recall how Cayla Hatton ran such an absurdly great time in a hs 10K recently. Well, she just did it again. This time she beat a collegiate field in a 5k.

8) One negative note--a lot of people thought Freddy Ovett was unworthy of an Oregon scholarship, despite his famous dad. They were right. His 1500 last night was embarrassing. Still, nothing can tarnish the memory of his father.

 

[white lightning]

Cam Levins is the man. What a perfomance. That gave the Kenyan his 2nd straight loss to a white american. Middle Distance and Distance Running with both the men and women of the U.S. is very exciting right now. If only we could see some more participants in the hurdles and sprints!

 

[trackster]

Just sat down and looked up some results. Martyn Rooney and J. Wariner both under 45 in the 400!!! That's splendid for April--especially for Rooney. It also dispels some doubts about Wariner. I'm very excited about these times and look forward to the race being posted on flotrack later. Anyway, Rooney actually beat Wariner, probably the first time that's ever happened. And they blew away a solid field of runners.

 

[trackster]

Meanwhile, in the 800, unheralded Ryan Martin (the mountain man) once again beat hyped-to-the-moon Charles Jock (Sudanian-American). Martin has repeatedly beat Jock, yet Jock draws all the oohs and ahhs in the press and from commentators. In this case, neither finished first, however. The pro runners beat them. Cas Loxsom, unfortunately, continued his awful season. Surely, he'll come around eventually.

 

[trackster]

And Kilty went 10.15 although with a 2.5 wind. He's edging closer.

 

[white lightning]

Some more great news from the Tom Jones Memorial Invitaional. Adam Gemeli opened up his outdoor season with a 10.23 1.1 wind and a 20.70 in the deuce. This kid is only 18 years or age! Blazing times for the youngster. Only Jeff Demps ran faster at the meet. Gemeli is one to keep a close eye on along with Kilty and a few others.

Brandon Byram opened up with an average time in the 20.90's but it's early in the season. I hope he gets into form in the coming months.

 

[white lightning]

Here is the video of Rooney and Wariner going 1-2 and both of them running in the high 44 second range! Wow and it's only April.

http://www.flotrack.org/video/630373

 

[white lightning]

Here is a video of Richard Kilty running a 10.15 today. He is in great form and looks like he has added some nice size to his frame. I expect him to get below 10.10 in the coming months.

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/248555-2012-Mt-SAC-Relays/video/630491-M-100-H01-Olympic-Dev

 

[white lightning]

Here is a tremendous article on the best womens hurdler on the planet earth! Sally Pearson is amazing and she should inspire all of us.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympic...ondon-pearsons-masterplan-20120421-1xdlb.html

 

[trackster]

Cutting and pasting some news from the high school meets this weekend:

Drew Magaha (Upper Moreland) rocketed his way around the track and wound up with a US#1 and PA Record of 1:48.82 in the 800m run! (Note: that is an unreal time for a high schooler. What is it with our 800 runners the past two years?)

Cayla Hatton is back at it again, this time besting some solid collegians over 5000m with a US#7 All-Time clocking of 16:14.99!

Mary Cain (Bronxville NY) blasted a 2:05.90 in the 800m run, winning by over 8 seconds!!

Haley Crouser (OR) won the women's javelin throw against collegians with a toss of 164-11.

One more: a HS superstar from last year, Austin Mudd, whose collegiate career has started slowly, showed signs that he's coming on this weekend, running a (victorious) 1:47.68.

Now I'm going to watch those videos posted by WL!

 

[trackster]

Finally, some stirrings of life from Europe (which starts the season much later): The British Miler Club hosted a mile run (not a full meet) in Trafford. Some impressive youngsters showed up to use it as a rust-buster. Both Charlie Brice and Niall Brooks have been written about before--they put up outstanding times at very young ages, so hopefully their development continues. However, they were defeated by Ross Murray, who is only a couple of years older.

Here's the race, in unglamorous, rainy conditions on a wet track: video

And here's a little video of Ross Murray talking about his victory. Clearly, a very witty fellow.

 

[trackster]

Well, Christophe may have had a bad day (let's pray he rebounds), but some of my old fave were really putting on a show yesterday:

To start her day, Laura Roesler almost singlehandedly won the 4 by 800 relay for Oregon at the Penn Relays (huge event, gazillions of teams). Only one runner ran a slightly (tenth of a second) faster leg, and most legs were two seconds or more slower. Then, just a little more than an hour later, Laura came right back and moved her team up in the 4 by 400 with a 53 second lap, which was I believe the fifth fastest of all the runners. Imagine is she'd had fresh legs! We've been talking about Laura for years. I can't imagine she doesn't soon have an epic breakout season.

Brady Gehret--Total stud yesterday. Ran the fastest 400 leg of any runner at the Penn Relays (again, about a gazillion).

Neil Braddy and that Arkansas 4 by 400--Neil, Marek Niit, and (drawing blank on the other guy's name) ran an epic 4 by 400 at the Drake Relays. Finished second by a lean, but man what a time. Neil actually clocked his leg in the 44 seconds, which was even faster than Gehret's time at Pitt.

Roesler, Gehret, and Braddy are three I will watch any day. And they're all just sophomores.

 

[white defensive back]

I don't know about Christophe but whoever mentioned the wind might have been minus 4.0 might be right. The trees were just blowing like a hurricane in the background right before the race. His next race will be more indicative of how he will fair this year. I still think he is going to uncork a 9.85 this year.

 

[trackster]

Well, all the news isn't bad (i.e,. Christophe's regression). On the same day, Christophe was dawdling along to a 20.48 200m, Jonathan Borlee, who's strictly a 400m specialist and who hadn't raced all year, won the 200 at Texas Tech in 20.31. That may not be world class for 200m, but it's spectacular for a 400m guy running his first 200 of the season. In fact, it's half a second faster than Wariner's 200's have been this year.

Jonathan's brother, Kevin, ran 45.33 in the 400, which is also an extremely fine time for a rustbuster.

Looks like both the Borlees will be breaking below 45 this year! (Wariner and Rooney are already there).

 

[white lightning]

You beat me to it trackster. I was just about to post about Borlee. That is a very exciting time in the 200 for early May. I wonder if he might run a few more deuces to see is he can continue to lower his personal bests there. It might be risky though in an olympic year. I hope they go for it anyway. Michael Johnson and many others have run the 200 & 400 meters.

I also wanted to add that Andrew Robertson opened up his season a few days ago with a 10.31 over the 100 meters. Not too bad but along ways away from Kilty and Gemeli.

Mary Cain is amazing! I just had to add my two cents. I hope she continues to improve as her body develps.


One last thing. Where are all the german and italian sprinters? They better start racing soon along with Craig Pickering. No time to waste anymore with London only a few months away.

 

[trackster]

Chris Giesting continued his breakout freshman year by becoming Big East conference champion in both the 200 and 400 this weekend. Times were 21.15 and 46.03. He had to run rounds of prelims for both events on Saturday and finals on Sunday--not an easy double, to say the least. Patrick Feeney did the same difficult double, finishing behind him in both events.

Let's hope he continues to progress over the years.

 

[trackster]

Lost in the shuffle...

They put the young Frenchman, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse, who just last year won the World Juniors (see previous threads), in the "B" section of the 800 at Doha, and the youngster beat a field consisting entirely of east Africans, including Alfred Yego, winning in 1:45.69--a fantastic time for his age.

I knew when I saw him last year that he was going to be something special. Expect to see him in at least the next three Olympics for France.

 

[jacknyc]

Brady Gehret--Total stud yesterday. Ran the fastest 400 leg of any runner at the Penn Relays (again, about a gazillion).

Neil Braddy and that Arkansas 4 by 400--Neil, Marek Niit, and (drawing blank on the other guy's name) ran an epic 4 by 400 at the Drake Relays. Finished second by a lean, but man what a time. Neil actually clocked his leg in the 44 seconds, which was even faster than Gehret's time at Pitt.

Roesler, Gehret, and Braddy are three I will watch any day. And they're all just sophomores.

Brady ran 20.78 200m in the heats at the Big 10.
But only 10.37 and 21.12 for Marek Niit at the SEC heats. He must be injured...?
...and none of the Arkansas guys qualified for the finals in the 400m - unbelievable!
Barrett Nugent lead the 110 hurdle qualifiers at 13.50.

 

[trackster]

Yeah, I don't know what happened in the 400 open prelims. Is it possible the coach told them not to go all out, intending to save their legs for the 4 by 400?

College racing is exciting, but it makes it really difficult to figure out who the best runners really are. Guys like Niit, Braddy, Gehret, Giesting, etc, run so many rounds in so many races and relays that we have no clue what they're capable of. The same goes for our young mid-distance and distance runners.

Gehret ran the 4 by 100, 400 prelims, and 200 prelims yesterday. Under those circumstances his times were excellent. However, I can't anticipate great times today from those tired legs.

On the other hand, Braddy and co will RULE the SEC in the 4 by 400.

 

[jacknyc]

Brady Gehret 45.22! to win the Big 10 championships.
That's a big-time Time!
Let's see what he can do at the NCAAs. He will have less relays and events to run. Hopefully, this is the beginning of something big.
He runs the 200m final in a few hours.....

 

[trackster]

Hell, yeah! He's now in the same neighborhood as Wariner! We've been pulling for him since high school, and he's really coming through.

Meanwhile, Braddy and Niit have already won the SEC 4 by 100. My money is on them to take the 4 by 400 at the end of the meet, too.

If anybody finds videos of these races, please post. I'd love to see that Gehret run.

Also, if Gehret's legs aren't noodles by the end of the 400 and 200, he'll join Loxsom and Nadolsky in Penn State's excellent 4 by 400.

 

[trackster]

Gehret, Loxsom, and Nadolsky key Penn State to the Big Ten championship 4 by 400. Fine time of 3:04.78, even after Gehret had run two finals and Loxsom one.

More on Gehret: After running that absolutely blazing 400 (for first), he came back quickly and ran a fine 20.62 200 for second. That's after three rounds of running yesterday, too (4 x100, 400 prelims, 200 prelims). Let's hope he races in the summer, so we can see what he can do on fresh legs.

In my mind, Gehret with two firsts, one second, and some great times, is the MVP of all the conference championships.

 

[jacknyc]

Brady Gehret, 2nd in the 200m - 20.62.
Barrett Nugent takes the SEC hurdles title in 13.40w.
Marek Niit 7th in the 100m, 10.37. He cant be fully healthy.