To understand my title, you need to know that MU is pronounced "MO"!!
And it was Athing Mu--all of 16 years old!--who super-charged the Record-breaking flow in this quite rare instance of Records being broken in middle or long distance events at a Championship meet!
Athing's blazers began in the heats!
There, this rail-thin girl (who is 5-10 tall--or more!!) ran to the front, and stayed there.
Result was a HSR by 0.90 seconds, the Junior Class Record (her own!), the Age 16 Record, and a move from 2nd A-T HS to 1st!
Her 1:26.23 also moved her from 14th A-T US to 5th, AND made her 22nd A-T World!
But that was her HEAT!!
Raevyn Rogers was 2nd in the heat, time of 1:26.53.
This made her 7th A-T US!
Madeline Kopp took 3rd iin 1:27.84!
Then the REAL running began!!
Lined up against a field of Pro's, this intelligent, but totally youthful braces-wearing girl again took to the front, but not until the 2nd lap!
And she didn't slow up!
She came through 400 in 55.04!!
(Remember, her 400 PR is 52.55!)
Along the backstretch, Rogers powered to Mu's outside, seeming to glide to the front, using her 49 second relay speed to take the race, and shove the upstart into her rightful place!
But no, Mu didn't give in!
And when Rogers saw her move away around the last curve, she seemingly just gave up!
You could actually see Rogers accept her 2nd place status!!
Mu kept going through the tape, and then when she saw the time, could not believe it!
Crying, laughing, jumping up and down, bent over in sheer awe at what she'd just done!!
1:23.57.
Take that in for a moment.
Ajee Wilson's best is 1:23.84!
The American Record was held by Alysia Montano!!
Mu was NOT beating times of 2nd tier elites!!
And she came within 0.13 of the WORLD Record!
For her magnificent effort, she got the American Record, broke her own Age 16 Record, broke her own HSR and Junior Class Records,and got the USATF Meet Record!
She moves from 5th A-T US to 1st, and from 22nd A-T World to 2nd!!
Simply amazing!!
Rogers finished in 1:24.88, making her 7th A-T World, and moves her from 7th A-T US to 5th!
Olivia Baker's 1:26.53 in 3rd was not a PR!
Madeline Kopp improved to 1:27.09 in 4th, moving her from 18th to 14th on the A-T US list!
Following were Georgeanne Moline and Kendra Chambers, both running non-PR's in 5th & 6th!
The very next race was the Men's 600!
The day before, in the heats, Donavan Brazier sailed through to a W in 1:15.64.
He was followed by Sam Ellison's 1:15.97!
This made him 13th A-T US!
As with the Women, the final was a BIT faster!!
As in WORLD RECORD faster!!
Brazier--who is as smooth looking a runner at top speed as Ajee Wilson--went through 200 in the 23's!
He came through 400 in 48 and change!
All he needed to do was not die, and the WR would be his!
His 1:13.77 took care of the old mark by 1.02 seconds!!
He also gets the American Record, the Age 21 Record, and the USATF Meet Record!
He moves from 5th A-T US to the Top!
And from 11th A-T World to 1st!
Ellison took 2nd in a quick 1:15.20!
He moves from 12th A-T US to 5th!
And becomes 8th A-T World!
Unheralded Kameron Jones took 3rd in 1:15.32.
This makes him 6th A-T US, and 12th A-T World!
In 4th came Chris Geisting's 1:15.67!
He moves from 14th A-T US to 9th!
And it makes him 13th A-T World!!
WOW!!
But the fast races weren't over!
Ajee Wilson demonstrated her talent by running a 29 last 200 in an attempt at the American Record in the 1000!
But it eluded her due to a slowish first 800 in the 2:05's!
Nonetheless, her 2:34.71 breaks her own USATF Meet Record--the 2:37.96 she'd run in the heats!
That time made her 11th A-T US!
Hanna Green's 2:38.16 had made her 14th A-T US!
And Hannah Fields's 2:39.22 had made her 23nd A-T US!!
Ajee's 2:34.71 broke her own USATF Meet Record!
It moves her from 11th A-T US to 2nd!
And makes her 16th A-T World!
Green's 2:35.40 in 2nd moves her from 14th A-T US to 4th!
Ce'Aira Brown's 2:35.62 moves her from 21st A-T US to 5th!!
Laura Roesler improved to 2:36.60 in 4th!
This moves her from 15th A-T US to 7th!
And Hannah Fields's 2:38.60 moves her from 20th A-T US to 14th!!
It was in the Two Mile races where my disappointment set in!!
Oh, a few of the Women's times made my US list, but what COULD have been wore me down as the race progressed!!
But let's begin with the Men!
In the "B" section, Drew Hunter decided to run a time that the "A" section crowd would pay attention to!
His 8:25.29--which won his section by 13 seconds!!
It gave him the USATF Meet Record.
And made him 20th A-T US!
The "A" group had it easy!
There were several runners capable of putting Hunter's time back in the pack!
But when the first 400 went by in 66 seconds, I knew this was just yet another Championship race Snorefest!!
Needing a final 800 in 1:54 to beat Hunter's time, they remained asleep at the wheel, ending with times in the 8:30's!!
The Women did better, but....!!
After winning the Mile (See below!). Colleen Quigley told an interviewer she'd been put into the "B" race!
And said she refused to run as a second class elite!!
And didn't!!
When Elinor Purrier glided to the front after a slow first few laps, no one went with her!
Then, after a Mile in 4:48, Shelby Houlihan hit the gas, passing Purrier, and winning the race!
But her sprint on the final lap wasn't enough to get the Meet Record!
Her 9:31.38 makes her 5th A-T US, and 15th A-T World!
In 2nd came Katie Mackey's 9:33.70.
This makes her 8th A-T US, and 22nd A-T World!
Purrier's 9:34.65 makes her 9th A-T US!
And Emily Lipari ran 9:41.12 in 4th, making her 22nd A-T US!
Back in 18th came HS star Marlee Starliper's 9:58.22!
This makes her 5th A-T High School!!
Another good race was the Women's 300!
The heats had seen Brittany Brown's 36.67 beat Gabby Thomas's 37.27!
This set up the anticipated duel in the final!
It lived up to expectations.
In lanes alongside each other, they ran as Siamese twins for the length of the race!
Only Brown's final kick gave her the W, by just 0.03 seconds!
Brown's 35.95 gave her the USATF Meet Record!
She moves from 7th A-T US to 2nd, and from 11th A-T World, tied with 1 other, to 6th!
Thomas finished in 35.98 in her 300 debut!
This makes her 7th A-T US, and 3rd A-T World!!
Once again, a High School girl shined!
Kayla Davis (who my Preview neglected to mention her FRESHMAN HS status!!!), took 3rd in 37.46!!
This breaks her own Frosh Class Record!
It moves her from 13th A-T HS to 3rd!
Ryan Crouser came through as expected, taking the Men's SP by almost 3 feet over Joe Kovacs!
His 72-10.25, however, missed the Meet Record by an inch!!
Kovacs finally got over 70 feet, at 70-2.25!
Katie Nageotte had it easy in the Women's PV, clearing 15-9.25 after everyone else had bowed out!
(Jenn Suhr was a late scratch!)
The battle for American Women's Triple Jump supremacy took off with a USATF Meet Record effort of 47-9 by Keturah Orji!
While Orji was fouling her next 3 rounds, Tori Franklin produced her top effort, of 47-5!
Orji finally got her markers down again, hitting another just one centimeter short of her Winner!
High School girls went to town on Staten Island!
Before Mu's, Davis's, and Starliper's storm blasts came Anna Hall's tremendous HSR of 4302 in the opening Pentathlon!!
(I'm ashamed to admit that my Preview didn't even mention her name!! I must not have recognized who she was on the entry list!!)
Fluctuating between 3rd and 5th throughout, Hall's 4302 HSR finally took 3rd!!
It should be mentioned that Hall will be attending the University of Georgia, the same school where Kendell Williams was so dominant all the years she was there!
So it was really serendipitous that Hall would lose to Williams's 4498!!
Emilyn Dearman's 4356 took 2nd, making her 23rd A-T US!!
But the real story here was with Hall, from Boulder, Colorado!
Besides the HSR, she gets the Senior Class Record as well!
She moves from 2nd A-T HS to 1st!
She destroyed Williams's old HSR by 234 points!!
Oh, almost forgot to mention that Hall's Pentathlon HJ clearance of 5-11.25 makes her 22nd A-T HS, tied with 4 others!!
A day in the life!!
Both WT's were solid!!
Daniel Haugh took the Men's event with a PR of 79-1.75!
This moves him from 13th A-T US, tied with 1 other, to 12th!
And from 14th A-T World, tied with 1 other, to 13th!
Conor McCullough was 2nd with 78-9.25!
The Women had a little battle going on between Janeah Stewart and DeAnna Price!
Adding the totals by which they missed their PR's would not top 3 inches!!
Stewart finally prevailed with her toss of 81-4.25, over Price's 80-5.50!!
Vashti Cuningham had the Women's HJ all to herself, clearing 6-5!
Andrew Irwin had his way in the Men's PV, being the only 19 footer--by a quarter inch!!
As mentioned above, Colleen Quigley won the Mile in 4:29.47!
After a jogging first 1320 (yards!), Quigley took off, wanting to put some space between her and Shelby Houlihan, fearing Houlihan's deadly sprint finishes!
But Houlihan didn't have enough, giving the US title to Quigley!
Her joyous awe at her W was fun to watch!!
Houlihan's time was 4:29.82!
For me, the Women's Walk took on some new interest after seeing a tweet from Maria Michta-Coffey before the race!
She announced herself as pregnant, but said she was looking forward to racing anyway!!
(BTW, the races were reduced from the Two Mile's the schedule I saw when doing my Preview to 3000's!)
MMC told me (in a tweet) that the athletes had been asked what distance they preferred, and they'd said the 3K!
She said the schedule just hadn't been changed!!
Nice.
Anyway, Nick Christie prevailed in the Men's race over Emmanuel Corvera!
And Michta-Coffey Walked her pregnant body to a 14th place finish!!
(Don't know how far along she is, but probably not more than 2 or 3 months!!)
Her time of 14:18.82 was far behind Miranda Melville's winning time of 12:57.58!!
Chase Ealey produced a mild upset in the Women's SP!
Her 61-1.50 defeated favored Maggie Ewen's 60-6!!
The sprint races (60 and 60H) didn't produce much!
The only race worthy of note here was the Women's 60H!
Sharika Nelvis ran a World Leader of 7.85!
And she needed all of that to defeat Evonne Briitton's PR of 7.86!!
That made her 22nd A-T US!!
I have a lot of great Records and marks left to report, but nothing more from the Ocean Breeze!!
The Collegiate Conferences, plus some other stuff from around the world, will be reported on in my next post, out in a few hours!
See you soon!
a-
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