UMKC Is Back Like They Never Left🦘
A little bit of everything, including high school, NJCAA and the NAIA
Powered by Garmin Clipboard📋
We’ve got some big things in the works coming soon, but for now I’ll just keep it simple. I think Bob Dylan said it best, but for those who don’t know, “The Times They Are a-Changin”. Athletes are getting faster, coaches are getting smarter, and records continue to be broken. It may seem like an overwhelming task to keep up with the change, or even try to keep up, but I’ve got something for you that should make it all easier. Garmin Clipboard is an app designed to help coaches track the stats and analyze their team’s data, all in one place. A coach can build and schedule workouts and even send them to their athlete’s devices. After practice, a coach can access their athlete’s data after they sink their watch to their smart-device. This allows coaches to see an entire summary of their team’s performance, along with advanced metrics like splits, training load, recovery and so much more.
Download the Garmin Clipboard App → Apple Store & Google Play
Learn more about the Garmin Clipboard App → Garmin Clipboard Overview
Go check out Garmin products → Garmin Running Watches
Kansas Power in the NAIA 800m⚡️
After a few weeks of racing, Aubry Donley (Friends), Aileen Gurrola (Friends), Tabetha Deines (Kansas Wesleyan), and Mia Wilhoit (Baker) sit 1-2-4-11 in the women’s 800m in the NAIA. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is. Donley is no stranger to being the top dog considering she was the national champion in the event at the 2021 NAIA Indoor T&F Championships. She’s also been an All-American seven other times across cross country and indoor track and field. Her teammate Aileen Gurrola isn’t too shabby herself, having won a national title of her own, the 600m at the indoor championships in 2021. That championship goes pretty nicely with her six additional All-American honors. The Friend’s pair both saw PR’s in the event this last weekend with Donley running 2:12.10, and Gurrola lowering her best to 2:12.65. Deines 2:13.12 that she ran the first day of April is just one-fifth of a second away from a lifetime PR, while Wilhoit’s 2:16.53 being a lifetime best and a Baker school record. Donley, Gurrola and Deines have all punched their ticket to Gulf Shores by hitting A-Standard, but don’t be surprised when Wilhoit shaves off half of a second and joins the Kansas trio, making it a quartet.
Colby’s Barbosa Goes Sub-9⬇️
Sadly, my guess on his Instagram poll for Ricardo Barbosa’s season steeple debut was off, but boy, he did run incredibly well. Last Friday at the KT Woodman Classic in Wichita, it was Barbosa against the world, as he took down twelve men in his heat and twenty-eight overall, running 8:59.55 to punch his ticket to nationals. From what I heard, it was a little windy too, so the Portugal native can most likely go even faster. As of now, his first sub-nine as a Trojan is a school record, a NJCAA lead, and the 69th fastest time ran by any collegian this year. The Colby freshman has already qualified for nationals in the 1500m (5th/3:50.25), but no part of me would be shocked if he ran the 5000m or even the 10,000m and put his name out there for all four events. This weekend the team is heading to El Dorado for the Butler Community College Grizzly Classic, but according to the entires, he’s taking the weekend off, so we’ll have to wait a little bit to see him take the track again. He’s definitely an athlete to watch the rest of the spring, so if you weren’t already aware of him, get familiar, because he’s going to do some great things over the next few weeks.
UMKC T&F is back!!🦘
Mark your calendars for July 1, because that’s when the Roos are back in Kansas City! Even though they never should have had to leave, the University of Missouri-Kansas City track & field program was reinstated yesterday (April 14), after the university chose to suspend them in October of 2020, similar to a lot of cross country and track & field programs across the nation. This was a great thing to see, as it will open the door for many athletes to continue to compete at the next level! Somewhere in Portland, UMKC alumni and Olympic silver medalist Courtney Frerichs has a smile on her face. #ROOUP
The NAIA Marathon Shifts to a Half-Marathon🤔
I don’t know much of the reasoning behind the decision, but this week the NAIA decided to change the Marathon at the outdoor national championships to a Half-Marathon, barely six weeks out. Since 2014, the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships have taken place at the Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium in Gulf Shores, Alabama. From a post I saw on Strava, the NAIA cited the predicted wet-bulb temperature that would be present during the 26.2 mile race, but the humid conditions have been common in the championship race since Gulf Shores began hosting eight years ago. I’m not a marathon runner by any means, and I don’t plan to be as of now, but I know a few athletes that qualified over the last five months, and now with a month and a half until they step on the line, their goal pace they’ve been expecting during training now gets significantly faster. What I personally don’t understand is why it took seven years for anyone to realize that maybe these athletes shouldn’t be running a marathon in these conditions. The decision itself wouldn’t be so upsetting to coaches and athletes if they had been made aware last year, or even this past winter. Last May, fifteen of the forty-six athletes that toed the line had a DNF in the results column, suffering from heat exhaustion and the tough conditions. The NAIA hasn’t released a statement or an article over the decision, but apparently they sent an email out to coaches across the country. Overall, this might be a good decision or it might not be, but regardless, the coaches and athletes deserved more than six weeks to prepare for a race that is 13.1 miles shorter than the one they have been training for. At the end of the day, I don’t know the full story or the reasoning behind the NAIA’s decision, but I think it was the right decision for the location, just very poor timing for the coaches and athletes.
Arcadia Was Way Too Fast to Not Talk About🔥
Every year the Arcadia Invitational outdoes the previous year by getting even faster, and the 2022 edition didn’t stray from the pattern. I’m only going to cover a few of the distance races in depth, but if you’re curious to how fast and competitive the meet was all-around, then I’d encourage you to take a quick look at the results.
Obviously, we’ve got to start by talking about the Boy’s 3200m Invitational, that saw a field thirty-one athletes toe the line. For the first few laps, there wasn’t a clear-cut leader, but eventually the duo of Colin Sahlman and Lex Young separated themselves from the pack and began to compete with each-other. Going into the race, there was a lot of hype around Sahlman and his teammates, rightfully so considering they’ve solidified themselves as the greatest high school team of all-time. In February, Sahlman ran a national record of 8:33.32, taking down the thirteen-year-old mark set by German Fernandez at the CIF State Track & Field Championships. Leo and Lex followed behind the senior Northern Arizona commit, running 8:39.57 and 8:43.93 respectively. On Saturday, it was Lex who gave Colin a challenge, eventually leaving the race to the last sixty or so meters, where the older and more experienced runner won down the stretch. Colin ran an official 8:34.99, while Young set a new PR of 8:35.72. The next 21 athletes to cross the line all broke 9:00, with 6 of those going under 8:50, and another 6 going under 8:55. So yeah, it was a ridiculous race and lived up to the expectations for another year. Also, if you were curious, here is quick rundown of the Panther’s 3200m squad.
Colin Sahlman — 8:33.32
Lex Young — 8:35.72
Leo Young — 8:39.57
Aaron Sahlman — 8:48.28
Daniel Appleford — 8:52.19
Dev Doshi — 9:02.27
Hector Martinez — 9:10.95
Photo: JimmySu/PrepCalTrack
Imagine running 9:10 and being seventh fastest man on your team🤯. It’s simply insane. In the Girl’s 3200m Invitational, where Dalia Frias of Mira Costa went 9:55.50, the 5th fastest time in California history. The Duke commit hung back from breaking off for a bit, but eventually made a move and negative split a 4:58-4:57 for each 1600m. Frias was the lone girl under ten, but helped lead 12 below 10:20, 18 under 10:30, and 26 under 10:56. Crazily enough, you could argue that Frias’ 3200m win wasn’t the most impressive feat in the previous forty minutes of the meet (but no it was incredible). The girl responsible for taking some of the spotlight is Ventura freshman, Sadie Engelhardt. In just her fourth mile of the year, Engelhardt went wire to wire, taking down the field with a 4:35.26. She took it out in a 67, then ran a 2:20 for the middle 800m, followed by 68 second last lap. To put her performance into perspective, she would have medaled in four of the six boy’s races at state last May. With still the rest of the season, and another three more years of high school to compete, I can’t even begin to imagine the records she has the chance to set.
Things I Wanted to Talk About, But Couldn’t❌
As you may know, when I write these newsletters, I try my best to cover only the week of competition prior to the Friday that it goes out. I do that to keep everything somewhat organized, and to also make sure I cover as many different athletes as I can. With that being said, next week’s edition will have a lot about Brett Schwartz and Casey Helm throwing 204-2 and 202-6 in the discus, and Tanner Newkirk and Ben Shryock running 4:14 and what I think was 4:16 in the 1600m in Lawrence. Maybe I’ll dip into the impact of wind at track meets, and how it benefits some, but damages others’ performances.
Last minute breaking news! I was finishing up the newsletter when I got a text from a friend saying that Wesley Kiptoo, an Iowa State and Colby CC star, has decided to go pro, joining the HOKA Naz Elite team based in Flagstaff, Arizona. I’ll cover this next week since the Big 12 Champion, 7x All-American and National Champion spent a few years competing in Kansas. More on the story next week, but if you want the story now, go check out the podcast on Citius Mag.
I don’t have too much to say following this one, but if you like this, you should definitely tell everybody you know and share it with anyone you think would enjoy it. Wherever you are today and tonight, go enjoy some track & field for us!
excellent coverage!