Track and Field Blogs - Justin Kopunek

College track and field started like any other in 2008. Athletes traveled to faster tracks and more competitive meets in search of NCAA Auto and Provisional times/distances. The New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory saw quite a few notable performances. Leonel Manzano and Jacob Hernandez of Texas would win the Mile (3:59) and 800 (1:49) respectively. Brie Felnagle of UNC blew the field away in the 3000, running 9:09. A week earlier, Arianna Lambie (Stanford) and Nicole Blood (Oregon) ran 9:05 and 9:08 on Washington’s oversized track in a race filled with pros. Lesiba Mascheto of Illinois also crushed his competition with a 1:00.82 in the 500m, as did LSU’s Latavia Thomas in the 800. The race of the meet, however, was Bobby Curtis of Villanova topping Andrew Bumbalough 7:50 to 7:53 (also Kosgei (LSU), Debole (Georgetown), Maag (Princeton), Morse (Texas), Nightingale (Princeton) and Korir (E. Ken).) Bumbi, a Georgetown soph was fresh off a 3:58 mile at Yale the week prior. Both Curtis’ 3k time and Bumbi’s mile time would be the NCAA’s fastest all season. At the Tyson Invitational, Texas would break the DMR indoor world record in 9:25, with the soon to be NCAA mile runner-up, Jake Morse, not making the relay. That’s Mid-D depth not seen since Michigan in the Brannen/Willis/Ellerton days. Also at that meet, Texas frosh sprinter Bianca Knight would show she was getting quite fast beating some pros in the 200. Lex Williams (Mich) and Jacob Korir would run fast 5ks, 13:47 and 13:48 respectively and Nicole Edwards (Mich) would top Sarah Bowman (Tenn) 4:33 to 4:36 in the mile. It would not be the last time these two ladies squared off, however.

At the NCAA championships these two titans of the mile clashed again on the Anchor leg of the DMR. Getting the baton right with each other, it would be Bowman who would get the better of Edwards, leading the Lady Vols to victory. Edwards would come out on top in the open mile the next day, but a late kick from FSU’s Hannah England would force them to settle for 2^nd and 3^rd. England’s teammate, Susan Kuijken would take the 3k over Felnagle, 8:58 to 9:00 and Bianca Knight would win the 200 in 22.40, breaking the NCAA record held by Olympic Gold medalist Veronica Campbell. The freshman would turn pro soon after the meet. On the men’s side, the DMR would highlight day 1. In typical Manzano fashion, the Texas senior turned the anchor leg into a kicker’s race, with ASU’s Kyle Alcorn surprising the crowd with a 3:58 carry on a tactical?leg to give the Sun Devils second behind the Longhorns. Only Bumbalough would have a faster split. Alcorn would follow that performance with an unexpected win over a stacked 3k field the following day. Closing in 2:26 he would out kick the likes of Bumbi, Kyle Perry (BYU), Curtis, Josh McDougal (Lib), Kurt Berringer (ND) and Sean Quigley (La Salle). Texas went 1-2 in the mile, with Manzano winning as expected, but Morse picking up the silver to the surprise of many. Baylor continued its dominance of the 4x400 with a win, but it was ASU’s 3^rd place finish that wrapped up the team title for them, along with a win in the shot from soph Ryan Whiting and Alcorn’s double. Of Alcorn’s clutch performance, ASU coach Louie Quintana said it was simply “huge balls” at work. The Lady Sun Devils won as well, defending their title, fueled by Pentathlon champ Jacquelyn Johnson and thrower Jessica Pressley.

With warmer weather came the outdoor season where meets like the Texas, Drake, and Penn Relays, as well as the Stanford Payton Jordan Cardinal Invite are all a canvas for hitting NCAA regional and Olympic Trials standards. Texas continued their Mid-D Relay supremacy as they ran a superb 7:17 in the 4x800 at the Texas Relays and then became only the 5^th team in History to complete a sweep of the 3 distance relays (4x800, DMR, and 4xMile) at Penn. On the women’s side at Franklin Field, Nicole Edwards and the Wolverines avenged their loss at NCAA’s with a win in the DMR over Bowman and the Vols. Felnagle would have the fastest anchor leg, however, to go with the quick 4:08 1500 she would run at the ACC Champs. Tennessee would take second to Michigan again in the 4x1500 and to LSU in the 4x800. The LSU women would also pick up wins in the SMR, 4x100 and Shuttle Hurdle Relays. That same weekend Oregon stayed home and a new Mid-Distance star was born as sophomore duck, previously under the radar running 1:50’s on their DMR with 1 shoe and a 1:47 leg at NCAA's, became the first Vermont native to break 4 minutes in the mile. A new chapter in his life began on that day. Two separate meets at Stanford featured many of the season’s fastest individual distance performances. Sean Quigley and Jacob Korir ran 28:03 and 28:04 in the 10k to lead the NCAA and Lisa Koll of Iowa State set an American collegiate record for the same eveny in 32:11. Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech would run almost a minute faster at the next Stanford meet, but she is not an American (and the jury is still out on if she is even human). At that same meet, DII stud Scotty Bauhs (Chico State) would run the fastest 10k of any collegiate in 2008 with a 27:48, as Brent Vaughn of Colorado would run a blistering 13:18 5k, just a few tick off of defending world champ Bernard Lagat. This would stand as the 2^nd fastest 5k time by an American for the year.

When the NCAA Championship finally rolled around, a lot of buzz was floating around the meet. Steeple ace Jenny Barringer of Colorado was a former NCAA champ in the event, but had lost her conference meet on her home track. Peaking for the right meets, however, the Buffalo ran from the front with a near American record, solo effort. Hard closing Billy Nelson tried to make it a Colorado steeple sweep, but Kyle Alcorn held him off, proving his indoor 3k victory was no fluke. The much anticipated 800 battle between top seed Jacob Hernandez, rising star Wheating and 2007 World Championship team member Duane Solomon (USC) lived up to expectations. A late race kick by Wheating left it to a dive at the line, resulting in a .01 difference with Hernandez getting the gold over Wheating and Solomon picking up the bronze, only .4 off the winner. The women’s 800 saw sub-2 and World Champs team member Alysia Johnson of Cal sitting out of the finals due to a foot injury sustained in the rounds, leaving the title up for grabs. Michigan vet Geena Gall took it over indoor NCAA champ Latavia Thomas. In the sprints, Walter Dix, who was a star at the 2007 NCAA champs and surprised everyone by turning down a hefty Nike offer to finish up at FSU only took 4^th in the 100. He had been hampered by injury all season and Richard Thompson took the 100 meter title from him. Thompson teamed up with 3^rd place finisher Trindon Holliday to lead LSU to a victory in the 4x100 as well. Dix would defend his title in the 200 over runner-up Holliday as Texas A&M women would go 1-2 in the event and win the 4x100. 400m champ Shana Cox would lead Penn State to a 4x400 victory as Baylor would win the 4x400 on the men’s side, as could be expected. Other predictable wins came from Koll in the 10k (with Kipyego not running it), Manzano remaining undefeated for the year in winning the 1500 and Kipyego in the 5k. The latter almost added a 1500 victory to her resume, but FSU’s Hannah England nipped her by a few tenths. Bowman was the top American finisher with an Olympic B Standard 4:07. Defending champion Felnagle looked drained for the second race in a row. Pre-race favorite Brent Vaughn in would only finish 3^rd in the 5k to teammate/runner-up Stephen Pifer, and recovering insomniac Bobby Curtis who won his first NCAA title. In the multi-events, Oregon sophomore Aston Eaton won the Decathlon behind his NCAA 400m Dec record and 3-time indoor Pent champ Jacqulyn Johnson won her 4^th straight Heptathlon NCAA title, becoming the first to ever accomplish such a feat. Her win was not enough to lift ASU’s team score over champions LSU, however,?as FSU won the men’s team title.

The cream of the crop then moved on to the Olympic trials, either for the US or their home country. From that group, a very talented few punched their ticket to Beijing. Colorado qualified a pair of steeplers, one of each gender. Barringer began what would become a long rivalry with Pro Anna Willard, who won the steeple in an AR at the trials. Buffalo teammate, Nelson avenged his loss to Alcorn at NCAA’s by taking second at the Trials in 8:21. Recent FSU grad, Dix qualified in both the 100 and 200, actually winning the 200 by less than a hundredth of a second over 2004 Gold Medalist in the event, Shawn Crawford. Travis Padgett of Clemson placed 4^th in the 100, qualifying for the 4x100. Queen Harrison of Virginia Tech placed 2^nd in the 400IH, qualifying herself, as did Kara Patterson of Perdue won the Javalin. Oregon’s American Junior record holder Galen Rupp, who red-shirted the track season, qualified in the 10,000m by virtue of placing 2^nd. Rupp was one of many ducks competing on his home track at the games. Sophomore Wheating’s furious kick secured him a spot on the Olympic team in the 800, while NCAA champ Hernandez did not make the finals. His fellow Longhorn, however, did make the games. Manzano lost his first track race of the year, by placing second to World Champ Bernard Lagat, but was hardly upset, as he had made the Olympic team. ASU’s Johnson qualified, as well, by placing 2^nd in the Heptathlon.

As the summer progressed, recent grads began picking up sponsors and took to Europe for some fast times., while others began base training for the fall. Barringer took the American record in the steeple from Willard, by out leaning her in Heusden and Alcorn lowered his PR in the same event to 8:21. At the Olympic Games, many of the NCAAers were green and did not make the finals in their respective events. Barringer did as she lowered her American record (9:22) in placing 9^th in the first women’s Olympic steeplechase. Rupp ran the fastest 10k at the Olympics by an American ever in an unforgiving Beijing Climate. He placed 13^th overall. The best performance by this group, however, came from Dix who picked up bronze medals in both the 100 and the 200. He was the only American to pick up hardware in 2 individual track events.

Next it was onto cross country with a fresh class of frosh, a slew of coaching changes and the Oregon Duck’s leading the preseason polls for both the men and women. Teams flew all over the country to pick up at-large points and much needed experience. The Minnesota and ASU women looked good at the Roy Griak Invite. Oregon, Portland and Alabama men had a close battle at the Bill Dillinger, with Oregon holding some runner’s out and Alabama showing they were in need of a 5^th man. Pilot David Kinsella looked strong, as did Oregon Freshman Luke Puskedra. On the girl’s side, Oregon’s Alex Kosinski won convincingly and new duck transfer Mellissa Grelli looked to make the 2007 NCAA runners-up even stronger. A lot of buzz was swarming around Oklahoma State, but they kept their cards close to their chest all season, running only 3 top runners at Pre-Nats in the Open. The big story of Pre-Nationals was, however, was Liberty transfer Sam Chelenga. He destroyed the field with a first mile in under 4:20 and breaking the old course record set by 2007 NCAA xc champ Josh McDougal. An impressive race by Stanford freshman Chris Derrick, along with OSU frosh German Fernandez and Colby Lowe in the open race, had many speculating that this was one of the greatest freshmen classes in a long while. On the women’s side, Kuijken of FSU set a course record. With Barringer red-shirting the season, it seemed that Kuijken may be the only women up to the task of taking on Kipyego at NCAA’s. Felnagle won her race handily, showing she had rebounded from a shaky end to her track season. She had actually beaten Kuijken a few weeks earlier. For team scoring, FSU and Princeton tied (not the last time Princeton would see a tie) and the Washington women won their race in convincing fashion. The Huskies would take the top spot in the polls and not relinquish that spot for the remainder of the season, as they were propelled by two phenomenal freshmen, Canadian Kendra Schaaf and American Christine Babcock. They would steam roll through the Pac 10 meet going 1-6 on the #2 team in the country, and running 3-7 at regionals. Rupp would run his first race at Pac 10’s winning by a wide margin, followed by freshmen Puskedra and Derrick. Many conference streaks ended this year as well. Most notably, Arkansas placing 3^rd after 34 straight SEC titles and Colorado losing the Big 12 for the first time ever. Freshmen Fernandez would lead OSU to Big 12 victory as the individual conference champ.

At the NCAA champs, a showdown was expected on the men’s side between Rupp and Chelanga individually and Oregon and OSU in the team battle. Rupp had recently run sub 28 at regionals on a course whose length was called into question and the debate over who was better heated up. Chelanga went out ridiculously hard and Rupp was patient, reeled him in and the two battled until the final stretch with Rupp getting the edge and his first NCAA title. The team competition was less exciting as OSU’s top runner, Fernandez, dropped out with an injury while sitting around 3^rd place. Oregon would have 3 in the top 10 and all 7 in before anyone else had in 5. Iona would surprise with a 2^nd place finish under first year coach Richard Santos and led by 3^rd place finisher Andrew Ledwith. Stanford finished 3^rd after an off year in 2007 and Wisconsin picked up the last podium spot at 4^th. The Badgers fought through some hardships between injuries of top runners and All-American’s leaving because of a coaching change (Bethke to ASU and Jager to Nike). One of the big stories was that even with Fernadez having a DNF, 2 American true frosh finished in the top 10 with Puskedra 5^th and Derrick 7^th. The women’s race was less surprising. Kipyego won her 3^rd straight NCAA xc title with Kuijken holding on for 2^nd. As expected, UW won easily with Oregon getting second and FSU 3^rd.

With such young talent filling the top spots on many teams, 2009 looks like it will be another year of broken records, lasting rivalries, heartbreaking disappointments and glorious triumphs. The Indoor season awaits.