Really, there is not much about Bethel in this preview, but that name seems to draw a LOT of traffic to a post these days!
Tech is headed to the West Prelim meet in Lawrence this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The way this weird hybrid meet works - there are 2 prelim meets in the U.S. (the east meet is in Jacksonville). All season long a running list of performances is kept on a central database called TFFRS. Then, at the end of the regular season, the top 48 in each event in the west (except the heptathlon/decathlon) convene at the prelim meet to see who actually gets to go to nationals. The top 12 in each event proceed to nationals.
One interesting caveat: before the final 48 are chosen, the head coach can "scratch" an athlete and not allow them to be picked. Why would a coach do that? Maybe their athlete got their time/mark early in the year and has subsequently been injured. A coach is expected to scratch that athlete. Or, for the sake of the example, maybe a sprinter is in the top 48 of 2 events - ranked 15th in the 400 and 32nd in the 200 (like Texas Tech's Joseph Richards). A coach may choose to keep the kid in the 400 field and scratch the 200. There can be penalties if someone is entered and then does not even make the trip. I have been at the last 2 prelim meets and there are rarely more than 1-2 last minute scratches in any event.
This Byzantine process of picking the top 48 sometimes aids Tech and sometimes it does not. The scratch has to be made 7 days before the meet. If the athlete does not show immediate improvement from injury, they will invariably be scratched. This year, Kareem McBride was scratched from the 200 for Tech and Andrew Hudson was scratched from a certain berth in the 100 and a probable berth in the 200. I will point out the kids who benefited from it in my preview. Also, I will include how they were ranked at the end of the season and how they are ranked in this meet - the 2nd number will always be equal or smaller.
MEN - a nice contingent of Red Raiders and some of them have a great chance of making it to nationals.
WOMEN - heavily weighted to field events, which has been the story of the Lady Raiders all year
I will try to post some things during the meet. Maybe Nigel Bethel will run an incredible leg on the 4x100 and atone himself in the eyes of all the Raider Nation!
Tech is headed to the West Prelim meet in Lawrence this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The way this weird hybrid meet works - there are 2 prelim meets in the U.S. (the east meet is in Jacksonville). All season long a running list of performances is kept on a central database called TFFRS. Then, at the end of the regular season, the top 48 in each event in the west (except the heptathlon/decathlon) convene at the prelim meet to see who actually gets to go to nationals. The top 12 in each event proceed to nationals.
One interesting caveat: before the final 48 are chosen, the head coach can "scratch" an athlete and not allow them to be picked. Why would a coach do that? Maybe their athlete got their time/mark early in the year and has subsequently been injured. A coach is expected to scratch that athlete. Or, for the sake of the example, maybe a sprinter is in the top 48 of 2 events - ranked 15th in the 400 and 32nd in the 200 (like Texas Tech's Joseph Richards). A coach may choose to keep the kid in the 400 field and scratch the 200. There can be penalties if someone is entered and then does not even make the trip. I have been at the last 2 prelim meets and there are rarely more than 1-2 last minute scratches in any event.
This Byzantine process of picking the top 48 sometimes aids Tech and sometimes it does not. The scratch has to be made 7 days before the meet. If the athlete does not show immediate improvement from injury, they will invariably be scratched. This year, Kareem McBride was scratched from the 200 for Tech and Andrew Hudson was scratched from a certain berth in the 100 and a probable berth in the 200. I will point out the kids who benefited from it in my preview. Also, I will include how they were ranked at the end of the season and how they are ranked in this meet - the 2nd number will always be equal or smaller.
MEN - a nice contingent of Red Raiders and some of them have a great chance of making it to nationals.
- 400 - Kyle Collins - ranked 4/4 and Joseph Richards - ranked 16/15 -- I sure hope that Kyle is back to 100% after his hamstring tweak caused him to shut it down in the Big 12 400 (just as he was taking the lead!). Joseph has fought through minor injuries all year and is running his best of the season. Both have a legit shot at progressing to nationals
- 800 - Charles Jones - ranked 11/10 and freshman Vincent Crisp - ranked 18/16 - I really think that CJ will shine at this meet and the freshman Crisp has shown me a LOT this year - this kid will be really good for Tech
- 110H - Chris Caldwell - ranked 6/6 - Chris looked good at the Big 12 meet, he should be able to move to nationals
- 400H - JW Smith - ranked 6/6 and freshman Caleb Richmond - ranked 40/39 - JW has really raised his game this year and the freshman Richmond shows some promise
- Steeplechase - Benard Keter is ranked 7/7 - Benard has a really good chance to move on
- 5K - Evans Tuitoek is ranked 39/30 - will have to run the race of his lifetime to make it to nationals
- 4x100 - ranked 12/7 - how can there be such a discrepancy in the rankings? In another weird little wrinkle in the national rankings, every time a school runs a different lineup in a relay, that relay is entered as separate entry representing the school. For instance, there are 3 Arkansas relays, 2 U of Houston relays, 2 TAMU relays and 2 TCU relays ranked ahead of Tech. Each of those schools can only enter 1 relay, so Tech moves up to 7th seed. This is where Nigel Bethel is apparently going to the meet as an alternate - I don't know the composition of the relay, but there is a chance they could move on to nationals.
- 4x400 - ranked 7/6 - if everyone is healthy, this relay has an excellent shot at going to nationals. BUT, everyone on this relay has not been healthy all season. Steven Champlin has been sick and injured all year and has tried to soldier through it, but he was on crutches at the Big 12 meet after the 400 prelims. Not sure if he can run or not.
- High Jump - Trey Culver ranked 1/1 and Bradley Adkins ranked 4/4 - both should move on to nationals barring a catastrophe
- Pole vault - freshman Brandon Bray is ranked 13/13 and has a shot at qualifying, although it might well take a vault of 17-9 or even higher to make this field (he vaulted 17-6 at the Big 12, but is capable of vaulting well past 18 feet)
- Freshman Charles Brown has qualified in the LJ (11/10) and the triple jump (16/16) - qualifying for nationals would be the perfect ending to CB's fantastic freshman season. He obviously has a better shot in the LJ, but I say you can never count this guy out.
WOMEN - heavily weighted to field events, which has been the story of the Lady Raiders all year
- 100 - freshman Tiffani Jackson is ranked 51/36 - the freshman, who improved steadily all year, had enough sprinters scratch out of the event to move into the field. This should be valuable experience at the national level for Tiffani
- 400 - freshman Sara Limp is ranked 43/29 - the most impressive freshman runner for Tech this year will also get some great experience at the national level
- 10K - Jocelyn Caro is ranked 42/38 - I was surprised that more 10K runners didn't drop out in favor of the 5K, but Jocelyn was in the field regardless
- 4x100 - ranked 42/22 - look at my explanation on the men's 4x100 to explain how Tech could move up 20 places and just squeak into the field -
- Hannah Carson will be a key standard bearer for Tech at this meet as she is heavily favored to make top 12 in the discus (2/2) and javelin (1/1). She is also a heavy favorite to score in both events at nationals. Natalie Baker joins her in the javelin field - Natalie is ranked 27/25. It would be super-cool to see Natalie make the national field - she has worked hard to become a good thrower.
- Viershanie Latham is the other favorite to represent Tech at nationals, as she is ranked 1/1 in the Triple jump and a less imposing 26/25 in the LJ; she is joined by Gionna Jackson in both events - Gionna is ranked 9/8 in the LJ and 12/12 in the TJ and has an excellent chance to make it to nationals in both. IN the LJ, they are joined by Amani Nesmith (29/26) and freshman heptathlete Kaylee Hinton (40/35).
- HJ - heptathlete Natalie Thompson makes the prelim field in this event ranked 22/19 and freshman Zarreia Willis is ranked 29/26 and jumping better at this time than anytime in her freshman year. With Natalie T able to concentrate on only the HJ (not all 7 events of the heptathlon), she could definitely squeeze into the nationals field.
- PV - Haley Cook is ranked 16/15 and has a definite chance to qualify if she is vaulting her best. It was in the vault that Tech just missed qualifying a boatload of kids - juniors Reece Timmons and Blake Wood were both ranked in a tie for 55th and sophomores Tayler Jameson and Megan Wood were both in a tie for 64th. You don't see many vaulters scratch out of the meet, except for injury. Vaulters tend to be specialists in the vault only.
I will try to post some things during the meet. Maybe Nigel Bethel will run an incredible leg on the 4x100 and atone himself in the eyes of all the Raider Nation!
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