NAIA 2023

Many of these posts that included the personal attacks I mentioned have since been reported and/or removed throughout the thread (rightfully so) I should have mentioned this. While I agree with you that no coach is above criticism I will also restate my point that there is a difference between criticizing and bashing/personal attacks. Some of what is being posted in this thread has gone too far and is far outside the realm of civil discussion and “criticism”. That is the point I was trying to make.
I’ve not been to any meet Cumberlands was at to see them in person this year and I don’t follow them on social media, and I sure don’t know what that hashtag even means. So I will not state an opinion on this since I don’t have that much information.

Do you have proof that Coach Sowder was suspended for unsportsmanlike conduct? If you make allegations like these of anyone please provide evidence? "Everyone knows" isn't proof or verification.

I'm curious have you ever even talked to Coach Sowder? You seem to be an expert about this coach.

In less controversial news...

This should be the first big week of outdoor with a couple of big meets.

Cumberlands and Milligan are at Raleigh Relays this weekend.

Milligan has Jones in the 10k, both of Stockley and Woodall are in the 1500. Ellen Mary Kearney is in the 800 and Caitlin Dominy will be racing the 5k.

I'm a bit surprised to see some of Milligan's entries. I anticipated seeing Stockley in the 5k as he ended up running that at nationals last year and it's usually difficult to run fast in the 1500 this early on in the year. I also expected to see Kearney going for a 1500 as a top 800 time this early isn't common. Dominy in the 5k is a bit less surprising however she already has her standard in the event, I could have seen her in a 1500 as well as she could also be a contender in that event.

Cumberlands has both Kipkurui and Madeo in the 10k. Santorum is in the 1500 and in the second fastest heat meaning he has a huge opportunity to run fast. I think it's a pretty conservative estimate to say he can run a 3:42 already as long as the weather holds up. Asslouj is in the 5k and should be contending for a new NAIA #1. Carpeggiani is in the 800 and could be looking for an early standard. Boschuck is also in the women's 10k.

Madeo and Jones will be going head to head in the same 10k heat so we will see a showdown between two top contenders in the NAIA there. Kipkurui will be in a faster heat, so we’ll have a chance to see if he is closer to his peak fitness than his indoor performance suggested. It looks like Woodall is getting back to himself after a bit of a tough indoor season as well based off some solid performances in his first couple meets.

Texas Relays also looks like it will have some solid NAIA competition. This will mainly be on the sprints side with Madonna, Texas Wesleyan, St. Thomas, William Carey, Multnomah, and Our Lady of The Lake competing in the meet. Tajean Houston will be competing in the 110 hurdles after a stellar indoor season.

All of these teams should be running some of the top times in both the 4x100 and 4x400.
Distance wise there is a lot less going on at this meet for the NAIA but we will see Hendrick Ramirez, Walid Jarfani, and Mehdi Nait-Hamoud in the 1500. Both Ramirez and Nait-Hamoud had top five finishes indoor in the mile and Jarfani likely could have contended for an All-American finish if he was not in that ridiculously slow first prelim heat.

Our Lady of the Lake will also be running a 4x800, and given their DMR indoor it looks like they will have some potential to qualify in the event however I’m not sure that this would end up being a focus of theirs for nationals.

Another solid meet distance wise will be the Wash U distance carnival. This won't produce quite as many top marks as the other two meets, but should be pretty competitive especially on the women's side.

The 10k on the men's side will feature Ryan Heline and Dominick Beine from St. Mary who could both have outside chances of being All-Americans. Some athletes to keep an eye out for with potential to qualify are Taylor Vallangeon from Olivet Nazarene and Alberto Fernandez-Arango from St. Francis. Taylor Vallangeon has not looked like himself for the past year but he is still a 2x All American in cross country with some fast 5k PRs. Fernandez Arango has no races on his TFRRS (or anywhere I could find for that matter) but is seeded at 31:15 which would be a B standard.

The big name in the 5k will be Donovan Denslow who has a PR of 14:29. I wouldn't count out some big race potential from either of Tommy Baker or Liam Neidig from St. Mary. They're both in a bit slower of heats but both had good indoor season in mid distance and the 3k. Sam Mickleson is in a slow heat but was also a finalist in the 3k indoor. David Olmos from Olivet Nazarene is seeded at 14:43 and while I haven't seen a performance from him that reflects that fitness in a 5k, he did run a B standard 3k indoor and was on Olivet Nazarene's All-American 4x800 team.

The 800 will feature Chris Misrendino and Dillon Callaway who both narrowly missed out on the 1k final at indoor nationals.

The women's side will have some firepower with Hailey Niuewkoop in the the 10k along with Kate Madsen from St. Mary. Riley Jo Ford was just outside of an All-American finish in cross country and will be racing as well.

The fast heat of the 5k will have both of Reagan Hiebert and Ana Pineda. Pineda ran some incredible mid distance times during indoor and placed just outside for the top 10 at cross country nationals only a year ago, so her 5k should be fast. Hiebert had a third place finish in a tactical 3k final indoor and finished 6th in cross country this year. I'd expect both of these women to go under 17 if the weather permits.

The second heat has the potential for some fast times as well. Riley Hiebert would be my pick to finish first, she was an All-American cross country runner and is coming off of a 10:54 steeple last week.Allison Ramsey had a fantastic mid distance season during indoor, while the 5k might not be her event she was able to make the final in outdoor last year. Maddy Walter Sherretts is similar to Ramsey as a mid distance runner moving up in distance. She's coming off of an indoor where she broke 5 in the mile, unlike Ramsey though she has shown a lot of range from her cross country season where she was also an All-American. Danielle Allison is a stud mid distance runner trying to hit a 5k standard (seems to be a pattern here) and Josie Tyrell has a PR that would put her in the qualifying range as well.

The steeple will feature Mia Reed who had a strong mid distance season with a 2:55 1k and an All-American finish. Reed was a finalist in the event during outdoor the past two seasons.

3:41 from Santorum

Stockley and Woodall 3:49 and 3:47. Silva’s strava says he’ll be racing at OBU too.

Looks like we’ll be seeing some pretty fast 1500s to start the year if that’s what he decides to run.

Bendsen 14:12 and Asslouj 13:53.

Wow

Sowder sucks 😂

Woodall looked really strong in his heat and bet he can go 3:45 now. He finished well

A 3:50 from Walid Jarfani too at Texas Relays

Considering Jarfani and Asslouj are from Morocco they’re likely fasting for Ramadan which makes those times even more impressive considering they ran those times mid day.

Aaron Jones 29:47 and Luca Madeo 29:57.

Ana Pineda 16:45 in her first long distance race since December and Reagan Hiebert 16:53 at Wash U.

Dennis Kipkurui with a 29:20 10k at Raleigh Relays as well. Distance events are off to a fast start.

The Master's will be at the Stanford Invite tomorrow and Saturday with Ellen Palmgren in the 800 and Hannah Fredericks in the 10k on the women's side. Caleb Pouliot. who was a national champion, will be competing in pole vault this weekend there as well.

I missed Kate Madsen's 35:38 as well that's incredible. St. Mary should be a title contender in cross country again next year.

I saw in today's results that the indoor 600m national champ from Olivet Nazarene made the 400m Hurdle finals. Good to see the NAIA representing amongst the D1 schools!

After all of the Cumberlands results tonight, are we still going to act as if Sowder cannot coach, or are we going to realize that he obviously has to know how to train his athletes.
All athletes are either still capitalizing off of their impressive indoor seasons or they are only continuing to improve. Statement distance night from Cumberlands.
Not to mention, all athletes that ran for them tonight are within a reasonable college age since that seems to be such a pressing issue

It seems like that for people who want to stop talking about Sowder and racewalk you guys bring both of those topics up quite a bit.

Non stop complaining about how you want the thread to go back to talking about other stuff with the NAIA and then when it does you switch the topic right back to Sowder.

Antkoviak ran 56.7 last year in the 400H. She won the College division of Drake relays as well.

By the way this is neither pro/anti-Sowder or racewalk it seems like both sides those arguments just kept saying let’s stop talking about it and now when we finally have a day of not talking about it we’re right back there.