There were a press conference yesterday with coaches Chris Bucknam (Arkansas), Lance Harter (Arkansas), Mike Holloway (Florida), Wayne Norton (Georgia), Robert Johnson (Oregon).
The coaches had some interesting things to say about the outdoor champs having the men's and women's finals on separate days that we'll address after NCAAs.
A few other tidbits:
In terms of this year's meet all the coaches reiterated it was an honor to be in contention for the title. That's standard procedure but you get the sense they mean it. A lot can go wrong in a track season. Teams can go about it differently. Oregon's men's team is all distance runners except for 1, Georgia's team is all field eventers.
I asked the coaches about the DMR order. The Arkansas women and Oregon men have more than a few options. Coach Johnson said the Oregon ordered wouldn't be set until after the mile prelims. Lance Harter noted that his team which won NCAAs last year in the DMR, dropped the baton this year in the race they qualified. They are definitely one of the favorites this year.
Coach Norton of Georgia said it was never under consideration to double pentathlete Kendell Williams. She's a sophomore and they decided to put her in her best event instead of also putting her in the LJ or HJ where she could possibly score points in team battle.
Coach Johnson was asked about the pressure of being the favorites and he said in various forms, "Pressure is self-induced". His guys and girls were just going out there to do the best they could do and compete. With so many guys in the 3k he said his instructions to each would be the same, "I'll look each one of them on their eye and their message to me is to win."
Should be a good one.
Official 2015 NCAA Indoor Day 1 Thread - Plus Notes from Yesterday's Press Conference
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I think this is going to be a great meet. Both the men's and women's miles should be very exciting, and I think the women's DMR could be a great race too. Plus the 3000s are always unpredictable at the end of the meet when everyone is tired.
I think it would be crazy if the Oregon men won the team title with a squad full of distance runners. Could they go 1-2-3 in the 3k? Or 5k?
Here are my picks, coming to you from the Minneapolis airport as I get ready to board my flight to Arkansas...
Men's 800: Brandon McBride
Kemboi is very good and with six (!) guys under 1:47 this year, there is the potential for an upset. But McBride has shown he knows how to win these kind of races and if he can get out in front early (as he likes to do), I don't see anyone passing him.
Men's mile: Edward Cheserek
The only guy who can beat him is Soratos, and I don't think it would be a surprise if Ches lost. Soratos can close quickly off a fast pace, which Lawi Lalang has demonstrated is the way to beat Cheserek. But I've seen Ches run well too many times in NCAA races to count him out. If I think with my head -- who would I pick to win this race if my life depended on it? -- I'm going with Cheserek.
Men's 3000: Cheserek
If Soratos puts up a fight in the mile, maybe Cheserek is too tired for the 3k and loses. But if Lalang can pull off the same-day mile/3k double in 2013, why not Cheserek? I think two hours between races is enough for him to recover.
Men's 5000: Eric Jenkins
If it weren't for Cheserek, Jenkins would have won NCAA XC and would be the favorite to win the 3k and 5k this weekend. We'd be talking about him as one of the great American collegiates. He deserves an NCAA title and he'll get one tonight.
Men's DMR: Oregon
I don't see anyone stopping Cheserek on the anchor if he gets the baton close to the lead, and I doubt anyone breaks it open on the 400 leg as Stanford did last year.
Women's 800: Natoya Goule
I'm less confident about this pick than any of the others. But the fact remains that Goule is a sub-2:00 woman who has proven her mettle at NCAAs in the past. There are a lot of inexperienced women in this field so I feel best picking the runner who's already won two of these things.
Women's mile: Shelby Houlihan
Leah O'Connor is really good and I think if anyone can beat Houlihan, it's her. But Houlihan has the speed, the #2 time in the country and is the outdoor champ. She also won't have had the DMR the night before. Title #2 for Shelby.
Women's 3000: Dominique Scott
This could be a potentially great race. I'll spoil my picks by saying I think Sisson wins the 5k and Arkansas the DMR (with Scott on anchor), leading to a showdown between the two for Queen of NCAA Distance Running in the 3k. I prefer Scott's miler speed to Sisson's strength but I think this one comes down to the final 100.
Women's 5000: Emily Sisson
Lock it down. No one is stopping Sisson in this race.
Women's DMR: Arkansas
Scott is a great anchor and the Hogs will be motivated to defend their title on their home track, especially since they have a chance to win their first team title. I like O'Connor and Sparty to challenge in this one, but Arkansas is better overall. -
Excited for both DMRs and both miles. I just want to leave work and watch basketball and track all weekend.
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Point to remember for tonight's women's DMR:
Given all the talk about Dominique Scott and the other anchors, Elise Cranny of Stanford has the fastest 1500pr, a 4:10.95 from the PJ Cardinal meet last spring and just a few tenths behind Shelby Houlihan as the faster college miler going into this year.
Cranny did not run an open mile this winter. Both her DMR relay anchors were runaway wins with splits of 4:34.+ & 4:38.+.
She's capable of running down anyone who's close to her. -
I guess it's time for me to make my men's mile pick since I didn't do it when we did the previews. I guess I'll go with Seratos. He's a miler. Cheserek is amazing but he's 10,000 guy. I'm not sure which is more preposterous - a 10,000 guy winning NCAAs or a senior winning NCAAs in his first NCAA appearance.
The Seratos win would be a win for the underdog so I'll pick that as it's more interesting.
Can't wait.
We didn't do a 3k pick either. Making those before day 1 is stupid but I'd say cheserek but it wouldn't shock me at all if Jenkins won. I think it goes one way or the other for Ches - he wins everything or maybe nothing. -
rojo wrote:
I guess it's time for me to make my men's mile pick since I didn't do it when we did the previews. I guess I'll go with Seratos. He's a miler. Cheserek is amazing but he's 10,000 guy. I'm not sure which is more preposterous - a 10,000 guy winning NCAAs or a senior winning NCAAs in his first NCAA appearance.
The Seratos win would be a win for the underdog so I'll pick that as it's more interesting.
Can't wait.
We didn't do a 3k pick either. Making those before day 1 is stupid but I'd say cheserek but it wouldn't shock me at all if Jenkins won. I think it goes one way or the other for Ches - he wins everything or maybe nothing.
Not sure about this Seratos guy you (repeatedly) mention. I would have thought Soratos was a better bet for the mile. But, I could be wrong. -
Is ESPN3 still on college basketball for anyone else? Is it switching over soon?
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ESPN wut wrote:
Is ESPN3 still on college basketball for anyone else? Is it switching over soon?
it is showing tennis on mine. wtf -
go here, scroll to bottom and select:
http://espn.go.com/watchespn/ -
Quigley is a babe
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good grief, is that Alexi Pappas yelling for the Oregon girl every lap?!?! flashback to that most-amusing Hasay 10K
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Two heats. Top 4 plus next 2 fastest advance to Final.
Place
Name
Affiliation
Time
Heat (Pl)
1 Leah O'Connor SR Michigan State 4:34.17 Q 2 (1)
2 Erin Teschuk JR North Dakota St. 4:34.25 Q 2 (2)
3 Angel Piccirillo JR Villanova 4:34.67 Q 2 (3)
4 Colleen Quigley SR Florida State 4:35.36 Q 2 (4)
5 Shelby Houlihan SR Arizona State 4:36.17 Q 1 (1)
6 Rhianwedd Price SO Miss State 4:36.39 Q 1 (2)
7 Sammy Silva SR New Mexico 4:36.79 Q 1 (3)
8 Rosie Clarke JR Iona 4:37.52 Q 1 (4)
9 Mariah Kelly SR Baylor 4:37.81 q 1 (5)
10 Nikki Hiltz FR Oregon 4:37.90 q 2 (5)
11 Stephanie Schappert SR Villanova 4:38.13 2 (6)
12 Katie Porada SR Oregon 4:40.25 1 (6)
13 Blanca Fernández JR Temple 4:42.17 1 (7)
14 Eleanor Fulton JR Washington 4:43.78 1 (8)
15 Anne Twombly SR New Hampshire 4:46.69 2 (7)
16 Jenny Celis FR Oklahoma State 4:57.36 2 (8) -
Kidder did the unimaginable: he ran a 3:60.0 (according to the ncaa site). Hilarious.
Paste from the results site:
5 Brannon Kidder JR Penn State 3:60.00 q 1 (5)
Anyway, he's not automatic for the final, then ... -
Good lord. Has that ever happened before where 4:00.25 doesn't make the final?
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Two heats. Top 4 plus next 2 fastest advance to Final.
Heat (Pl)
1 Cristian Soratos SR Montana State 3:57.94 Q 2 (1)
2 Daniel Winn SR Oregon 3:58.50 Q 2 (2)
3 Edward Cheserek SO Oregon 3:58.69 Q 1 (1)
4 Johnny Gregorek SR Oregon 3:58.75 Q 1 (2)
5 Keffri Neal SR Kentucky 3:58.99 Q 2 (3)
6 Chad Noelle JR Oklahoma State 3:59.06 Q 2 (4)
7 Ahmed Bile SO Georgetown 3:59.92 q 2 (5)
8 Jake Hurysz SR Colorado 3:59.93 Q 1 (3)
9 Anthony Rotich SR UTEP 3:59.94 Q 1 (4)
10 Brannon Kidder JR Penn State 4:00.00 q 1 (5)
11 Julian Oakley JR Providence 4:00.25 2 (6)
12 Elmar Engholm SO New Mexico 4:00.79 1 (6)
13 Robert Denault JR Villanova 4:00.80 1 (7)
14 Izaic Yorks SO Washington 4:01.84 1 (8)
15 Patrick Joseph FR Virginia Tech 4:07.97 2 (7)
16 Sam Penzenstadler SR Loyola (Ill.) 4:11.27 2 (8) -
O'Connor is not running the DMR. We repeat. O'Connor of Michigan state is not running the DMR..
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thanks for repeating. I couldn't hear you at first.
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From Canada Can't find a stream anywhere. Help! I can get around the IP address problem but then ESPN asks me for a cable account which I have but is Canadian so it is not listed in the drop-down menu.
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Rhianwedd Price DQ?
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No real surprises in the men's except Sam Penzenstadler lost the pace early and I expected Denault to be in there.
