The Red Raiders hosting the Texas Tech Open tonight and tomorrow

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The Texas Tech Open is a completely different meet than last weekend. In the article on TexasTech.com, it mentions that this week there are 31 Red Raiders competing -- last week, there were 77 Red Raiders competing. This week the Red Raiders can be divided into three categories -- 1) the Red Raiders who WILL be competing at conference, but who want to stay sharp and don't need the rest (the throwers ALWAYS compete every single week and some of the sprinters just want to stay in a rhythm); 2) kids on the bubble who need to impress the coaches that they are capable of competing at conference; and 3) a few Red Raiders, due to injury or transfer, are making their debut for the season.

The teams attending are very heavy on D-II, NAIA, D-III and JC teams. Kansas has brought a large contingent. Ole Miss has a solid group of vaulters here, but not their whole team. The other D-I schools present, a good Sam Houston St team (only a partial team); Arkansas State (always good vaulters) and LA Tech.

Here are some events to watch, arranged by day and be aware that the main day to be at the meet is the Friday afternoon-evening portion:

FRIDAY - FIELD (their current rank in the Big 12 in parentheses):

• 3:00 - women's "A" PV - Chloe Wall (5) goes up against a good group of vaulters from Kansas, Ole Miss and Arkansas State
• Following the women's "A" PV, the "B" PV launches with Ryleigh Redding (14), Ashton Moon (20); and Allyn Tyer (21) trying to show that they deserve to compete at conference
• 3:00 - women's weight throw -- Seasons Usual (5) trying to move up in the Big 12 rankings and Dorleta Armendariz-Lasa (11) trying to prove she is conference competitive
• 3:00 - women's LJ - Chinne Okoronkwo (3) in her first LJ since the Corky Classic; Ivy Walker (1) trying to get a big jump by NOT competing in the 60H this week; and Talajah Murrell (15) just trying to get a chance to jump at conference
• 3:00 -- men's LJ is not jumping a single person in the men's LJ -- the male jumpers are taking off a week entirely with a good field of jumpers coming to Lubbock next week
• 5:30 -- men's WT - Duke Kicinski (2) looks to continue his season of great improvement with the weight throw

FRIDAY - TRACK

• 3:00 -- women's Distance Medley Relay -- this group is young and largely different than last weeks's lineup. 1200 leg - Natalie Gomez; 400 leg - FR Lexye Price; 800 leg - FR Kyra Young; and 1600 leg - FR Binta Ka. Tech only has 1-2 women who are conference competitive in the distances (mile, 3K, or 5K). In order to leave Nokuthula Dlamini and Sese Dala running in only individual events, the coaches will be looking to see if some of the young kids can possibly run well enough to pick up a point or two in the conference DMR
• 3:35 and 4:25 - Tech does not have a single entry in the women's or men's 400
• 5:30 prelim round of the 60 -- Robyn Byrd (7), Tiffani Johnson (3) -- there will be a prelim round, a semi round at 7:50 and a final round at 8:30 - the coaches just want to see how Tiffani and Robyn hold up to three rounds of sprints with some pretty good competition
• 6:10 prelim round of the 60 - Derrius Rodgers (3), Keion Sutton (8), Kesean Carter (10) and Joel Latson (17) -- I think Derrius was disappointed in last week, Keion false started last week and Kesean and Joel just need the reps. Semi round runs at 7:50 and the final round at 8:35. Watching the Tech sprinters, even minus Divine O and Andrew Hudson, will still be worth the price of admission
• 6:35 prelim round of the women's 60H -- Kyla Glenn (17) is fighting for a spot on the conference competing team; Kaylor Harris is debuting for the year. Kaylor was injured in the fall and has been coming back very gradually -- I wondered if she might even redshirt indoors. But, Kaylor got 5th last year in the 60H as a true freshman and I imagine that the coaches need to see if she is capable of contributing this year.
• 6:55 - prelim round of the men's 60H - Caleb Richmond runs in his season debut, but he is more of a 400 hurdler outdoors, so this may be his only time to run the event indoors. This will be the first time to see French midterm transfer decathlete, Axel Hubert. He is a good hurdler, be may even be able to run in the open 60H at conference. This kid could be really good for Tech!

SATURDAY - FIELD

• 11 a.m. - men's "A" PV has a terrific field, with vaulters from Arkansas State, Ole Miss, SHSU and particularly Kansas, which brings in the Big 12 indoor/outdoor champ who also won the D-1 national meet, Hussain al-Hizam, who became the first Saudi to ever win a Big 12 track title. Drew McMichael (6) will need to vault over 18 feet to be competitive.
• Following the men's "A" title, the men's "B" vault will happen - freshmen Tech vaulters Luke Williams (11), Adam Alborn (18) and Logan Fraley (19) are trying to move up the conference performance list
• 12 noon - the men's and women's triple jump occur without a single Red Raider entered
• 2:00 - men's and women's high jump on back to back pits -- no Red Raiders entered on the women's side, but for the men, Jack Cissne (tie for 8th) jumps, plus decathletes Axel Hubert and FR Jager Mundheim. Jack is needing to improve his season best by an inch or two, because while he is ranked #8 in the HJ, he is still behind 4 teammates. Jager shows a lot of promise in the decathlon, but he was injured in his HS senior and was brought along slowly this past fall. The coaches will be looking to see if he is close enough to 100% to compete at conference.
• 2:00 - men's shot put - Duke Kicinski (3) and Braden Darrow (10) are joined by decathlete Clark Griffith (2nd in the indoor heptathlon last year) who was also injured in the fall and is another decathlete who the coaches will look to see if he is close enough to 100% to compete at conference.

SATURDAY - TRACK

• Very few Red Raiders on the track on Saturday -- no entries in the men's mile, men's or women's 800, men's or women's 200, men's 3K or the 4x400 relays for men or women.
• 11 a.m. - women's mile - Nokuthula Dlamini (24) runs in the fast section; Natalie Gomez (49) and Kaitlyn Irving (unranked) run in the 2nd fastest section out of 3 sections
• 2:05 - women's 3K -- FR Binta Ka runs this race for the 1st time this year and Natalie Parks (42)

Next week's meet will be much, much bigger meet. For the die-hard Tech T&F fan, there is still be some good vaulting in the afternoon and some good sprint action on Friday night and on Saturday, the PV will be terrific (always good to have a national champ in the house) and the HJ will be pretty good.