Pole Vault Rules Over Fast-Starting 2015

Not one, but TWO Collegiate Records in the Pole Vault!
And not just since the first 2015 INdoor marks started coming in as early as November, but in less than ONE DAY this weekend!
That may be a record by itself!

Lots to report, so let's start with THE event of the past 2 seasons, the PV.

At the Texas-Arkansas Dual meet, Sandi Morris broke Kaitlin Petrillose's year-old record by vaulting 15-1.50, becoming just the 2nd Collegiate woman to surpass 15 feet INdoors!
And she beat Petrillose in the process, as Petrillose NH'ed!
Morris also gained the Senior Class record.
She moved all the way from 16th A-T Collegiate to the top rung!
She also became 7th A-T US, tied with 1 other!

Well, that didn't last long!
The next day, at the Texas A&M Aggie Invitational, a new CR holder was launched---literally!
Demi Payne, who had PR'ed a week or so ago at 14-9, added another 5+ inches, setting the new CR at 15-2.25!
(She then missed 3 tries at 15-3.  Morris didn't try any higher heights!)
Payne also broke Morris's Senior Class record!
She moved from 7th A'T Collegiate, tied with 4 others, into 1st.
And she became 7th A-T US, moving up from 19th, where she was tied with 8 (!!) others!

But those weren't the only great PV marks from this weekend!

The PV Summit saw WR holder Renaud Lavillenie going over 19-5!
This was higher than he began his 2014 campaign!

Sam Kendricks, now a Pro, got a PR, jumping 19-2.75.
(If he'd remained a Collegian, he would have come within 1 centimeter of Shawn Barber's CR!!)
As it is, he moved to 6th A-T US, tied with 2 others!

On the HS level, "Mondo" Duplantis broke his own Freshman Class record from last week, and he did it TWICE!!
He first went over 16-2, getting his record by one inch.
Then he soared over 16-8, which is almost 5 inches higher than the OUTdoor Frosh record too!

Brandon Bray improved to 17-6, though he did this about a week ago!
This moves him from 13th A-T HS (tied with 3 others), up to 7th, where he's tied with 1 other!

Melissa Gergel got a good PR, reaching 14-9.
This makes her 19th A-T US, tied with 3 others.
She'd been 23rd, where she was tied with 2 others.

And that's just one event!!

Seattle's Washington Preview meet produced several good marks, and not all of them were illegal for record and list purposes!
(I'll get to those in a minute!)

The Women's 60 saw several good early season marks.

In the heats, it was Ky Westbrook, now a freshman at USC (Southern Cal), who ran fastest, going 7.21.
This missed my Top 24 list by just 0.03 seconds.
And she missed the Frosh Class record by 0.09.
But then she improved to 7.18 in the final!
This made her 20th A-T Collegiate, where she's tied with 5 others!
And she beat Oregon's Jenna Prandini, who ran 7.28.

But the winner of the Seattle 60 was another Duck, the lesser known Jasmine Todd!
She ran 7.15, which is a PR by just 0.01 seconds!
She moved from 14th A-T Collegiate, where she was tied with 3 others, up into 10th, where she has 4 others for company!

In a separate meet, Dezerea Bryant ran a 60 in 7.18.
Her PR, however, is 7.12 from last year.

John Teeters ran the fastest Collegiate 60 of 2015, hitting a good 6.54.
And that was in a heat!
(He ran a bit slower in the final!)
The 6.54 makes him 15th A-T Collegiate, tied with a massive TEN others!!

Another good sprint mark came from WJC hero Trentavis Friday, who is now a Collegiate freshman.
He ran the 200 in 20.86 in his first Collegiate race!
And he beat Aaron Ernest and Vernon Norwood in the process!

Three more field event marks that need mentioning.

Jared Lovelace is the new HS leader in the TJ, with his 50-1.75 effort.
He's just 1 and a half inches from my DDD list!

Becky O'Brien took over the US lead in the SP with her toss of 58-0.50.
It's not a PR, however.

And HSR holder Raven Saunders, in her 2nd Collegiate meet, fell off her opener of 56-3.75, reaching just 53-10.50!
In fact, a Senior class teammate of her's at Southern Illinois, beat her!

Well, let's return to the Seattle meet!
Relating to that, I want to make a brief comment first.

This is my blog.
When I began posting here over 13 months ago, I provided a few "guidelines", or "rules",  which this blog would follow.
They included....
no 1600 or 3200 times, nor times converted from them!
no Oversize Track marks.
total separation of the seasons, INdoor from OUTdoor!

As creator and author of this blog, it's my right to choose the standards, the philosophy, and the theme.
And I can make the rules!

This is NOT an Aaron K-only decision.
Read other blogs.
They too follow the path set by their authors.
You choose to read them.....or not!
You like them.....or not!

In the world of T&F, I believe mine is the ONLY one which is TOTALLY about Records and Marks, as well as Places on All-Time lists!
There's also the T&FN website, House of Run, The Daily Relay, as well as sites which deal with the sport in general or specific terms, such as Let's Run, Runner Space, Mile Split, and Flotrack.

ALL of them have their own idiosyncratic rules, some of which I love....and some I don't.
My blog is no different!
I set the rules.....and my readers can like them....or not!
But I have no plans to change them!

That said, I will now report what happened on the 307 meter oval at Seattle's Dempsey Center!
And there WERE some wonderful races there!

If the Nike Oregon Project were there for "rust busters", well, said rust is BUSTED!!
Most of their athletes doubled.
And these doubles happened within the space of one hour, a few in just 30 minutes!

Leading the way were Matthew Centrowitz for the Men, and Shannon Rowbury for the Women.

Centro ran the 1000 in 2:19.53, beating Steepler Evan Jager, who ran 2:20.39.
He returned soon after to win the Mile, hitting 3:58.60.
Second was Canadian teammate Cam Levins, who ran 3:58.75.
And Stanford Frosh Sean McGorty dipped under 4:00, running 3:59.34 in 3rd!

And I've heard a rumor----maybe NOT a rumor!!---that Centro ran ANOTHER mile under 4:00 in his post-meet "training session", this time going something like 3:57-plus!!
Coach Salazar, you're NUTS!!
(Or is he?  LOL)

Shannon Rowbury also ran a 1000 and a Mile, also winning both!

She opened with the 1000, winning in 2:40.25.
And following her were 2 other NOP women, Jordan Hasay in 2:41.08, then Treniere Moser in 2:41.50.

Then came that superstar Collegiate Freshman, Elise Cranny, who ran 2:42.39.
Further back was HS Soph Sophie Cantine, who couldn't repeat her 2:47.64 from last year, running "only" 2:50.25!

Rowbury, like Centro, returned inside of an hour to win the Mile in 4:27.86.
And once again, she had Jordan Hasay for company!
Hasay ran 4:28.73.
Then there was a gap of several seconds, when Treniere Moser crossed the line in 4:35.15.

Also doubling in Seattle was 800 girl Phoebe Wright.
She ran in that same Mile race, finishing in 4:38.68.
Wright also ran the 400 (!) in 55 seconds!

The last notable NOP doubler was 18 year old Mary Cain, now a student at the University of Portland, though only academically!

She ran the 600 and the 800.
But she did NOT win both!

First up was the 600, where she finished an overall 4th, though third in her heat.
A woman from another heat ran a bit faster than Cain, gaining a 2nd overall place

Cain's conquerer was another Stanford Super Freshman, Olivia Baker, who won in 1:29.42.
And an Oregon Frosh, Raevyn Rogers, also beat Cain, running 1:29.87.
Cain ran a solid 1:30.03.
(Note that in her first USATF Mile win, in the 2013 Albuquerque meet, she finished that slug-gishly slow 5:05 mile with a blazing 1:31 final 600!!)

Mary also returned just 30 minutes or so later, winning over a weak 800 field in 2:07.21

I'm not sure if Galen Rupp was at the meet, but I DO know he didn't race!

And neither did new Pro Alexa Efraimson!!
She had been listed on the Mile heat sheet, but didn't run.
Whether she was even at the meet, I have no idea.
Hopefully, it was her HS priorities, and not an injury or illness, that prevented her from racing!

Well, the above Seattle marks were great!
Especially if they were considered to be "rust-busters"!
And even more so for this early time of the season!
I mean, it's just mid-January!

But, as great as they were, NONE of them will make the Top 24 All-Time lists for the United States or Collegiate groups!
At best, you might find them as an appended "list"....UNDER the "legal marks" list!!

Too bad, because several of those marks WOULD make my Top 24's....IF the track were 200 meters around, not 307 meters!!
One thing's for sure, however---Centro, Rowbury, Hasay, Cain, and Moser, as well as Baker, Cranny, and a few others, are in MID-SEASON shape.....right now!!

Believe it or not, I've got a few MORE noteworthy marks to report!!

The Yale Classic HS meet produced some good marks.

In the Men's 3000, Connor Lundy beat Jeremy Spiezio, 8:26.55 to 8:26.84.
Lundy's time makes him 13th A-T HS, tied with 1 other.
Spiezio is now 15th A-T HS.

James Burke ran the 1000 in 2:26.75, making him 22nd A-T HS.

Remember my post on the Bronxville HS girls team?
Well, they're coming through with some good efforts!
The best (so far) was their Yale Classic DMR race.
They produced a 12:12.36, which is 2 seconds faster than they ran in 2014!
And it's still early in the season!

There were some good 500 meter times.
(I don't have lists for this event, so I don't know where they place All-Time!)

Erica Rucker had the fastest time, hitting 1:10.06.
Ajee Wilson (not the same race) ran 1:10.27.
Sophie Smellie ran 1:10.54.
(BTW, it was Smellie who beat Mary Cain in Cain's 2014 opener, also over 500 meters!)

On the Men's side, Bershawn Jackson produced a solid time of 1:01.45.

Natoya Goule ran a good 1000, her time of 2:43.03 making her 12th A-T Collegiate!

Last but definitely NOT least, Multiple Sclerosis victim Kayla Montgomery, the star of that fantastically moving ESPN video "Catching Kayla", ran her first Collegiate track race (for Tennessee's Lipscomb College), finishing 5th (of 10) in a 5000 race, running 17:41.56.
It's not her PR, as she ran 17:16+ at the 2014 NBIN meet!
I expect she'll be under 17:00 by season's end!  (If she sticks to the 5000!!)

BTW, she was the first finisher for Lipscomb!
Four Junior Class runners finished ahead of her!
(Remember, she finished 7th on her team in the XC Regional race a couple of months back!)

Finally (WHEW!!), the USATF Half-Marathon Championships were run this morning in Houston.

Winning for the Men was new citizen Diego Estrada, who ran 1:00:51.
He broke away early, steadily increasing his lead, finally winning by 52 seconds!!
Jared Ward was 2nd, running 1:01:43.
Boston Marathon hero Meb Keflizighi was 4th, running 1:02:18.
Not bad for a guy less than 4 months shy of turning 40!!

The Women's winner was 4:24 Miler Kim Conley.
Her time was 1:09:44, an improvement of over 5 minutes from her first Half, which she admittedly ran as a pseudo-tempo training run, not really a race!.
So in her first "real" 13.1 miler, she came within 40 seconds of Molly Huddle's PR!!

Second Woman was Brianne Nelson, who ran 1:10:16.
(Conley broke from a group of 5 after the 10 mile point, also steadily increasing her lead, finally "racing" a male straggler over the final mile or so.  She beat him!!)
Nelson, if you remember, was first American in that Edinburgh XC race!!

In 6th was new Pro Juliet Bottorff, who ran a good time of 1:11:30.

This was an incredible weekend of T&F (and road running)!
Especially considering how early in the season it still is.
What's next??

Only time (and height and distance) will tell!!