TicketsFeb. 1, 2010
Each week of competition, University of Cincinnati head women's track and field coach Susan Seaton and head men's track and field coach Bill Schnier take a look back at the performances from the previous week. Coach Seaton comments about the women's team, while coach Schnier talks about the men's squad in their weekly Beartracks. Here is their reaction to the 2010 Rod McCravy Memorial Meet held Jan. 29-30 in Lexington, Ky.
lady beartracks
For the second year in a row we competed at the Rod McCravy Memorial at Kentucky's Nutter Field House. The 291-meter Mondo track provides a great opportunity for our track athletes to run fast times on a fast track against good competition.
Two athletes had breakthrough performances for our team. Mackenzie Fields added her name to the list of 2010 NCAA qualifiers and also to the list of Nutter Field House record holders. Her provisional mark of 13' 1.5" ranks second on UC's all-time list and 21st on the NCAA list. Mackenzie made good use of her brand new poles and blew the competition away with her first attempt clearance of 12' 8". She also had good attempts at the school record height of 13' 6" and looks to be ready to break the 14-foot barrier for the first time in UC history. The second breakthrough performance of the meet came from sophomore Aricka Rhodes in the 400m race. Aricka got out well, won the break, and finished unchallenged and amazingly strong, leading her closest competitor by 20 meters. Aricka's time of 55.72 is an all-time best for her, ranks third on our all-time list and is an improvement by almost a full second. It will be fun to watch her race the nation's best next week at the fast Armory track in NYC.
The pole vault continues to be our strongest and deepest event. Michelle Eby had an off day but still managed to finish in third place, followed by Kayla Dunn and Stephanie Ponte, who both achieved season-best marks and tied for sixth place. Freshman pole vaulter Kate Heinrichs also achieved a seasonal-best performance and added her name to the list of Big East Qualifiers. We now have five girls qualified for the Big East pole vault competition and look to dominate the event at the Big East Championships.
The meet brought more seasonal-best marks for our athletes. Long sprinter Ashley Arnold ran her fastest time of the year in the open 400m race and looks to be getting in form just in time for the high points of our season to start. Short sprint ace Natasha Burse ran seasonal bests in the 60 and 200 meters as she is fighting to break her times from last year. Natasha is really focused on doing well and seems to be peaking at the right time. Three-event national qualifier Jasmine Cotten returned to action after resting an injury. With a PR in the 60m hurdles and an NCAA qualifying mark in the high jump, Jasmine seems to be ready to measure herself against the nation's best at our upcoming meet in NYC. Her 60m hurdle time ranks third on UC's all-time list and shows how versatile this senior is.
Jenna Heaton continues her assault on fast times in the 800 meter race, running a PR and placing third amongst a strong field of runners. Considering that Jenna did not have a great start to her race it will be fun to watch her rise to the challenge when she will face even faster competition next weekend. The 800 also saw Kathy Klump and Megan McAuley fighting their way back into contention as they are coming off illness and injury and need a few more good workouts to be back on top of their game. 3000 meter runners Michelle McKenney and Courtney Staruch had a nice showing and finished the race with PR's in the book.
We now have 18 athletes qualified for the Big East Championships and 17 marks that currently rank in the Top 12 on our conference performance list, placing those athletes within scoring range of the top eight places. Now we will travel to New York City to measure ourselves against the nation's best. The New Balance Colligate Invitational will be a very exciting opportunity for our best athletes to take the next step and perform on a national stage. A popular saying about NYC goes, "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." New York - here we come!
MEN'S beartracks
As has been the case all winter, those who competed in the meet did very well but those who stayed home failed to make a contribution. In a few cases the training and competition schedule dictated not competing at the Rod McCravy Invitational this weekend. Several team mottos over the years come to mind as we grapple with the issues of sports and success typical of this indoor season: (1) Go to class, pay your bills; (2) Take care of yourself first, then take care of someone else; and (3) Don't get hurt. To describe our team statistically, 28 competed at UK and 27 did not. That's not good!
The text of this message will dwell on those who did compete and did so quite well. As we expected of ourselves, we did very well and made a huge difference in this meet with two winners and eight top-eight placers. In this SEC and ACC dominated meet, six of our eight placers came from the field events, long a UC strength, but let's first look at our winners. On Friday night our three talented high jumpers took first, second, and fifth. Both Mike Foley and Brandon Fitch jumped 6' 8-1/4" but on this occasion Mike got the victory with fewer misses. Backing them up was Ryan Beltz, a 6' 4-1/4" jumper this time. Those three are very good and will score big points all season long. They aid themselves with a friendly but helpful rivalry as each pushes the other two to succeed. Thus far it is working extremely well. Our other winner came on Saturday in the 60 M. hurdles. Terrence Somerville and Alphonso Jordan of Georgia Tech were tied at 7.96 after the prelims, but Terrence blew him and all others out in the finals with another spectacular race, a 7.90 burner with Alphonso far behind in second at 8.04. Just like in the high jump we had some depth with Mario Cannon finishing in 13th (8.57) and Blake Moran close behind in 15th (8.59). Quality and depth are always fun and very necessary.
A real standout both days was Troy Cooper. Troy is solid in the weight throw as his 50' 0" toss indicated, but he excelled in a fine shot put field with a huge throw of 56' 3", fourth place in this meet and only one inch short of Greg Weber's 1983 UC record. It is no wonder Troy's picture is on the front of our current record book. His progress has been remarkable in all his throws. Before he is done he has the potential to be the best all-around thrower in UC history. The other two field event placers came from Zach Schmidt in the triple jump (7th, 43' 1-3/4") and Blake Moran in the long jump (7th, 21' 11-3/4"). Both Zach and Blake have shown progress and an infectious enthusiasm causing the rest of us to sit up and take notice. Both were also in other events but failed to place in this highly-competitive meet. Terrence Somerville's 60 M. hurdle victory was already cited, but our only other running event placer was in the final event, the 4 x 400 relay. This group of three freshmen and a senior continued to drop their time this winter. It is now down to a respectable 3:18.47, good for eighth at UK. The three freshmen were essentially the same person with the following splits: Ethan Freet (49.9), Brendan Lyshe (50.2) and Alex Howell (49.5). The team was anchored by senior Chase VanCura (48.8), the heart and soul of our current sprint group. Although that 3:18.47 was far from spectacular, it certainly shows promise.
As is usually the case, many of the best stories came from the non-placers or really from the "up-and-comers." Wasn't it great to see Elliot Vocke vaulting well again with a 14' 7-1/4" clearing and a near miss at 15' 1"? Michael Rutherford opted to try the mile on this occasion and responded with a 4:11.78, 10th overall at the Rod McCravy Invitational but ninth on the all-time UC indoor list. So is Michael better in the 800 M. or the mile? Who knows right now other than he is plenty good in both. VanCura almost set a PR in his first open 400 M. since December, a strong 49.16 showing. How can we not be excited for Jon McClelland with his 1:54.70 in the 800 M., good for 11th overall and second in his section on Saturday? And speaking about the 800 M., did you notice Ryan Wynn's 1:57.36 coming from a freshman with shin problems and an inability to train as he needs to. Chris Littleton upped his shot put mark to 49' 8-1/4", knocking on the door of the UC Top 10 in his second-best event. Rick King and Ricky Lupp were strong in the mile run with both running 4:18 in an off event. Oliver Book got everyone excited with a notable 8:46.16 for 3,000 M. in his first attempt. Darius Howard appeared to be stuck in the 23's for 200 M. but broke out with a 22.97 on Saturday. As is usually the case, much more good than bad, yet still plenty of room for improvement.