400 Meters

Men:
Fantastic effort by sophomore Spencer Meinburg (Meridian, Idaho) in this one. He ran in the faster heat and made a great run down the backstretch to catch a Louisiana Tech runner, then out-leaned him at the finish line for a 49.51 and a spot in the finals. That time ties for Spencer’s personal-best, so I think he can go a little faster in tomorrow’s final.

Women:
A tough break for our women here. Freshman Keli Hall (Lakeview, Ore.) ran a solid 56.69, but ended up in ninth and was just one spot outside the finals. Junior AshLee Rey (Lewiston, Idaho) ran a 57.01 and finished 11th overall.

Men’s long jump and women’s javelin are still in progress and they’re just getting ready for the 100m heats.

Hurdles Recap

Women’s:
Heather Bergland (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) ran really well…she went 13.90 and took third in her heat to qualify for the finals. That time would be an NCAA Regional mark, but it will have an altitude adjustment of .02 or .04 added to it…so she’ll just have to go a little faster tomorrow.

Men’s:
Paul Dittmer (Hanstedt, Germany) looked calm and loose as he unleashed a 13.93 to win his heat and qualified with the top overall time. Andrew Blaser (Boise, Idaho) ran a 14.86 and also qualified for tomorrow’s final with the eighth overall time. I think he’ll be able to run faster tomorrow.

Men’s long jump and women’s javelin are still in progress…not sure how they’re exactly going. The 400m is just getting started.

Men’s Steeplechase Recap

Freshman Alex Brekke (Bozeman, Mont.) and junior Steve Potratz (Moscow, Idaho) ran really well just now. Potratz took fourth and Brekke came in fifth. Both earned second-team all-WAC (a career first for Brekke). With only seven people in the race, it was important to keep with the pack. Potratz was in the hunt for third, but just got out-kicked on the back stretch. Brekke came in ranked No. 7 among these runners, so he stole a point from Utah State there, which is exactly what we need.

Official times: Potratz – 9:33.13; Brekke – 9:56.02 (that’s a PR, I think)

We’ve got the men’s and women’s 1500m coming up next on the track and women’s javelin/men’s long jump starting on the field in about 25 minutes.

Men’s Hammer Recap

Idaho lost some points here. James Rogan (Eagle, Idaho) took third at 202-4, Matt Wauters (Bainbridge, Wash.) took fourth at 201-4 and Jake Boling (Port Orchard, Wash.) took fifth at 192-5.

We were projected to go 2-3-5 in this event, so we ended up with 12 points instead of the 20 that we were hoping for. It’s not too much to handle, though. There are still a lot of places for us to make up some points.

Evan Ruud, who came in with a throw of more than 200 feet this year, just didn’t seem like he could get any rhythm going. In between the prelims and the finals, Rogan took four practice throws that were all well over 205 feet and would have moved him up into second, but he just didn’t quite catch any in the finals. I expect every one of these guys to come back with a vengeance later in the discus.

Day Three Preview

Good morning everyone.

I just got myself set up for the third overall day and first individual day of the WAC Championships. The first event on the menu today is the men’s hammer throw, which starts in about 30 minutes. Since it has the potential to be a dangerous event to the spectators (or anyone really near the area), the hammer starts quite a while before everything else. Event number two of the day is the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, which starts at 2 p.m. (MT). The next field event will be the women’s javelin, which will start at 3 p.m.

The first track event featuring Idaho athletes will be the men’s 3,000m steeplechase with junior Steve Potratz (Moscow, Idaho) and freshman Alex Brekke (Bozeman, Mont.). There are seven entrants into this race, so as long as they finish the race, we’re guaranteed at least one all-WAC honor there (sixth or better)…but I’m guessing our guys are going to want to do a lot better than that.

The two steeplechase races are finals, and the only other races to be finals today will be the men’s and women’s 10,000m…which are the final two events of the day. Keep an eye out on freshman Julia Veseth (Moscow, Idaho) in this race. She’s been getting better every week in this race and since they’re running such a long distance at altitude, you can probably throw all the entry times out the window. These long distance events are more about tactics than times.

For the rest of the track events, it’s all about getting a good, comfortable run and qualifying for tomorrow’s finals.

In the field today, there will be plenty of Vandals to watch out for. In the long jump, 2008 All-American Elvie Williams (Tacoma, Wash.) will be looking to get a big jump in, while Idaho’s men’s throws crew will need to score big in both the hammer and the discus. Sophomore Anne Barnett (Hermiston, Ore.) was a Regional qualifier in the women’s javelin last year, but has yet to hit that mark this year, so hopefully she can get that going and place well.

I’m going to wander over to the hammer throw area and check that out, then I’ll be back to report.

Decathlon Final

Well, Ryan put together a big effort in the last two events, but he still came out in fifth place with 6,276 points. He won the final event of the day, the 1500m, by a 17-second margin, but it wasn’t quite enough for him to move up.

Matt Grogan and Andrew Blaser finished the day with disappointing ‘Did Not Finish’ results, but both of them competed very, very well in the last two days. I don’t think we’ll see Grogan competing again for the rest of the week, but Blaser will still compete for the Vandals in the triple jump and the high jump, so he’ll definitely have another chance to get some points on the board.

I’ll have a complete release up as soon as possible.

Slow going…

I’m starting to get hungry. The first two days of this meet feature a Hospitality Room that couldn’t stand up to a soup kitchen. The only food available is a bowl of bagels that have been sitting there since about 11 this morning. It’s tough going. I knew I should have brought a banana with me…

Anyway, for those of you who have noticed that the familiar name of Lindsey Goodman is absent from this meet, the reason is because she was still feeling the ill effects of a hamstring injury she suffered at the WAC Indoor Championships. She wasn’t back to 100% by the time this meet came around, so the choice came to just get her back healthy and not put her under any unnecessary stress.

You’ll also notice that a lot of notable Vandal women will be absent from this meet. Don’t worry, they’re all just fine. With such a strong group of freshmen on the team now and another strong group coming in, the team decided to take a hit in the standings this year and redshirt a large group of upperclassmen with the hopes of coming out next couple seasons as strong favorites for the conference title.

Anyway…the men are warming up right now for the javelin throw. After that, they’ll just have the 1500m.

Heptathlon Final

Darcy has officially clinched second place. She took second in the 800m with a time of about 2:29. Ellen wasn’t able to take over third place, but I’m pretty sure she held on to fourth.

Darcy’s final score is 4,886, while Ellen finished up with 4,529 points.

More partially good news. Andrew Blaser, despite a no-height in the vault, could still possibly score, because he only slipped to seventh. He’s down by a little more than 200 points, but you never know what can  happen and let’s hope he can sneak back into the scoring positions.

Dec #8/Hep #6

Bad news for the Vandal men. Matt Grogan had to withdraw with that ankle injury, which left Idaho with two competitors remaining…then Andrew Blaser, who was sitting in fourth place, no-heighted in the pole vault. He had three good attempts, but he just barely nicked the bar every time. Idaho’s only decathlete left is Ryan Bowen, who just missed 14-1. There are still four guys left in the vault, so I’ll have updated scores in a bit.

Better news for the Vandal women. Darcy Collins has re-taken second place by a 120-point margin with 4,169 points. It looks like she’s going to come up just short of her 5,000-point goal, but a good run in the 200m will give her a firm grasp on second place. Ellen Rouse threw the javelin 122-7 to give her a score of 3,991 and Emily Sheppard of Hawai’i (formerly in second place) has slipped to third and is barely ahead of Ellen. According to co-head coach Yogi Teevens, Ellen needs to beat Sheppard by about five seconds and she’ll take over third, which would be HUGE for the Vandal freshman.

Deca #7/Hep #5

Men’s Discus Throw:
Not really a strong event for Andrew and Ryan…I saw both of them foul a couple throws. Ryan ended up with a best of 80-2 and Andrew threw 96-5. Matt Grogan hit 108-5, but I don’t think it was as far as he wanted to go.

After seven events, Andrew is in fourth with 4,839, Ryan is in sixth at 4,515 and Matt is seventh at 4,511.

Women’s Long Jump:
This event went okay, but not great for the Idaho women. Both girls could have moved up big, but I don’t think they opened as big a lead as they wanted to.

Darcy seemed to have some problems finding the board and ended up with a best jump of about 16-11, while Ellen jumped 17-1. I know Ellen went farther than Nevada’s April Pate, who was sitting in fourth (directly ahead of Ellen), so hopefully she either gained ground or overtook that position. Darcy went a little shorter than UH’s Emily Shepperd, who was in second…but Darcy will make up ground on her in the javelin coming up next.

Points just announced and it looks like Darcy is still in third and Ellen has taken over fourth. Darcy has 3,626 and Ellen has 3,374.

Decathlon #6 – 110m Hurdles

Andrew Blaser looked really good in the third heat…he ran a 14.84, which is slightly off PR time, but he moved into second place. He now has 4,387 points.

Ryan Bowen is now tied for fifth with 4,159 points. He caught a bit of a tough break…he started hitting hurdles and couldn’t get it going again. He ran a 16.29.

You can tell that Matt Grogan’s ankle is hurting him…and an event like the hurdles had to put a lot of pressure on it. He ran a 16.81 and he’s still in seventh with 3,986 points. I still think he can move back up to sixth, because the throws won’t put as much pressure on that injured ankle as the hurdles just did.

Next event for the men is the discus throw in about 30 minutes. The women are warming up now for the long jump. Ideally, we want both our ladies to be in the 18-foot range in that event.

Day Two – Back on Track

Well, here we are at the beginning of the second day. All four of the five Vandals finished day one in scoring position, but I have a strong feeling that we’ll get everyone up in the top six spots by the end of the day today.

The biggest question of the day will be how Matt Grogan competes after spraining his ankle yesterday during the high jump. As Matt was taking an attempt at 6-0 in the high jump, he rolled his left ankle (his plant foot). He did it right at take off and it slightly threw him of balance, which caused his legs to bump each other (he got a nasty cut from the spikes on his right shoe). Even with all that…he still cleared the bar. I don’t know of many people who could jump 6 feet high off the side of their ankle, so you have to give that freshman some major credit for gutting it out.

If Andrew Blaser can replicate yesterday’s performance, I think he could easily sneak into the top three. He’s probably the best hurdler among this group (he’s run a 14.69 this season), so he can start things off really well with a good time in that event. Ryan Bowen just needs to keep on being consistent. He’s hoping to get over 14-6 in the pole vault today, and if he does, he’ll gain some huge ground and distance himself from the 5-6-7 guys. Grogan improved his pole vault by about three feet at the indoor meet…I don’t think he’ll do that again, but if he can get 14 feet, he’ll definitely put himself back into scoring position.

Darcy finished day one in third place, but she’s a good 800m runner, a better javelin thrower than the second-place competitor and a solid long jumper, so I think she’ll be just fine. Ellen still has a strong event left in the javelin and should be just fine in the long jump. Yogi told me last night that there might be better 800m runners in the group, but that if it comes down to pure guts…Ellen’s got it.

We’re 20 minutes away from the start of the men’s 110m hurdles. I’ll have another update as soon as that gets going.

Decathlon #4/#5

Andrew Blaser ended up with the 6-6 jump in the high jump, while Ryan Bowen cleared 6-2.25 and Matt Grogan cleared 6-0. Grogan tweaked his ankle a little bit during the high jump, otherwise I think he could have gone another height or two.

Our guys had a bit of a tough time in the 400m. Bowen ran a 50.91, Blaser ran a 51.90 and Grogan ran a 53.50 with that bum ankle. At the end of the first day, Blaser is fourth, Bowen is fifth and Grogan is seventh, but it’s a VERY tight race. Utah State’s John Strang is comfortably in first place with 3,866 points, but the difference between second place and fourth is just 73 points.

I still think we can score three guys in this event and I think Andy definitely has a chance to move into the top three.

I’ll have a complete story up in a little while…I need to get back and get some food and some quotes.

Heptathlon #4 – 200m

Good runs for both Darcy and Ellen just now. Ellen has moved into fifth place with 2,757 points and Darcy slipped to third with 3,025 points.

Ellen’s 25.71 in the 200m was the third-fastest time and Darcy’s 26.28 was fifth.

Darcy’s first-day total is a new personal best for her. She scored 3,019 on the first day of last year’s WAC Championship meet and finished with a personal-best 4,951. If she can have a strong finish tomorrow, she can become the fifth Vandal to break 5,000 points in the event. I still think Ellen can move up at least one more place tomorrow, and possibly threaten for third with a really strong day.

We’re about 15 minutes away from the men’s 400m, which is going to be the last event of the day. I’ll have a full recap on http://www.GoVandals.com as soon as I get back to the hotel and get settled.

Thursday Preview

While I’ve got a break, I figured I’d go over tomorrow’s events and what we should expect from our athletes there.

Heptathlon: Long Jump, Javelin, 800m

Darcy’s strengths tomorrow will be in the long jump and the 800m. I could see her easily jumping above 17 feet, throwing about 115 feet in the javelin and running about a 2:25 or so in the 800m. If she does that, I think she could very easily take second and hit the NCAA standard.

Ellen’s strength is definitely going to be the javelin and I think she can throw in the 130′s tomorrow. She can also go about 17 feet in the long jump, but she’s never run an 800m in competition, so I don’t really know what to expect there. It doesn’t look to me like this group of multi-athletes is particularly strong in the throws, so she can move up big-time tomorrow with a big javelin throw.

Decathlon: 110m Hurdles, Discus Throw, Pole Vault, Javelin Throw, 1500m

All three of Idaho’s decathletes are definitely strong second-day guys. Andrew Blaser is among the top hurdlers in the conference, Matt Grogan is a strong thrower, and Ryan Bowen ran cross country all four years of high school and told me yesterday that he loves the 1500m. All three are also very good in the pole vault, which is a big point event. I don’t think 14 feet is out of the question for all three Idaho guys.

It’s going to be a battle, but I don’t think it would be a stretch to see all three Idaho guys score in this event.