As I mentioned in the final T&F preview piece that I posted - as of today, we can stop previewing and start viewing the new and improved Tech track team. The Red Raiders were initially planning on heading to Nashville for the Commodore Invitational, but the airlines started messing with Tech - cancelling flights in anticipation of the upcoming storm and made it near to impossible to get the whole Tech team to Nashville on time, so the Tech coaches called an audible (mixed sports metaphor alert) and took the team to the Arkansas Invitational, where they will bus the team.
This meet is pretty low-key or as low-key as you can be when you have a premier team like Arkansas hosting the meet. Tech is taking fairly large contingents - 25-26 kids in each gender - but, the large majority of the distance kids are staying home. The Arkansas indoor track is one of the top venues in the country and very, very fast for the sprinters. Tech has traditionally had excellent marks in F'ville.
It is interesting to see who is NOT entered in the meet (I am not including any distance runners, because most of them stayed home). For the men, sitting out this meet: quartermiler Steven Champlin (coming off an injury last fall); freshman sprinter Sebastian Hartless (could he be redshirting indoors?); conference champ 800 runner CJ Jones; transfer thrower Duke Kicinski (the D-II national discus champ outdoors for WTAM last year); sprinter Joel Latson; senior hurdler JW Smith; and transfer hurdler Dorian Williams (transferred to Tech from NC State).
Sitting this one out for the women: vaulter Bailey Blunt; freshman throwers Taylor Carrington, Happiness Okeke and Tiana Rodgers; freshman hurdlers Mackenzie Frank and Brooke Merrick; transfer hurdler Kirsten Johnson; and potential superstar triple jumper Brianna Johnson. I will monitor the entries during the next few weeks and see if possibly some of these athletes might be redshirting.
The meet is already underway - I thought I would wait to get this thread started until there were some results and the first result was REALLY good for Tech. The women's HJ is already finished and Zarreia Willis garnered a big PR in winning her first meet of the year. Her PR jump of 5-10.5 is over three inches higher than she jumped last year in getting 5th at the Big 12 indoor conference meet AND 1.25 inches higher than she jumped outdoors to qualify for the D-I national meet last May. A terrific start for Zarreia and a good indication that she will be shooting for 6 feet as the season progresses. True freshman Rose Njoku jumped 5-4.5 in her first meet for Tech. Redshirt freshman Cyre Virgo, coming off an injury in HS that kept her out all of last year, jumped 5-2.5 in her first meet as a Red Raider.
This meet is pretty low-key or as low-key as you can be when you have a premier team like Arkansas hosting the meet. Tech is taking fairly large contingents - 25-26 kids in each gender - but, the large majority of the distance kids are staying home. The Arkansas indoor track is one of the top venues in the country and very, very fast for the sprinters. Tech has traditionally had excellent marks in F'ville.
It is interesting to see who is NOT entered in the meet (I am not including any distance runners, because most of them stayed home). For the men, sitting out this meet: quartermiler Steven Champlin (coming off an injury last fall); freshman sprinter Sebastian Hartless (could he be redshirting indoors?); conference champ 800 runner CJ Jones; transfer thrower Duke Kicinski (the D-II national discus champ outdoors for WTAM last year); sprinter Joel Latson; senior hurdler JW Smith; and transfer hurdler Dorian Williams (transferred to Tech from NC State).
Sitting this one out for the women: vaulter Bailey Blunt; freshman throwers Taylor Carrington, Happiness Okeke and Tiana Rodgers; freshman hurdlers Mackenzie Frank and Brooke Merrick; transfer hurdler Kirsten Johnson; and potential superstar triple jumper Brianna Johnson. I will monitor the entries during the next few weeks and see if possibly some of these athletes might be redshirting.
The meet is already underway - I thought I would wait to get this thread started until there were some results and the first result was REALLY good for Tech. The women's HJ is already finished and Zarreia Willis garnered a big PR in winning her first meet of the year. Her PR jump of 5-10.5 is over three inches higher than she jumped last year in getting 5th at the Big 12 indoor conference meet AND 1.25 inches higher than she jumped outdoors to qualify for the D-I national meet last May. A terrific start for Zarreia and a good indication that she will be shooting for 6 feet as the season progresses. True freshman Rose Njoku jumped 5-4.5 in her first meet for Tech. Redshirt freshman Cyre Virgo, coming off an injury in HS that kept her out all of last year, jumped 5-2.5 in her first meet as a Red Raider.
