NCAA WOMEN--The Results

Women are unique just in BEING Women!!
So don't take it personal when I say that--at the 2018 NCAA Championship meet in College Station TX--the Women basically "copied" the Men!!
Or OUTDID them??
What I mean is, they shone brightest--as did the Men--in the sprint races!!
And that's where I'll begin!

But WHICH sprint event was the best??
Let's look at the 400!

This was SUPPOSED to be the 2nd Act of The Sydney McLaughlin and Lynna Irby Show!
In the Opening Act, we remember Irby almost catching McL in the 400, with fast times of 50.52 and 50.62.
Then Irby WON the 200 with her 22.66, while Syd cut off a chunk from her one-lap PR!
Fast Forward to this past weekend!!

The Heats were quick--for Heats!
McLaughlin ran 51.34, while Irby ended with 51.51.
Just ahead of Irby came Sharika Barnett's 51.49, which moved her from 24th A-T Collegiate to 19th, and made her 23rd A-T US!
Back in 4th was Kendell Ellis, running 51.59!

In the Final's Heats (2 sections), Ellis went first!
With FIRST becoming the operative word!
As in FIRST on the US and Collegiate A-T lists!!
Yes, her incredible 50.34 broke both those Records!!
Add the NCAA Meet Record and the Senior Class Record!
She moves from 15th A-T Collegiate, tied with 1 other, to 1st!!
She moves from 14th A-T US, tied with 1 other, to the Top!
And she becomes 10th A-T World!

But MISS SYDNEY McLAUGHLIN--being called maybe the GOAT---before she rises to that throne!---can knock off a time faster than Ellis's!
Right??
Well, you can't say she didn't give it the---Heh!---old College try!!
Attacking the first lap like never before, she strode forward with fierce concentration (but maybe the strongest smooth running style seen in many a year!)...only to reach the finish line 0.02 shy!!
Yet, her 50.36 PR broke her own Frosh Class and Age 18 Records!!
And in one of those upsy-daisy flip-flops, she FELL from 2nd to 3rd (after Ellis's race), only to rise back up to 2nd on the Collegiate DDD!
Ditto with her moves on the US list!!
But she moves from 19th to 12th on the A-T World list!!

Irby ran a non-PR of 50.87 in 3rd!
But Barnett's 4th place time of 51.07 moves her from 19th A-T Collegiate to 16th, tied with 1 other!
And from 23rd A-T US to 15th, tied with 1 other!!
And in 5th came Brionna Thomas's 51.56, good for 22nd A-T Collegiate!!

In the 200 Heats, Harvard's Gabrielle Thomas also took the measure of McLaughlin--by 0.02 seconds!
Her 22.66 made her 18th A-T Collegiate, tied with 1 other!
It also made  her 17th A-T US, tied with 1 other!
Irby also ran 22.66, but it only tied her PR!
McL's 22.68 made her 20th A-T Collegiate, tied with 1 other!
And 19th A-T US, tied with 1 other!
Ashley Henderson ran a tidy 22.80 behind that trio!!

The Final (run in Heats again!) pitted Henderson against the venerable McLaughlin!
Who would have given this San Diego State Senior the time of day running against such a Class act??
YET-----
It was the 22.41 of Henderson's that put paid to the notion that McLaughlin CAN'T be beaten!!
She showed promise when she emerged a few years ago!
But no one suspected THIS!!

She gets the Senior Class Record!
It makes her 3rd A-T Collegiate, 4th A-T US, and 10th A-T World, tied with 2 others!!

Then it was Thomas's turn to roar!
She knew what was needed--and she delivered!
Cutting a humongous 0.28 seconds off her PR, her 22.38 FINALLY took care of Bianca Knight's almost-legendary Collegiate Record!
She also nabbed the Junior Class Record, the NCAA Meet Record, and the Age 21 Record!!
She moves from 18th A-T Collegiate, tied with 1 other, to the Top!!
She moves from 17th A-T US, tied with 1 other, to 2nd!!
And becomes 5th A-T World, tied with 1 other!!

Irby improved by 0.11 seconds to 22.55 in 3rd!
She moves from 20th A-T Collegiate to 14th.
And from 19th A-T US to 15th!
But she misses the World DDD by 0.02 seconds!!
McLaughlin finished in a still-decent 22.80!!

Cut OFF the US list was one Carlette Guidry, her 22.73 dating from 1995!!

The 60 saw Aleia Hobbs TIE the Collegiate Record---almost considered a SIN in this thunderous Record-smashing atmosphere!!
The Heats saw her PR in 7.12, moving her from 11th A-T Collegiate, tied with 3 others, to 7th, tied with 2 others!
Jonielle Smith's 7.15 made her 15th A-T Collegiate, tied with 6 others!
Kate Hall ran a PR of 7.17, missing the Collegiate list by just 0.01 seconds!!

Hobbs sped 7.07 down the straight, equaling Hannah Cunliffe's CR!
But she nailed the Senior Class Record and the NCAA Meet Record!!
She moved from 7th A-T Collegiate, tied with 2 others, to 1st, tied with Cunliffe!
It also makes her 12th A-T US, tied with 2 others, including the former Duck!

Mikiah Brisco took 2nd in 7.11.
Natalliah Whyte sped 7.12 in 3rd, making her 8th A-T Collegiate, tied with 2 others!

You don't expect Keturah Orji to lose the Triple Jump, let alone be threatened!
But that's what came to pass---the threat part!!
When Yanis David nailed a 45-10 in Round 3, she must have spurred Orji back to action!
She got a 46-4 and change--which was later lengthened to 46-10 for the W!
And the NCAA Meet Record--by 1 inch!!

Jessie Maduka's 45-3.75 took 3rd, and moved her from 22nd A-T Collegiate to 16th!
Jhoanmy Luque's 44-10.75 makes her 24th A-T Collegiate, tied with 1 other!

The Pole Vault played out ALMOST to script!!
Except that the Collegiate leader--Olivia Gruver--was stopped after clearing 14-9.50!!
That left what Becca (aka Pole Vault Power) refers to as "the twins" (aka the former Weeks girls, Tori Hoggard and Lexi Jacobus)!!
And this kinship played itself out for all to see!

In 2nd came Tori (This time!!), her 15-1.50 moving her from 7th to 5th on the A-T Collegiate list!
She also moves from 22nd A-T US, tied with 1 other, to 13th, tied with 2 others!

The Gold went to the Olympian Jacobus!
After Sis went out, Jacobus flew over the bar set at 15-3.50!!
This breaks her own NCAA Meet Record and Junior Class Record!
She moves from 4th A-T Collegiate to 3rd, tied with 1 other!
She moves from 11th A-T US, tied with 1 other, to 9th!

She missed her 3 tries at a CR 15-7.25!!

Taliyah Brooks was sailing along at a 4700 point clip in the Pentathlon, but fell 8 points short of her PR, scoring 4572.
Nina Schultz was another who came close to her PR, her 4467 falling 35 points short!
And keeping with the script, Georgia Ellenwood's 4381 was 9 points off her PR!!
However, Jaclyn Siefring's 4th place total of 4365 makes her 21st A-T Collegiate, tied with 1 other!
She ranks higher on the A-T US list--18th, tied with 1 other!
Louisa Grauvogel's 4318 in 5th was a PR by 6 points!

The Three Georgians--as maybe Kate Hall, Keturah Orji, and Tara Davis should be called!!--went 1-2-3 again in the Long Jump!
In Round 2, Hall flew out to 21-11.50, moving her from 21st A-T Collegiate, tied with 3 others, to 15th, tied with 2 others!
She also made the A-T US list, in 20th, tied with 2 others!!
But then she improved to 22-1 in Round 3, moving her from 15th A-T Collegiate, tied with 2 others, to 11th, tied with 1 other!!
And on the US list, from 20th, tied with 2 others, to 16th!!
Orji produced a 21-4.75 in 2nd, while Frosh Davis sailed out to 21-4 in 3rd!

Oh, BTW, that FRAUD--Ayesha Champagnie of Minnesota (See earlier posts, as well as the T&FN Message Board!!), FOULED her 3 "tries"!!
(Did she foul on purpose, so as not to further embarrass herself??)

Speaking of Ms Davis, she also flew---over Hurdles!--in the 60H!!
The Heats went to Payton Chadwick's (nee Stumbaugh!) 7.93 PR!
This made her 11th A-T Collegiate, tied with 3 others!

But it was Davis's 7.98 which tied the Collegiate Frosh Class Record!!
She also gets the Age 18 Record!!
It made her 24th A-T Collegiate, tied with 5 others!

The final saw Chadwick winning--tying her PR!!
Anna Cockrell was a VERY close 2nd--also timed in 7.93!
This moves her from 22nd A-T Collegiate to 11th, tied with 4 others!
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn was 3rd in 7.96.

Davis couldn't reproduce her Heat performance, ending just 6th in 8.14!

The Distances were somewhat better than the Men's--as a whole!!
The 800 saw an upset of sorts, as the favored Sammy Watson ended 3rd !
The winner was one-time Benjamin Cardoza HS stud Sabrina Southerland--now of the Ducks!!
Her impressive 2:01.55 moves her from 22nd A-T Collegiate all the way into 5th!!

Siofra Buttner took 2nd in 2:02.46, moving her from 20th A-T Collegiate to 16th!
As for Watson, she didn't do too bad for herself, as her time of 2:02.65 breaks the Collegiate Frosh Class Record!!
She is 20th A-T Collegiate!!

Karissa Schweizer was a double winner, taking the 3000 and 5000!!
First came the longer race, which she jogged in 15:43.23, kicking just hard enough for the W.

But she found herself with maybe unwanted company in the 15 lapper!
Sticking to her like glue was tiny Allie Ostrander, lap after lap after lap!
But this is Schweizer's year, and when she needed to, she finished off Ostrander, her 8:53.36 winning by over a second!

The Alaskan's 8:54.35 gave her the Soph Class Record, and makes her 9th A-T Collegiate!!
BTW, do you remember that she ran 8:54 a couple of years ago--during her TRUE Freshman year??
Yes, she did--but it was on Seattle's OT---so a total loss to any list she would have made!!

In other events---
Maggie Ewen took the Raven Saunders-less Shot Put with a throw of 60-8!
(She later said she wished Saunders had been there--to make her win more honest!!)

The High Jump needed a SEVEN-height Jump-Off to decide the winner!!
After that marathon, the title went to Nicole Greene's 6-1.50, beating Loretta Blaut's same-height effort!
Logan Boss was 3rd with the same height!

The first 3 Weight Throwers got numbers in the 76 foot realm, with Kaitlyn Long's the LONGEST (Sic!!) at 76-5.50!
She beat Annette Echikunwoke and Janeah Stewart!

Elinor Purrier became one of the few REAL farm girls to win an NCAA title!!
Her Mile-winning time was 4:31.76.
In 2nd came Dani Jones's 4:31.82, which makes her 19th A-T Collegiate!!

I'll close with the two Relays!!

Oregon's Lilli Burdon outran Stanford's Christina Aragon for a team win in 10:51.99!
Stanford's 10:52.02 (Yes, just 0.03 seconds separating them at the tape!!) moves them up one spot on the A-T Collegiate list, from 5th School to 4th!

Virginia Tech wasn't far behind, their 10:53.62 moving them from 11th A-T School to 6th!
Indiana ran 10:54.86 in 4th, making them 8th A-T School!!
And Boise State's 10:58.93 in 5th makes them 17th A-T School!!

In the meet-ending 4 X 400 Relay, USC got the W---giving them the Women's AND Men's 4 by 4's!
No Records for them, however!
Their 3:27.45 beat the surprising Purdue team's 3:28.82!
This moved them from 18th A-T School to 8th!!
Florida was 3rd in 3:29.41, moving them up one notch on the Collegiate list--from 11th to 10th!

Oregon was 4th in exactly 3:30, while Kentucky (with a 51.08 2nd leg from Sydney McLaughlin!!) ended in 3:30.08, moving them from 18th A-T School to 12th!!

And on THAT note ends my report(s) on this incredible meet of continuous Record-smashing!!

Next up is my report on the New Balance INdoor Nationals--plus whatever else I've gathered for your perusal!!

See you soon!!