USATF--Not Ready for Prime Time

Everybody says this is an "off year".
But for this blogger, today was an off DAY!
And on my 74th birthday, no less!

It began this morning when I couldn't get onto Xfinity!
Spent an hour on the phone talking to FOUR people before it was fixed!
Then I was forced to sign in EVERY time I went to Twitter!
Finally, couldn't get signed in at T&FN for the Message Board!
Still can't--will have to call them tomorrow!

So when this 4 day USATF "Championship" meet was befouled by Iowa's weather, that REALLY made my day!!
(Thank you, Clint Eastwood!!)

This meet had its good--even GREAT!--moments and marks!
All sorted out below!
BUT---it also had its "dark cloud" moments--and I wasn't speaking about the weather!!
However, this blog is meant to entertain and inform--and that's what I'll try to do!

And that brings me to Shelby Houlihan!
No great marks--far slower than her PR's--but when you close a 4:05.48 1500 with a 57.67 final 400, or a 15:31.03 5000 with a last 80 meters that could challenge Aleia Hobbs--well, we are seeing a talent that even the Africans must fear!!
If she gets into a rabbited race this summer, watch out--the American Record is GONE--for either distance!!
Her 1500 beat Jenny Simpson--who has a little kick of her own!
The 5000 time beat Rachel Schneider and Karissa Schweizer, the latter of whom showed well in her first Pro race!
Simpson ended in 4:06.21, while Kate Grace took 3rd.

Shakima Wimbley got under 50 seconds by a bit!
HA!--would you believe 49.52??!!
She becomes 7th A-T US, and misses the World list by 0.21 seconds!
Jessica Beard continued her solid 2018 with a big PR of 50.08, but misses the US list by 0.09 seconds!
Kendell Ellis was 3rd in 50.37.
Knocked OFF the US list was the last of the 50-seconders--Maicel Malone's 50.05 from 1994!

The Battle of the US Hammer Queens continued unabated!
First we had DeAnna Price hit 254-9 to break Gwen Berry's AR of 251-10.
Then Berry returned the favor, hitting 255-2 to knock Price off the Pedestal.
And then Price kicked Berry off with her 256-3 in Des Moines!!
And they're 1-2 on the World scene, with Anita Wlodarczyk getting a slow start!

For Price, she gets the AR, the USATF Meet Record, and the Age 25 Record!
She moves from 2nd to 1st A-T US!
And from 7th to 5th on the World DDD!
Berry was way off her best, her 239-5 taking 2nd!
Back in 5th came Jessica Ramsey's 231-0, which makes her 19th A-T US!

Reggie Jagers made the DT one of the best Men's events--despite what I said in my Preview!!
He hit a biggie--225-1--making him 16th A-T US!!
Mason Finley's 220-0 in 2nd, and Sam Mattis's 217-7 in 3rd made for a great little comp!!

Same can be said for the Women's SP, where Ramsey returned to action with a HUGE PR of 63-1.25!!
She's suddenly 11th A-T US!!
But---Maggie Ewen pulled out a narrow win with her 63-3.25!
Raven Saunders ended 3rd with a decent 61-5.75, while Ms Shot Diva herself--Michelle Carter--could only land a 59-1.75, making her just 6th!

And the Men's SP?
Pretty much a dud, as Ryan Crouser fouled FIVE times, with his best mark falling almost 2 feet behind Darrell Hill's 70-9.75!

The SC's went to the expected winners--Emma Coburn and Evan Jager.
But both had decent contenders to have to defend against!
Emma's 9:17.70 held off Courtney Frerichs's 9:18.69!
Jager's 8:20.10 beat Hillary Bor's 8:22.58.
Third for the Women was Oiselle's Mel Lawrence, whose 9:33.30 was a slight PR, moving her from 18th to 17th on the A-T US list!!

The 100's saw some good marks!
The Men's heats saw Mike Rodgers win in 9.89, matching his 2018 best!
Noah Lyles was 2nd in 9.92, with Isaiah Young and Cameron Burrell hitting 9.93's!
For Burrell, he tied his PR, and remained 20th A-T US, tied with 8 others!
Rodgers was a DNS in the semi's, but Ronnie Baker ran 9.94, while Lyles improved to 9.89!
This moves him from 20th A-T US, tied with 8 others, to 12th, tied with 2 others!
On my US Combined Events list for the 100 & 200, his times of 9.89 and 19.69 add to 29.58, moving him from 7th to 5th!!

But Lyles improved to 9.88 in the final!
So he moved from 12th A-T US, tied with 2 others, to 9th, tied with 3 others!
He improved his 100 & 200 US C-E time to 29.57, but remains 5th there!
Baker PR'ed at 9.90 in 2nd, moving him from 21st A-T US, tied with 7 others, to 15th!!

For the Women, it was all Aleia Hobbs!!
Her 10.91 Winner seemed easy, as she hit 5th gear at 60, and it was over!
Ashley Henderson was a solid 2nd in 10.96, while Jenna Prandini was 3rd in 10.98!

The Women's TJ was the classic battle everyone expected!
With the added FIRE emerging from Tori Franklin's last minute abandonment of Oiselle for richer waters, courtesy of Nike!!
(More on THAT in another post!!)
In the end, however, Franklin's karma struck her down, as she was unable to come up with a reply to Keturah Orji's USATF Meet Record distance of 47-10.50!
Franklin got a windy 47-7.75, but her best legal effort was 47-6.25!
Imani Oliver hit a good--but windy--46-8 for 3rd!
Her legal best was 45-3.50!

The longest events--all run or WALKED on the TRACK!!--were good, for the most part!
The Walks saw Nick Christie win in 1:24:53 over Emmanuel Corvero's 1:27:47.
The Women's race went to the inimitable Maria Michta-Coffey, whose 1:35:21 gave this Oiselle star her 40th--or 42nd??--US title!!
This was 50 laps of the 400 meter track, folks!!

In the 10K's (Runs!!), Molly Huddle led all 25 laps, winning in 31:52.32--ending with a final 1600 of 4:38, with a last 400 in 64!
Marielle Hall was 2nd in 31:56.68!
BTW, I said in my Preview that this might be Hall's first track 10K!
Wrong!
Her PR of 31:37 is from 2016!!
Lopez Lomong surprised some by taking the Men's race in 28:58.38, ending with a last 400 of 54 seconds!!
Shadrack Kipchirchir ended a second behind!

Other marks (or news items) of note--
Val Allman got off a big one in the DT, her 208-6 Winner coming in Round 6!
This beat Maggie Ewen's 200-6, Lalauga Tausaga-Collins's 198-11, and uber-vet Gia Lewis-Smallwood's 198-9!
The 400 heats (and semi's and final!) were withOUT the presence of Sydney McLaughlin!!
She felt a quad tightness warming up, and DNS'ed!
Kara Winger hit her 206-3 JT winner in the 6th round also, easily beating Avionne Allgood's 185-6!!

Kendra Harrison ran 12.46 to win her 100H heat!
She matched that in the final, turning back Christina Manning's 12.65!
And in her FINAL race after a long and dignified career, Dawn Harper-Nelson ran 12.93 to take 6th!!

Rudy Winkler took a weak HT with his 242-0!
He beat Alex Young's 240-3!
The Multi's went to Zack Ziemek's 8294 and Erica Bougard's 6366.
Ziemek beat Solomon Simmons's 8019, while 2nd to Bougard was Alex Gochenour's 6003!
Sam Kendricks and Chris Nilsen proved my Preview's correctness, taking 1st & 2nd in the PV with respective clearances of 19-2.25 and 19-0.25!
A bit surprising in 3rd was Cole Walsh's 18-10.25!!
Vashti Cunningham beat Inika McPherson in the HJ--6-4.75 to 6-3.50.
Jeron Robinson's 7-7 took the Men's HJ!
Kenny Selmon took the 400H in 48.21, while Kahmari Montgomery PR'ed to win the flat 400 in 44.58!
Paul Dedewo's 44.64 took Silver!
TJ Holmes was second over the hurdles--time of 48.51.

Sandi Morris's quest for a World leading 16-2.75 was stopped by a lengthy weather delay--and a plane to catch!
But she won the PV with her earlier 15-9, beating Katie Nageotte's 15-5 and Jenn Suhr's 15-1--the latter's opening height--and only attempt!!
Jenna Prandini ended her meet with a 200 victory--time of 22.62!
She'd run 22.22 earlier!!
Ameer Webb also ran faster in his Semi than in the final, his 200 of 20.13 much quicker than his later 20.47---which was run after that lengthy delay!!
Michael Norman was another who decided to DNS after the storm break!!

Some marks--like Matthew Centrowitz's winning 1500 time, or Jeff Henderson's LJ topper aren't really worth even a mention!!
Clay Murphy jogged his first lap in 54.53 before picking it up a bit to 51.97, winning the 800 in an embarrassing 1:46.50.
Paul Chelimo played cat-and-mouse--surging for a lap, then backing off, finally winning the 5000 in 13:29 and change off a 55 last lap!
He beat Ryan Hill!

Devon Allen leaned better at the tape, his 13.46 in the 110H just nipping  Grant Holloway's same time effort!
Shamier Little took advantage of Georganne Moline's stumble off the 10th hurdle, running 53.61 to Moline's 54.12!

Finally--for the USATF meet!--was the Women's 800 final!
In what might be the fastest finish depth-wise for US-only races, Wilson used even laps of 58.84 and 59.34 to win in 1:58.18!
Coming on strong at the end was newbie Pro Raevyn Rogers, her 1:58.57 making her 23rd A-T US!
In 3rd came Ce'Aira Brown with another PR, but her 1:58.65 came too late to make my US list!
She misses it by 0.04 seconds!!
Kaela Edwards was next in 1:59.68, beating the 1:59.95 of Charlene Lipsey!
Just missing the 1:59's were Olivia Baker and Hanna Green, their respective times of 2:00.08 & 2:00.09 taking 6th and 7th!!
Knocked OFF the US list was the venerable Ruth Wysocki, her 1:59.65 dating from 1984!!

Two marks came from outside the US that scream for headlines!!
Eliza McCartney became OUTdoor Women's PV'er Number 7 to go over 16 feet, clearing 16-1.75 in a German meet!
She's the youngest to go over that barrier OUTdoors, and breaks her own Age 21 Record!
As well, she breaks her own National Record of New Zealand, and moves from 8th A-T World, tied with 1 other, to 4th!!
BTW, she's the youngest to reach 16 OUT or INdoors!!

And in the Kenyan Championships, Emmanuel Korir sped the 400 in 44.21, almost getting the NR of 44.18!!
He improves his time on my World Combined Events list for the 400 & 800, his 44.21 and 1:43.10 adding to 2:27.31.
But he remains 3rd A-T!
I'd say he has a LOT of room for improvement over the 2 lapper!!

A meet in Montreil, France (outside Paris) produced several solid marks---
Genzebe Dibaba ran the 2000 meters in 5:27.73, easily beating the 5:37.12 by Meraf Bahta, and the 5:38.19 of Beyena Defago (sp?).
Marie Josee Ta Lou won the 100 in 10.95.
Sergey Shubenkov ran the 110H in 12.99, by far the fastest of 2018!!
Zhanya Xie got China's NR with his 100 of 9.97!
(See below!!)
He beat Akani Simbine's 10.04.
Albert Rop took the 5000 in 13:11.84.
And Mondo Duplantis continued his winning ways with his PV clearance of 19-4.75, defeating the 19-2.25 by Renaud Lavillenie!!

Then there was a meet in Madrid---
Bingtian Su took back China's National Record in the 100, his 9.91 beating the 9.99--and Italy National Record!!--of Filippo Tortu!!
Akani Simbine had run 9.98 in the heats!
The Men's 400 also produced a National Record!
Liguelin Santos's 44.66 won the race, but it was Bruno Hortelano's 44.69 that nabbed the NR of Spain!!
Yet another National Record fell--this time to Brittany Crew, whose 61-0.25 beat her own NR of Canada in the SP.
But Christina Schwanitz took the title with her 62-5!
Gudaf Tsegay ran 3:59.60 to win the 1500 over the 4:02.93 of Sofia Ennaoui!
And lastly--from Madrid, that is!--comes Anita Wlodarczyk's 1st win of 2018--but with a measly HT toss of 249-11!

A Greek meet found Home Girl Ekaterina Stefanidi returning somewhat to form, winning with a clearance of 15-9!

And I have a few OLD High school marks to report---
Julia Fixsen PV'ed 13-11.25 to become 13th A-T HS, tied with 2 others!
Skylar Ciccolini improved to 177-0 in the JT, moving her from 10th A-T HS to 5th!!
Antonio Tarantino sped the 200 in 20.51, making him 19th A-T HS, tied with 1 other!
Nick Mirabello threw the Javelin 227-10, making him 16th A-T HS!
And Trey Knight improved (again!!) to 233-10 in the HT, making him 19th A-T HS!!

In a meet FILLED with No Shows, DNS's, and a lengthy weather delay on its final day, the USATF---while maybe NOT of true Championship caliber--was still a pretty decent little get-together!

See you soon---with more on the Oiselle vs Nike (and Tori Franklin) little set-to!!