Outstanding track and field performance at the last Tech home meet

RRTracklover · May 3, 2015

The last home meet of the season for the Red Raiders and the last home meet prior to the "championship season" as a huge success for Tech. It was a fairly low key meet in Lubbock, but with strong fields in most every event, it provided a perfect setting for a score of good times and marks. The weather cooperated fully - it was a beautiful evening for track and field.

Let me hit the highlights and early next week, I will post some predictions for the Big 12 meet, which is still 1.5 weeks away. This meet was the final meet of the year for many Red Raiders - those who are redshirting and those who will not be going to conference. And, realize that several of the top Red Raiders did not compete - people like Joseph Richards and freshman phenom Steven Champlin - they had competed every weekend since the season started and trained through the weekend in preparation for the conference meet.

WOMEN

Paetyn Revell had one of the great meets in Tech history. First she long jumps 19-8.5 - a new PR that moved her up to #10 in the Big 12. THEN, she set a new school record in the triple jump with a monster jump of 44-0.75, moving her to #1 in the Big 12 and #3 in the nation. Her previous PR was 41-7 and she exceeded that distance on 4 of her jumps on Thursday. She was on fire!
While Cierra White did not break any records, she looked strong in winning the 200 with a solid time of 23.17.
Reece Timmons won the PV and had a PR of 13-4.25 to move to #6 in the Big 12 and probably got into the prelim meet to follow, moving up to #31 in the West. Haley Cook also hit a PR of 13-3.5, moving up to #9 in the Big 12 and #39 in the West (the top 48 in the West will get to compete at UT in late May for a chance of going to the national meet in Eugene)
Natalie Thompson looks ready for a HUGE heptathlon at conference -- she ran a PR in the 100H of 14.08 (ranked #17 in the Big 12); a PR in the HJ of 5-9.25 (ranked #6 in the Big 12 and also ranked #26 in the West); a big PR in the long jump (#20 in the Big 12). Last year, a score of 5,391 in the heptathlon qualified for nationals and I could see her have a legit shot at 5,400 at conference.
Speaking of heptathletes, Shanice Stewart is redshirting this spring in order to have an indoor and outdoor season left next year. How is she doing in her redshirt year? On Thursday, she sets a new stadium record in the LJ of 21-7 - that would have won the open long jump last year!
Montenae Speight tied her PR of 52.21 in the 400 and is in the #3 spot in the Big 12 and #12 in the U.S. I sure hope to see her drop under 52 flat at conference.
LeTristan Pledger had her best overall meet of the year. Her 13.02 in the 100 hurdles was less than a tenth off her PR (she is ranked #2 in the Big 12 and #7 nationally in that event). Just as important, she finally got a really good long jump - a jump of 20-5.75, which moved her to #3 in the Big 12.
Freshman heptathlete Kami Norton continues to impress - she had a PR in the 100H of 13.82 (ranked #12 in the Big 12 and she is legit contender to make the finals in the open 100H), plus a PR in the LJ of 19-1.25 (ranked #12 in the Big 12) and she ran well in the 400H, a time of 1:01.34, less than .2 off her PR which has her ranked #8 in the Big 12. She has a legit shot at scoring in the hep, 100H, 400H and the LJ at conference.
Kelly McQuaid - a transfer from UT-Tyler - has gradually worked her way into being competitive at conference, first placing 8th in the 800 indoors and how lowering her PR to 2:12.13, which is only ranked #18, but less than 2 seconds from being top 8. She drops under 2:10 and she becomes a candidate for conference points.
Madeline Livergood, a senior, has lowered her PR in the steeplechase 2 times this year, most recently to 11:39.30. She is trying to lower it enough to make a case to run the event at conference.
Viershanie Latham joined in on the good jumping with her teammates Paetyn Revell and Gionna Jackson, as she hit a PR in the LJ of 19-11 (#7 in the Big 12) and then a PR in the TJ of 43-2.75 to move up to #3 in the Big 12 and #9 in the country. If Paetyn Revell had not had her huge day, I would have probably led off with Viershanie's huge day.
Tayler Jameson get a PR in the vault of 12-4.75 and "vaults" into contention for conference points at #15 in the Big 12.
Gionna Jackson - a junior who has been the leader of this increasingly strong group of jumpers, Gionna had her season best in the LJ of 19-8.25 to move into the #8 spot in the Big 12 and followed up with a season best of 42-7 in the TJ (only 2 inches off her PR) and moving up to #4 in the Big 12. For those of you counting - that means 3 Red Raiders in the top 4 - that adds up to a huge point potential.
Hannah Carson continues to be so steady at the top of her game - threw her season best in the javelin (ranked #2 in the Big 12 and #5 in the nation) of 180-1; had her 2nd best discus throw of the year at 171-10 (she is still ranked #1 in the Big 12 in that event); and her 3rd best shot put of the year of 48-2, leaving her in #7 in the Big 12.
Jocelyn Caro ran a PR of 4:42.98 in the 1500 (unranked in the Big 12), but she is more of a 5K/10K runner and she looks much faster this year in the shorter races. Hopefully that will translate to a big conference meet in the 5K and possibly the 10K.

MEN

Probably the highlight for me on Thursday was Nigel Bethel. He was not the fastest man on the track by a long shot, BUT for the first time this year, he looked like a college-level sprinter. He ran a very smooth 10.41 in the 100, moving up to #12 in the Big 12 and looked strong in running a 21.02 in the 200, also moving up to #12 in the Big 12. I am just excited to see him look like a sprinter - earlier this year, he looked like a football guy trying to sprint and there IS a difference. He should really help on the sprint relay and could even sneak in for points in the open sprints, particularly the 100.
Tech other sprinters looked really good as well. Senior Trevor Mackey ran an excellent 10.26 in the 100 (his 2nd fastest since coming to Tech) and a 20.70 in the 200. He moves up to #6 in the 100 and #4 in the 200 in the Big 12. The most pleasant surprise was a outstanding 200 from Kareem McBride, the mid-term transfer from Southwest Christian, who blazed to a 20.67 in the 200 (now #3 in the Big 12) and a 46.73 in the 400 (now #9 in the Big 12, but 3 Red Raiders are ahead of him). I was a bit skeptical of McBride when he transferred in, because of all of the new freshman quartermilers Tech has, but it looks like he will really help.
The stud sprinter of the day was from University of Tulsa - Byron Robinson. He ran a 9.96 (!) in the 100, with a wind just over the allowable for it being a new record and then came back with a blazing 20.30 in the 200.
Chris Caldwell looked the best he has looked since the Texas Relays - running a 13.65, his 2nd best time of the year.
Kyle Collins continues his terrific sophomore season - a new PR in the 400,w here he is ranked #4 in the Big 12 and #20 in the nation.
Jacorian Duffield won the HJ with a jump of 7-5, which just a year ago would have been a new school record. Jacorian looks ready for the Big 12 meet. Bradley Adkins had a decent jump of 7-1 and freshman Trey Culver just missed giving Tech 3 7-footers as he jumped 6-11. It appears that the foot injury incurred by Dayton Fisher in the last home meet may well have scuttled the rest of his season.
Kendall McVey ran a PR in the 800 of 1:50.77, putting him #10 in the Big 12. Freshman CJ Jones looked like he backed off on the gas just a bit over the last 100 meters and he still ran a respectable 1:51.34. I would be very surprised if CJ does not go under 1:50 in Big 12 meet.
It was a good meet for hurdlers - Tramaine Maloney and Darien Tennon both had PR's in the 110H (Maloney's 13.78 puts him #3 in the Big 12 and DT's time of 13.97 puts him #5. Both DT and JW Smith ran well in the 400H, neither of them ran PR's, but both ran their 2nd fastest times of the year and both are ranked in the top 4 in the conference.
Kyle Thompson won the vault with a 16-9.25, but he moved the bar up to 17-5 to try to get a new PR and he BARELY nicked off the bar at that height. And, don't forget, Tech has 2 new recruits coming in the vault - one has vaulted 17-7 this year and the other 17-3!
Kole Weldon had a solid meet in 2 of the three throws - throwing his 2nd best hammer throw of his career at 201-1 and a decent discus of 187-11. He did not throw well at Lubbock in the SP, but did go to Austin on Saturday and threw much better - a 61-8.5. He is ranked #1 in the Big 12 in the DT, #2 in the hammer and #3 in the shot.
Jerome Wilson had a decent LJ of 24-5.75, his 2nd best jump of the year. He chose not to triple jump. Sure hope to see him go over 25 in the LJ and over 50 in the triple jump come conference time. And, speaking of recruits, Tech has Charles Brown coming next year and he has already high jumped 6-11 this year, has long jumped just short of 25 feet and has triple jumped over 50 feet. He will be Tech's first jumping triple threat.

I think that is about it. Now, the real fun stuff begins - as the Big 12 meet is just 1.5 weeks away, followed by the West Prelim meet 2 weeks later and then nationals 2 weeks after that. Last year, it seemed like the Tech track team really jelled at the last home meet, which was 2 weeks before conference last year as well. I certainly hope this is a good omen that history is about to repeat itself!!!!!

The Duke 1941 · May 3, 2015