MIAC Track Talk

Were Brendo and Dave Ricks beefing before the women’s 5K?

At what point do the St. Olaf Oles get sick of getting belted by the Bethel Royals every year at MIACs? Bethel keeps showing up and taking over the track championships like it’s tradition at this point.

“Sick of it”… Bethel’s had a great recent run, no doubt, but let’s not pretend 2-3 years suddenly erase decades of St. Olaf history. Oles have been one of the MIAC’s top distance/track schools forever with NCAA qualifiers, All-Americans, and a way deeper tradition overall. And even now Olaf’s still right there, runner-up indoors this year, multiple MIAC event titles outdoors, and breaking conference records. Bethel’s hot right now, but St. Olaf track culture has been respected way longer than this current streak lol.

They were good, but heavily balanced in favor of distance and a random sprinter or vaulter on occasion,

If anything, not winning either meet shows they need to follow the plan of Waters and move resources from the distance events and try to score some points in other events. Bethel went from not scoring above the 600 Indoor to being in the mix in several areas, but more importantly, they dominated the field. Power didn't care about anything other than distance, which yes scored a bunch of points, but didn't perform at the level of even his mid-distance squad. Waters was right to show him the door. The team will be better in the long term if they balance their roster and don't spend all their money taking people to run 15:15 5K's somewhere exotic.

You should look at the talent of the Oles from the early 90’s when Cobber Coach Garrick Larson and former Tommies coach Steve Mathre was on the team. Many of the their sprint/jumps records are from that era. They do have some jumpers but not much depth. Right now in the MIAC going all in on distance is good enough for second which is really substantial. But the lack of points in field and sprints is too much to overcome.

I actually thought the Oles had a strong meet based off predicted score and I would argue the new coach deserves COTY mention for doing the best he could with the current squad. They outperformed projections in essentially every event except one or two. And they ran such a good meet compared to last time they hosted Indoor. The new staff is more clearly poised for success her and putting the women’s coach in charge was smart move.

I want to hear more about this. For everyone talking about other coaches Ricks is long known for his childish behavior.

Absolutely, let’s talk about how poor 2nd place St. Olaf’s showing was (“they must’ve cheated to beat St. John’s!) because they “don’t balance their roster!” and not, say, Carleton (7th out of 11) or Macalester (9th) who got whacked by freaking Hamline

Let's talk about awards!

Men
COTY - Andrew Rock - absolutely dominated the conference winning their third straight title.
Track Athlete of the Year -Grant Nelson- ran on the winning and facility record 4 x 100, now ranked 10th in the country, won the 200m & 400m. Set a meet record in the 400 to rank No. 1 in the country.
Field Athlete of the Year - Isaiah Watson - Hamline - Set a meet and facility record on his final jump. He now ranks second in the country.
Rookie of the Year - Paxon Myers wins 800m and is on third place 4 x 400. Could also see Elliot Kent here. Or any of the other talented Bethel freshman hurdlers/jumpers.

Women -
COTY - Marv - Like the Bethel men, the Cobber women were dominant. Their freshman class is terrifyingly good.
Track Athlete of the Year - Hannah Preisser, Carleton. Won the 5000m and set a facility record in the 10,000m which will qualify her for Nationals.
Field Athlete of the Year - Ellie Hernes - Triple Jump Meet record to rank 9th in the country, she also won long jump and placed 5th in the Heptathlon.
Rookie of the Year - You could pick three Cobbers here, but Claire Stein, the Ole Heptathlon champ ranks 22nd in the country in that event. She also won the 400 hurdles in a time ranked 12th in the country. She was runner up in the 100H and 5th in the Long Jump. Had it been closer, we may have seen her on the 4 x 400 too.

Let's talk about the meet -
I might have expected some better throws, but from my understanding, Power purposely had the concrete made faster. He thought it would help his throwers in big meets, but it only threw off the bigger more powerful nationally-ranked MIAC throwers. An Ole woman did win an upset discus title, which proves the advantage. Interestingly, I heard Cooper say throwing in their shot put ring was like throwing at a junior high track meet. Their javelin facility also needs work. They may have been better off throwing in grass. Other than Degen's meet record throw, there were very few PR's. You have to wonder what he could have thrown in better conditions. We were all so happy to see them go away from Power's buddy at Fast Finish Results. Hero's is far superior than even Wayzata. All in all, I hope Coach Patti comes back on here to get her props. She hosted a way better meet than when Power ran things. It is clear why John Waters prefers her style to Power's controversies and arguments.

Myers on #2 4x4 actually

The rings were basically unusable I think most people would’ve done better throwing off the sidewalk

Just an utter failure by Power as a coach and a human being. Just because you don't care about throws and don't recruit the event doesn't allow such a terrible and unsafe setup. Due to his decisions to create "fast rings" good throwers missed a good change to qualify for Nationals and his former bosses have to consider the cost of repouring concrete, which can't be cheap. I'm sure they are cursing his name now.

I'm told there indoor setup isn't much better with a really old, slick wooden ring and another too fast concrete ring. The MIAC needs to step in and insist on changes or they won't be allowed to host again. We're lucky nobody got hurt.

Which rings? Shot and Hammer/Discus? I’m not a thrower so I’m trying to figure out what we’re made about.

Following online it looked very well run. The livestream was okay, but there seemed to be big gaps between events. Did they run some events into the wind?

Let's just say that we're lucky it didn't rain or someone would have been seriously hurt in hammer/discus. We would have had to go to Carleton to throw javelin because all the holes would have been filled with ankle deep water and a serious hazard.

I suggest anyone with concerns email their Track & Field AD John Waters. Based on the XC it seems he's the one up to the task of stepping up to fix Power's flaws and mistakes. Remind him to add it to his HR file. Based on his comments this weekend he has added a lot since Power left.

The Ole throws coach is one of the best throwers in MIC and NCAA history. If he wasn’t worried, maybe you shouldn’t be.

I've never even seen there throws coach. But plenty of throwers were talking about it. I know the Scholastica coach said he'd never bring his team back.

It's cool you are an omniscient being of the MIAC. And the St. Scholastica coach will be in a tough place when Olaf hosts conference again in 2-3 years

Interesting...seems facility records were set in men's shot, disc and javelin. Conditions must have been HORRIBLE!

Facility records were set because National level throwers were forced to throw there for conference, it has nothing to do with the facility. 18.20 in shot for cooper or Trent for that matter is fairly standard and doesn’t really indicate a “good” surface. Same goes for disc Trent and cooper are both 55m discus throwers and neither broke 53 in one of the last meets of the year. Although I do agree the personal slander on ole coaches is unnecessary