One week to go😔
but we have outdoor soon so it's okay
At the national meet of all places🤦♂️
On Saturday, there were eleven teams that toed the line in both heats of Women’s 4x800m final at the NJCAA Indoor Championships in Topeka. Out of those eleven teams, six of them were DQ’d from the race for a mistake they had nothing to do with. Cloud County, Mesa, South Plains, Fort Scott, Southeastern and New Mexico were the six teams that were victim to the mistakes by the meet officials at the pinnacle meet of the junior collegiate indoor season.
My dad and I were walking into the meet on Saturday during the second heat of the 4x800m, and at that point, everything was still going accordingly. By accordingly, I mean how a championship 4x800m should be run. Seems I thought too soon though, because during the third leg, meet officials brought out and lined up the anchor leg a lap early. At that point, the current leg had only run 600m, with a lap to go. Every runner but Hutchinson’s Ellie Van Zelfden handed off the baton, but Van Zelfden refused and ran her final lap, before passing the baton off to Serenity Larson. When Larson crossed the finish line, she was the lone runner left on the track.
After everything had finished and they were moving onto the next track event, I didn’t think anything of the results. I primarily thought it was just a quick race where a lot of teams run fast. During the first heat of the men’s 4x800m, I got a text from a friend in the press box stating that the "last race was screwed up big time”.
After an hour of deliberation and what I can imagine was the discussion of a number of separate protests from the six DQ’d teams, it was decided that the six teams that followed the orders of the meet officials would be DQ’d, making Hutchinson CC the winner, and national champion.
Personally, I’m not sure how this kind of slip-up can happen at a meet of this caliber, and I’m curious if the NJCAA or USATF will have anything else to say about the matter, but I won’t be surprised if we don’t hear a peep from either party.
At the end of the day, I’m feeling two things.
I’m super happy for the Hutchinson team, because they did nothing but run their race, break a school record, and ultimately win the national title. What’s even cooler about this is that it’s an ALL-KANSAS team. Taylor Hoskinson graduated from Haven last spring, along with Gracie Lambert who graduated from Smoky Valley. Larson and Van Zelfden graduated from Dodge City and Remington, making it 4-for-4! Congratulations ladies and again, kudos to Van Zelfden for great decision making and for being alert during the race!
Even though I feel ecstatic for Hutchinson, obviously I still feel incredibly terrible for the teams that were disqualified due to an error beyond their control. A mistake like this has no place in the sport, let alone the national championship. Imagine if meet officials told Hellen Obiri and the lead pack that they were on their bell lap when they really had 800m to go? It would not go over well. I don’t particularly care about the level the mistake happened at, I just hope we don’t see something like this again.
Kansas runs the NAIA🏅
After this weekend, we are halfway done with our indoor championship meet season, as the NAIA was one of two divisions to host their national championships during the first weekend of March. Ninety-three athletes from twelve different programs throughout the state went up with the top dogs in the NAIA, and a lot of them came home with hardware, PR’s, and even both.
As far as numbers go, the St. Mary women had the most All-American finishes over the course of the weekend, as they totaled four. With how dominant their distance program has been, you may not be surprised to learn that all four honors came in the Mile, 3000m and 5000m.
After setting a PR and getting even closer to 5:00, Leavenworth graduate Maddy Walter-Sheretts finished 8th in the Mile final, running 5:01.56 to snag the last All-American spot, but with plenty of room to spare. Walter-Sheretts ran 5:01.23 in the preliminaries, which is her new lifetime best. Before I get to the 500m and 3000m, can someone tell me why the athletes who are aiming for the double only have the 200m finals in-between both races? To me, running the 5000m the first thing in the morning and the 3000m before the DMR finals would be the most beneficial for distance athletes, but what do I know? Speaking of the 5000m/3000m double, we might as well highlight Alyssa Armendariz, who was the ONLY athlete to earn All-American honors in both events, and she also was one of only two athletes to even attempt the feat, with the other being teammate Reagan Hiebert. Armendariz took 7th in the 3000m with a huge PR of 9:53.39, her first time under ten. Shortly after, she ran 17:33.80 in the 5000m final, just two seconds back of her time from the preliminaries. One of the best performances of the meet belongs to Kate Madsen, who entered the championship meet ranked 26th with a 18:10.60 PR to her name. She left Brookings, SD with a 17:43.19 PR and a 6th place All-American finish! Talk about taking advantage of the moment! The Spires also took 30th as a team.
The ladies of Benedictine had the next highest number of All-Americans with three. In the 4x800m, the quartet of Caroline Cobo, Alison Ambuul, Gemma Downey and Siena Michael survived and advanced to the final, where they threw down a season best time of 9:17.87. The Ravens finished comfortably in 4th, two seconds back of third and eight seconds ahead of 5th. If one All-American honor wasn’t good enough for Cobo and Ambuul, they decided to make it double! Ambuul entered the 600m final ranked 8th, but crossed the line in 5th, matching her exact finish in the same event a year ago. For Cobo, she earned her sixth All-American honor and her highest ever finish in the 800m at the national meet. Cobo saved her best for last, as she ran a new PR of 2:11.88 in the final, less than a second back of gold. As a team, the Ravens finished 15th, tied with three other programs.
Both MidAmerica Nazarene and Tabor had an All-American as well, with Carly Lindenmeyer finishing 5th in the pentathlon. Lindenmeyer set new PR’s in three of the five events, finishing as high as third in both the high jump and long jump. Lindenmeyer broke her own school record yet again, this time bumping up the '‘total-to-beat” to 3440. For the Baldwin graduate, this was her second time on the NAIA podium, as she finished 7th in the pentathlon in 2021.
Tabor’s Danielle Allison, who has had a huge junior season, took advantage of qualifying for her first ever NAIA track & field championship, as she brought home a 5th place finish in the 1000m. Allison came into the preliminaries ranked 8th with a PR of 2:58.68, but stepped up her game in the qualifying round with a 2:56.96, proceeding to top it again with a new PR of 2:55.95 set in the final. For Allison, she now owns the Tabor school records in the 1000m, 3000m, 5000m and is a part of the school record DMR. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
On the men’s side, Benedictine brought home All-American honors in the DMR and the 1000m. David Mannella, who missed a decent chunk of the cross country season, wasted no time and picked up his first individual All-American honor, taking 5th in the 1000m in 2:26.36. Up to this weekend, Mannella hadn’t dipped below 2:28 this season and sat on the cusp of making the final, going in ranked 11th. As we’ve all learned at this point, rankings don’t mean too much, as Mannella punched his ticket to the final as he snagged the final qualifying spot during the preliminaries. The Indiana native wasn’t finished though, as he helped the Ravens take 5th in the DMR, as the squad that went into the competition seeded 25th, took 5th and became All-Americans. Joseph Accurso, Blue Caplinger and Daniel Rogge all played huge roles, as they each ran their leg of the relay well, edging out Milligan by under a second.
Like his teammate Lindenmeyer, James Farmer-Cole was a lone All-American for the Pioneer men, placing 8th in the 400m dash. Farmer-Cole qualified for the final in a new lifetime best of 47.93, his first time ever under 48 seconds. According to the results, Farmer-Cole ran 2:01.41, but considering he’s incredibly fast, I can imagine something prevented him from contending throughout the entirety of the race, resulting with him simply doing everything he could to cross the line and finish the race. Whatever the reason, props to him for finishing! Bethel’s Trey Palmer was also the lone All-American for his team, as he took 4th in the nation in the long jump. Palmer is no stranger to the national stage, as this is his fourth appearance at an NAIA championship, and his third All-American performance. Palmer was in the third flight, where he jumped into the 24’s, with a new PR mark of 24’ 0.75”. Jaylan Washington of Ottawa was another lone All-American for his program, taking 3rd in the 60m. Similar to Palmer, Washington is very familiar with competing on the division’s biggest stage. In 2020 and 2021, Washington was an All-American in the same event, but this time set PR’s in both the preliminaries and the final, while taking 3rd in the process. He also set a PR in the 200m, running 21.60.
The Friends Falcons had four All-Americans of their own, all coming at the 3000m distance, just different variations of it. Logan Horning, multiple time KCAC champion took 7th in the 3000m, clocking an 8:26.85. Horning was first to cross the finish line in the preliminaries, in a time of 8:30.25. This is his first ever indoor medal in the 3000m, but his second at the indoor championships. His first came in 2021 in the 5000m, where he took 4th. In the 3000m racewalk. the trio of Pablo Sanz-Rillo, Gage Carr and Jadon Davis went 3-4-5. Sanz-Rillo was the top Kansas finisher, walking a 13:22.87, a few seconds quicker than his time at the 2022 edition of the indoor championships. For Carr, this was almost identical to his PR from a season ago, but his fastest time of the 2022-2023 season by over ten seconds. Carr finished in 13:52.82, nearly in a world of his own, as he was thirty seconds back of Sanz-Rillo and twenty-five seconds ahead of Davis. Davis had broken fourteen at the first meet of the season in December, and wasn’t too far off this time around, crossing in 14:17.93, his third fastest time of his indoor campaign.
The Tabor Blue Jays had a pair of All-Americans, with one of them being the NAIA high jump runner-up. Vance Shewey had a weekend to remember, as he cleared a season best 6’10.75 on his second attempt, giving him the advantage over the third place finisher who took all three attempts to clear the bar. Shewey finished 3rd in the outdoor championship last May, and this time moves up a spot to 2nd. According to my calculations, a national title would be on deck based off of his current trend, but no pressure. Teammate Dillon Callaway made the podium as well, but did it on the track instead. Callaway, one of three Kansas medalists in the event, was 6th in 2:27.25, a nifty PR. He qualified for the final with a 2:28.04, which won him his heat and secured an automatic qualifier. For Callaway, this is his first All-American honor in his second appearance at nationals, and surely not his last.
Just like the women, the distance (and jumping) men of St. Mary left their mark in Brookings. When you put together a team with Liam Neidig, Mark Noel, Robert Huebert and Emad Bashir-Mohammed, what do you expect to happen? The Spires finished 3rd in a blistering time of 10:04.77, good enough for 3rd in the nation. They were 4th in prelims with a time of 10:01.66, but moved up a spot in the final, ahead of Grand View. In addition to his DMR medal, Neidig also finished runner-up in the 1000m, just over a quarter of a second out of gold. The Lansing graduate ran 2:25.70, which is the second fastest time run in the state this year. It’s also his third All-American honor, but his first individual. On the field, former Southwestern Moundbuilder Tony Kinser jumped his way to a 7th place finish over the weekend, clearing 6’7”. Kinser was a part of a five-way tie for 7th, as all five men cleared the height on the first jump. This was Kinser’s fourth All-American honor in the event, and his second consecutive seventh place finish.
In the team scores, Friends finished 16th with 17 points, while St. Mary (14.6), Tabor (11), Benedictine (8), Ottawa (6), Bethel (5) and MidAmerica Nazarene (1) followed, finishing 18th, 26th, 35th, 39th, 46th and 61st in the nation.
You might be wondering where the synopsis of the NJCAA Championships is at, and don’t worry, it’s coming. With there being enough content from those championships, I thought it would be easier on readers if I broke up recapping both the NAIA and NJCAA, so bear with me.
It’ll be in your inbox on Thursday morning at 10.
As far as everything else goes for Kansas track & field action, there wasn’t a ton that happened last week. Of course, this weekend is going to be relatively eventful, so I’ve tried to get you everything you may need to watch and follow along.
Since the NCAA is apparently trying to prevent the growth of the sport, they are putting the DI Indoor Championships behind a paywall on ESPN+. If any NCAA executive is reading this (which I know there are dozens), do better! If you’re going to put the outdoor championships and cross country on ESPN, why not make it a trifecta? Here is a link to the live results so you can follow along, and thankfully they are free. For our DII and DIII fans, the NCAA is streaming both championships for free. You can watch the DII championships here, and the DIII edition here. Also, here are the links to live results for both DII and DIII as well.
It’s not just a busy weekend for the NCAA, but also for those involved with the 2023 New Balance Nationals Indoor meet in Boston, MA. I could’nt find the official entries at the time I’m writing this, but I know that Wichita Trinity’s Clay Shively is looking to run a fast mile, so for that reason alone I’ll be tuning in. Catch the action on RunnerSpace for free on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and on demand on Thursday. You can also find a schedule and live results here and here.
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