On an abnormally cool Austin night, a few of us swapped emails, texts, snapchats, and one fax (sent to office) back and forth about the weekend. Between a few conference championships, some state meets, one unique professional race with one unique high schooler, and some Olympic news, there was probably something that we could use as our lead story.

I’m not sure if it was the lack of sleep or general apathy towards everything, but this face was made more than once on both ends. Has the volume been turned up so loud that we’re deaf to big performances? Or is it that once the bar is raised, it doesn’t go back down?

Below are just some of the stories that made a case for the lead in our abbreviated weekend recap. It’s not to say that these races aren’t impressive (they are), it’s just that we’re not surprised by any of them. Well, not all of them.

Editor's Note: Did you know that there's punctuation for irony and sarcasm?

Mary Cain Runs 2:01.68... and Doesn’t Break a HS Record?!

Traveling from New York to California and dropping down to the event she ran at the U.S. Olympic Trials last summer, Mary Cain made it look easy. After running a new 1500m personal best at the Drake Relays, why not set one at 800m?

Fearless as usual, Cain went straight to the front before being spit out the back at around 200m. “Only” 7th at the bell, Cain was patient as she made her move to the front of the chase pack with 200m to go as Brenda Martinez had already pulled away.

The young Nike Oregon Project member kicked to take fourth in 2:01.68, which shattered her previous best of 2:03.34.

So why have we yet to spit out of afternoon cup of coffee when looking at the results?

@flotrack So wait, Mary Cain surprisingly did not break a hs record when she ran? #sheneededabreak

— Kurt Palumbo (@KurtPalumbo) May 5, 2013

It’s all just another day’s work. Cain now sits fourth behind some big names on the high school girl’s 800m all-time list (one of which was in the race).

High School Girls All-Time 800m

Time	Name	Year
2:00.07	Kim Gallagher (Upper Dublin, PA)	1982
2:00.81	Ajee Wilson (Neptune, NJ)	2012
2:01.61	Chanelle Price (Easton Area, PA)	2008
2:01.68	Mary Cain (unattached)	2013

via Track and Field News

In her post-race interview, Cain says that she’d “like to go under 2... just throwing that out there.” Because why not.

If she wants to break Kim Gallagher’s 31-year old HS record of 2:00.07, then she’ll probably have to do just that (the 0.07 window of opportunity to run over the two minute mark and break the record isn’t the largest).

So which is more impressive: 2:01.68 or 4:10.77?

If we’re going by what’s closer to the IAAF “B” standard, then it’s the 800m. Cain is 0.18 seconds away in the 800m while she’s a HUGE 1.77 seconds in the 1500m. We see the 1500m in her future, so we’ll just veto the statistics and say that unless she runs some fast 800s (read: Europe?), then Gallagher’s record will probably stand for at least the year.

Even if Cain doesn’t set another record, you still have to laugh about her winter/spring or else it’s just self-depreciating. I actually had a buddy call me up on Sunday to tell me how he felt slightly emasculated that a high school girl (a junior, nonetheless) was faster at almost every event than him (except for the 200m, which he proudly pointed out was 24.8).

We wondered how many other high school boys are currently in the same situation. We didn’t want to compare Cain’s 1500m times to high school boy’s 1500m marks because the data pool was pretty small as most guys obviously run 1600m.

Instead, we looked at where Cain’s 800m would rank among the nation’s cowering male high school population.

Milesplit puts 2:01.68 as the 2577th fastest time in the nation. When you look at it like that, it doesn’t really seem that impressive, right?

Riddle me this: How many high school boys compete in outdoor track and field?

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, approximately 575,628 boys competed in outdoor track and field last spring. We’re not sure how or why this number isn’t rounded, but we’re going with it.

In that case, Cain’s could beat 99.55% of the prep boys in the country. Next time your team meets for practice, remember that percentage.

How We Would’ve Been Impressed: In one race, she’s dropped her 800m PR by 1.66 seconds. At this rate, it’ll only take six more races before she breaks the world record (1:53.28). It’s science.

Abbey D at the Double, Again

Click the link above to read more.

Andres Arroyo’s Triple, Again

Click the link above to read more.

A Doper Has Been Banned, Again

Click the link above to read more.

Pat Casey Runs Only One Event at Big 12s

Some interesting results came out of Waco, TX and the Big 12 Outdoor Championships. The Texas men won an outdoor title to match their indoor one and again, Oklahoma was the bridesmaid.

But this time, Oklahoma Patrick Casey didn’t have to put the team on his back.

At the Big 12 Indoor Championships, Casey ran an astonishing six events (well, 5.5 as he paced the men’s 3k) in an attempt to help Oklahoma come away the victors. They fell to Texas 135 to 108.5.

Casey and Conferences

	Big 12 Indoors	Big 12 Outdoors
DMR	9:42.37
1k (Prelim)	2:27.10
1k (Final)	2:22.39
Mile (Prelim)	4:07.45
Mile (Final)	4:00.81	3:41.22 (1500m)
3k	N/A

Unfortunately, that was the end for Casey. He anchored the Sooner’s DMR at Alex Wilson, but a week later, scratched out of every event at NCAA Indoor Nationals. We heard unconfirmed reports that his shins were bothersome, but in any case, he shut it down for the winter.

Outdoors was a different story. Last Sunday, Casey ran just the 1500m and here’s the other interesting fact, which was a straight final. It looks like a lot of teams either a) tried to spread out their points totals b) were afraid of one another or c) a combination of both. In any case, the result was a 12-man 1500m final and a 48-man 5k field.

Casey won the men’s 1500m in a new Big 12 record of 3:40.04, his teammate Riley Masters took second in 3:41.22, and Kansas’ Josh Munsch rounded out the top three with a 3:41.58. Still, the Sooners scored 133 while the Longhorns tallied 146.5 points.

Men 1500 Meter Run
============================================================
 Collegiate: ^ 3:30.56 1999 Bernard Lagat, Washington St.
 Big 12: # 3:40.70 2006 Stephen Pifer, Colorado
 Stadium: ! 3:40.70 2006 Stephen Pifer, Colorado
 Name Year School Finals Points
============================================================
 1 402 Patrick Casey SR Oklahoma 3:40.04! 10
 2 411 Riley Masters SR Oklahoma 3:41.22 8
 3 368 Josh Munsch JR Kansas 3:41.58 6
 4 340 Edwin Serem SO Iowa State 3:45.00 5
 5 522 Kyle Merber SR Texas 3:47.52 4
 6 431 Raul Botezan SR Oklahoma State 3:50.00 3
 7 433 Tommy Casey SO Oklahoma State 3:50.38 2
 8 346 Falko Zauber JR Iowa State 3:50.43 1
 9 319 Jonathan Tijerina JR Baylor 3:55.03
 10 343 Cullen Wannarka SO Iowa State 4:00.43
 -- 507 Ezekiel Kissorio JR Texas Tech DQ Honest effort
 -- 323 Alex Dillenbeck JR Iowa State DQ Honest effort

Less effort from their middle-distance superstar and more team points.

I guess we are surprised by this inverse result. If this bizarro trend continues, then we’ll hopefully see Casey at NCAA Outdoors.

How We Would’ve Been Impressed: If he would’ve ran six races and one field event.

UW-La Crosse Win 23rd Title

Talk about history. The men of the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse won their 23rd consecutive Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Outdoor title after defeating UW-Oshkosh 223 to 206. This is also UW - La Crosse’s 49th outdoor championship in school history. Dynasty is an understatement.

If your school (high school or college) has a longer championship winning streak, email us. For now, 23 in a row guys? C’mon. There’s probably a guy or two who were alive when the streak began. Step it up, Eagles.

How We Would’ve Been Impressed: If they would have won #24 (Difficulty level: time travel).

The #1 Team in the Country Won Their First Conference Title

While we’re on the subject of conference championships and we’ve already talked about the Big 12, we should mention what happened on the women’s side. The then ranked #2, now ranked #1, Kansas ladies took home their first Big 12 title in school history.

The number one team in the country winning a conference title isn’t that staggering. But the first one in school history? You can say they’re having a good season.

The Jayhawks were lead by jump superstar Andrea Geubelle, who became the second woman in conference history to repeat as the champion in both indoor and outdoor triple jumps.

But the high scorer for the Jayhawks and Performer of the Meet was Paris Daniels. The senior accumulated 23 of the 158 team points with after leading off the winning 4x100m (43.89), taking second in the 100m (11.34), and defending her title in the 200m (22.73).

Can Kansas stop Oregon’s bid for another NCAA title?

We’ve just named a small fraction of the people who made the weekend not so surprising (and those that did), which means we’ve left out many more. We’ll try and rectify that as the week goes on.

But in the meantime, don’t just try and knock the doors down; blown off the hinges.