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Indoor track & field - 2019/20 regular season results and news (Conf. Championships 2/28-29)

It's the opening of the 2nd and last home meet of the season today! (The multi-event athletes were scheduled to start at noon.)

With the 1st home meet held earlier this month being more of a rust buster for those who competed, and most of the top distance runners not even competing in that meet, this will be a MUCH more serious meet for the team, starting today when I'm sure the multi-event athletes will be trying to improve their scores from last December's meet at Mines.

Go Buffs!
Preview (from yesterday) -


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/1/29/track-and-field-buffs-begin-colorado-invitational-thursday.aspx

"
BOULDER – The University of Colorado track and field program hosts one of the biggest meets of the season, the Colorado Invitational, beginning Thursday and continuing through Saturday.

Thursday marks the beginning of the meet with the first day of the heptathlon and the full pentathlon competition. The only other events that will compete will be the men and women's pole vault. Friday will conclude the heptathlon in the afternoon along with all the rest of the field events excluding the shot put which occurs on Saturday. Friday night will also feature an elite mile competition along with a distance medley relay, while the rest of the running events commence on Saturday.

Competition begins every day at 11 a.m. Thursday's competition is free to the public, while Friday's session is $5 entry that includes the elite mile competition that begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday's session is $8 entrance and there will be a two-day pass for $10.

Friday night is living up to the hype that had two CU men under 4:02 in the men's mile in 2017, including Joe Klecker's 4:01.72. The fastest mile ever ran in the state of Colorado belongs to former Adams State University alum Tabor Stevens who ran 4:01.27 in La Junta (4,078' elevation). Klecker will run along with Eduardo Herrera and John Dressel in the mile Friday night with eyes on an NCAA qualifying time, though spectators have a chance at seeing another historical run from Klecker who broke the state record in the 3,000-meters at this meet last year.

Other performances in the distance to watch include Dani Jones in the women's 800 Saturday as well as four CU women going after a qualifying distance medley relay time Friday evening.

Everything begins with the multis Thursday where freshman Avery McMullen will compete on the women side along with two professionals. On the men's side, Davis Butte and Wyatt Rhoads are set to compete in the heptathlon.
"
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Note- for any track fans, even though tomorrow evening only features a few track races, it will probably be THE focus of the meet for serious distance running fans:
  • As indicated in the above quoted article, there is likely to be a SERIOUS attempt by someone, most likely senior Joe Klecker, to become the 1st ever (college OR pro) to break the mythical 4:00 minute mile barrier on Colorado soil. He did say in an Instagram post (pasted below) a couple weeks ago re that 4:00 goal "On January 31st I’ll throw my hat back in the ring with the same goal in mind." (In one way, he is looking in far better shape, strength and speed than 2017 when he was less than 2 seconds off the mark (based on his strong results in cross country this season and on the track last season), so the goal is reasonably attainable. Conversely, the fact that it hasn't been done before obviously points to its difficulty. IF he or any other collegian gets even close to that 4:00 goal, they'll EASILY qualify for the NCAA championships, as 4:00 flat in Boulder converts to 3:54.08 in the NCAA altitude calculator, and the FASTEST qualifying time in the nation last season was only 3:54.83. Probably not an issue for Mr. Klecker, but for reference for other Buffs running, last season's 16th (last guaranteed) qualifying time in the men's mile was 3:58.55, which would equate to a 4 :04.59 time in Boulder.
  • It also sounds like per the above article tomorrow evening's major goal for the top women may be to establish a qualifying time for NCAA's in the distance medley relay (DMR). For reference, in that event, last season, the 12th qualifying time was 11:00.28. (As noted in the OP, only the top 12 relay teams qualify for NCAA's.). That works out to a 11:11.76 time in Boulder before conversion. (Need to emphasize year to year qualifying times can be quite different, so assume the team might want to finish a bit faster than that if they want to feel comfortable they'll qualify.) I'm GUESSING his will be maybe THE only serious attempt to earn a qualifying mark until (possibly) the MPSF Conference Championships. (With only a month or so remaining this indoor regular season (MPSF's start 2/27), I'd GUESS the individual team members will need to be concentrating on individual race times the rest of the regular season.)

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Meet info (Prelim schedule on page 2) - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2019/12/9//Colorado_Invitational_2020.pdf?id=14917

Live results - http://results.tfmeetpro.com/University_of_Colorado/Colorado_Invitational_2020_Indoor/

(I would hope within a couple seasons they may be able to put a few cameras and a few students with broadcast aspirations (whether on the camera, in production or as announcers) in the IPF and have a video stream of the home meets.)
 
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After becoming the #8 all-time women's indoor pentathlete for CU in her very 1st attempt (See post #'s 4-5 for more detail on that) back in December, true freshman Avery McMullen moves up to 5th place all-time today in only her 2nd collegiate pentathlon.

Big congrats to her!

Review of the day's action -


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/1/30/track-and-field-mcmullen-jumps-up-record-books.aspx

"
BOULDER – Colorado track and field freshman Avery McMullen put together another stellar performance in just her second pentathlon Thursday afternoon as she jumped to fifth all-time in school history with a score of 3,914 points.

McMullen kicked things off with a personal best in the 60 hurdles of 8.63 seconds, then followed things up in the high jump by jumping 1.72-meters (5-7.75). She threw nearly a half-meter farther in the shot put at 10.62 meters (34-10.25).

The freshman continued to win every event as she closed out the competition with a 5.65-meters (18-6.5) jump in the long jump and then ran 2:26.93 in the 800-meter run. Her new score of 3,914 points jumped her from eighth to fifth in the CU record books in just her second-ever pentathlon competition.

Also in competition today was Davis Butte in the men's heptathlon. He sits in second in the competition after the first day after running 7.63 in the 60-meter dash, jumped 6.28-meters (20-7.25) in the long jump, tossing the shot put 9.11-meters (29-10.75) and cleared 1.77-meters (5-9.75) in the high jump. He will close out the heptathlon tomorrow with the 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000-meter run.

The meet ramps up in action tomorrow with all field events excluding the shot put being finished. Tomorrow will also feature the seeded section of the mile for both the men and the women in the night session that begins at 7:30 p.m.
"
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

And, in (at least partly) off the track/ trail news, BIG congrats to Joe Klecker for being named the "2019 NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country National Scholar Athlete of the Year", and Sage Hurta for being named to the "USTFCCCA All-Academic team" (impressively her FOURTH time earning that honor).

Link to article -
 
Day #2 of the meet!

Roughly, Today's schedule (assuming there haven't been major modifications) looks to be:
  • It's mainly field event day, with those starting at 11:00 AM. (The only field event that will be left to be contested tomorrow looks to be the shot put.) It also contains
  • the final 3 events of the men's heptathlon, starting at noon.
  • Then, starting at 7:30 PM in the evening is the few in number but probably most high profile track races of the meet starting with, hopefully, a great and successful effort in the men's mile to break the 4 minute mile barrier in the state of Colorado for the 1st time ever. And hopefully, in the last race of the evening, the women will earn a DMR time fast enough to qualify for the NCAA's. (I'd guess all the racing will be done by 8:20 or so.)
Go Buffs!

 
Joe Klecker runs, unofficially, 4:01.00, just missing the 4 minute mark, but runs the fastest mile EVER in Colorado.

Congrats to him!!!

Edit - announcer also said that, after altitude conversion, he now has the fastest time in the NCAA this season.
 
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Looks like the women's Distance Medley Relay (DMR) team probably accomplished its goal of putting a NCAA Championships qualifying time in the books, as they finish in 11:11.05. If my Altitude calculator is accurate, that converts to an altitude-adjusted to sea level time (which the NCAA uses) of 10:59.55.

Using prior years' results are never TOTALLY safe, but at least last season, that would have been the 8th fastest qualifying time, 0.8 seconds faster than the 1st non-qualifer's (13th fastest) time. In the season before that (2017/18), it would been have 5th fastest qualifying time, and almost 2-1/2 seconds ahead of the 13th fastest time. (The announcer did note that converted time is currently the fastest in the nation, but there's obviously a lot of the season to go.)

The team was made up of junior Rachel McArthur running the 1st (1200M) leg, I believe (???) junior Valerie Welch running the 400M leg, and then seniors Karina Mann (800M) and Dani Jones (1600M) finished it off.

Congrats to them!
 
AztecBuff said:
Looks like the women's Distance Medley Relay (DMR) team probably accomplished its goal of putting a NCAA Championships qualifying time in the books, as they finish in 11:11.05. If my Altitude calculator is accurate, that converts to an altitude-adjusted to sea level time (which the NCAA uses) of 10:59.55.

Using prior years' results are never TOTALLY safe, but at least last season, that would have been the 8th fastest qualifying time, 0.8 seconds faster than the 1st non-qualifer's (13th fastest) time. In the season before that (2017/18), it would been have 5th fastest qualifying time, and almost 2-1/2 seconds ahead of the 13th fastest time. (The announcer did note that converted time is currently the fastest in the nation, but there's obviously a lot of the season to go.)

The team was made up of junior Rachel McArthur running the 1st (1200M) leg, I believe (???) junior Valerie Welch running the 400M leg, and then seniors Karina Mann (800M) and Dani Jones (1600M) finished it off.

Congrats to them!
Click to expand...
Is it too much to ask for another HOLY CRAP COLORAAAADO?
 
If they're on schedule, the final (track heavy) day of the final home indoor meet of the season should have just begun at the top of the hour.

 
I'd say the 1st CU highlight of the day, as they finish with 4 in the top 5 in the women's 60M hurdles, highlighted by Dani Johnson winning and becoming the 2nd fastest Buff ever while running 8.32. (The school record, set by Hannah Cooper in 2002, is 8.27.)
 
#ForeverBuff Gabby Scott, who graduated last year, breaks her own facility record in the 400M. Hopefully a good sign her training is going well as she works toward, I'm guessing , her main athletic goal this season of making the Puerto Rican Olympic team in the 400M hurdles.
 
A couple very good to great performances by Buffs leading to wins in the men's and women's 3000M.

In the men's, Alec Hornecker blew the field up late to show his All-American cross country performance IS carrying over to the track. (I would GUESS his time is within 10 seconds or so (after altitude conversion) of what he'll need to qualify for NCAA's.)

Then, Makena Morley, paced the majority of the way by Buff great and assistant coach Jenny Simpson, ran a probable NCAA qualifying time while also breaking her own facility record by ~4-1/2 seconds. (Edit- Just got home and was able to convert Ms. Morley's time. Looks like it will be converted to 9:00.17 for qualifying purposes, which would have been the 11th fastest time LAST season, and over 3 seconds faster than the 16th fastest time that year. Per the TFRRS system, pending other results from this weekend, her converted time will be the 2nd best of the year as of now.)

Congrats to both of them!
 
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Now that I'm home, wanted to mention the meet finished strongly for the Buffs with solid results by both the 4X400M relay teams, with the women running the 2nd fastest indoor time in CU history (behind only a team from last season), and the men running the 4th 3rd fastest time (and fastest since 1999). Hopefully they'll continue to improve and be able to earn some nice points at the conference championships again this year. (Last season, the women finished 2nd and men 5th there.)

Some highlights and notable marks from the Buff's sprints/ hurdles coach-




And, from the team Twitter account, more on a couple Buff all-time top 6 results (one by a true freshman)-
 
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Article after today's action -


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/2/1/track-and-field-jones-downs-42-year-old-record.aspx

"
BOULDER – Colorado track and field star Dani Jones knocked off her first individual school record in spectacular fashion Saturday at the Colorado Invitational, breaking the longest-standing women's school record.

The senior took down Mary Decker's 1978 800-meter school record of 2:05.29 in a time of 2:04.38, winning the race by more than five seconds. With altitude conversion her time drops to 2:03.57, good for second on the NCAA descending order lists.

"It took long enough, but it's a great feeling," said Jones when asked about her first school record. "I mean, normally records aren't something you think about you just go out there and try and run your hardest and then hope that it's like a bonus when your coach comes up to you and says that's an indoor record. We just have such a good history that to be on the all-time list anywhere is a pretty big deal. Even though your coaches go up to you and kind of laugh at you saying, 'Oh, you don't have a school record yet, despite like how successful you've been.' I think it's important to remember how big a deal it is when you look on these walls and you see all the pictures of all these women and how good they've been after they left, so it's a big deal."

She now owns four marks in the top-three in school history, bettered only by Jenny Simpson or Emma Coburn in those four disciplines. Jones will next compete on the national stage in the Millrose Games in New York next weekend.
...

Another Colorado senior put up the second-best time in the nation at altitude as Makena Morley broke her own facility record in the women's 3,000 by running 9:15.77. Her mark converts down to 9:00.17, good for second on the NCAA lists before today.

"My overall thoughts were that I wasn't totally thrilled with yesterday, but the weekend kind of wound up in a nice way," said Head Coach Mark Wetmore. "We gained a lot of momentum, Joe was great last night. We were kind of hoping Lalo could get a qualifying mark, but he's never been brilliant at elevation and he wasn't brilliant last night so now we have to take him down to sea level, and do it where he's good at it. Then the DMR was good, again, it wasn't brilliant but they ran a time that has always made it to the NCAA in the history of the NCAA so we feel good about that. As I said, today was a pretty good day overall. The women hurdlers look really strong once again, I saw some really nice 400-meter marks, Abbey Glynn I think ran her first indoor race ever and ran low 55s. The men look good in the 400 so that was all great. Dani, school record, it's her first school record. They get harder to get now, because there's some pretty good school records but she'll end up in the 2:03s when it comes out on the Monday NCAA lists. She's qualified for the NCAA. Makenna was brilliant, that's hard to do up here. The NCAA gives you 15 seconds but it's probably more. A year ago, she had a converted time and went and beat it when she went to sea level so I think it comes out to nine flat and she may go under nine later this year. Both relays we're good, 3:11 and 3:40, that's very good for early February. All in all, good weekend. I was particularly pleased in the men's 3,000, because we have a lot of rookies in there. Alec Hornecker, he's run one or two indoor 3,000s but nothing like that. He beat some All-Americans, he beat some guys that are already in the NCAA in the 5,000, and then behind him, probably lost to the fans were three freshmen running unattached, who ran really good times for us, huge improvements. They're great guys, they're going to be really big future people for us. So all in all, it was an exciting weekend."

The Colorado women were strong all-around, with Rachel McArthur finished second in the 800 at 2:09.83 and Karina Mann finishing in 2:10.81 for third. In the 400-meter dash, Abbey Glynn made her collegiate debut and trailed only former Buff Gabby Scott in the race, finishing in the sixth-best time in school history at 55.36. Scott reset her facility record to 53.42 in the win. Glynn also anchored the 4x400-meter relay of Dani Johnson, Valerie Welch and Eriana Henderson in a time of 3:40.76, making them the second-fastest team in CU history behind last year's MPSF squad.

The final strong mark for the women came in the 60-hurdles where Johnson became the second-fastest hurdler in CU history with a winning time of 8.32 seconds. Henderson was second at 8.51, while Welch was fourth in 8.58 seconds and Tamia Badal was fifth in 8.62 seconds.

On the men's side, Alec Hornecker led a large squad of Buffs in the men's 3,000. Hornecker took the win in 8:16.21, while Noah Hibbard, Hunter Appleton and Austin Vancil all competed unattached and finished under 8:27.

The men's 400 was a CU-based final with Aaron McCoy leaning out Ronald Sayles (who competed unattached), with McCoy winning in 47.41 seconds. Freshman Garrett Nelson was third at 47.83, while Kendal Smith finished fourth at 48.07 and Nathan Hoy was fifth in 48.10 seconds. Nelson, Smith, McCoy and Hoy came together to run 3:10.57 in the 4x400-meter relay, making them the third-best relay squad in CU history.
...
"
______________________________________________________________________________________________

Full results - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2020/2/1//Colorado_Invitational_Final_Results.pdf
 
Just spending a little time looking at the Millrose Games (one of if not THE classic U.S. indoor meets) schedule and entries, and wanted to note the Buffs I could find who are participating. The "premiere" races will be televised on NBC, with coverage this Saturday (2/8) from 2:00 - 4:00 PM MT. The meet is held at the legendary Armory track in New York City.

Note- All times (hopefully) Mountain. (I'm just doing this by quickly eyeballing entries (from the Live results link below)- sorry if I miss someone.)
1:26 PM "New Balance Boys' Mile" - A couple incoming (2020) Buff commits in this one - California's Jace Aschbrenner and New Jersey's Shaw Powell.
2:56 PM "Dr. Sander Men's 3000m" - Buff senior Joe Klecker in maybe the highest profile race he's been in as he faces off against many pros, as well as the man many consider a/ the key rival this season at NCAA's (both indoor and outdoor), Iowa State's Edward Kurgat. (Kurgat was 1st and Klecker 2nd at this past season's NCAA Cross Country Championships). Buff assistant coach and pro runner Riley Masters (who last I heard is coached by CU's Coaches Wetmore and, possibly, Burroughs?) is also in this race.
3:33 PM "NYRR Wannamaker Women's Mile" - Like Mr. Klecker, senior Dani Jones is also toeing the starting line against many pros, as well as a big potential NCAA rival (Danae Rivers from Penn State in her case, although Ms. Rivers may run the 800M at NCAA's).

Live results - http://results.nyrrmillrosegames.org/
 


(Note- the bulk of the video is an interview with basketball's Dallas Walton, but there is a brief (~1 minute) interview with Sage Hurta around the 2:45 mark.)
 
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cubuffs.com preview of this weekend's action, featuring (also see my post #50 above) Joe Klecker and Dani Jones at the prestigious Millrose Games, with it sounds like the throwers and one hurdler the other track and field athletes in action, in their case in Colorado Springs.



"
BOULDER – Just a week after setting the Colorado mile soil record and breaking the 42-year-old 800-meter school record, Colorado track and field stars Joe Klecker and Dani Jones will take their talents to the national stage in the 2020 Millrose Games in New York this Saturday.

Klecker will take the track in the Dr. Sander Invitational men's 3,000 at 2:56 p.m. MT. He will have his first rematch against Edwin Kurgat of Iowa State, the NCAA Cross Country Champion, as well as be up against Paul Kipngetich Tanui of Kenya (four-time global medalist), US Olympian Hassan Mead and former NCAA Champ Justyn Knight.

Shortly after that, Jones will line up in the New York Road Runners Women's Wanamaker mile at 3:33 p.m. The defending Wanamaker champion and bronze medalist in the 5,000-meters at the World Championships this year, Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany is slated to start, along with Canadian Gabriela DeBues-Stafford and 2018 NCAA Indoor mile champion Elinor Purrier. She will also see the 2019 NCAA 1,500-meter champion Sinclaire Johnson.

Both individuals are on watch lists for the Bowerman, with Jones on the list and Klecker being mentioned in additional athletes to watch. Both are also listed as the top distance athlete in the nation according to The Stride Report. The CU men are ranked 14th in the nation overall with Klecker's mile as the top mark, while Jones' 800 mark is second and the women are 15th as a team.

Both events will be nationally televised on NBC beginning at 2 p.m. MT. Live results and start lists can be found here.

The rest of the squad will either take the weekend off in preparation for next weekend or compete at the Colorado Running Company Mountain Lion Open at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. The entire throws group, as well as hurdler Kellen Monestime, will compete this weekend in Colorado Springs.
"
______________________________________________________________________________

Edit - live results link for the Colorado Springs meet - http://www.rapidresultslive.com/2020/MountainLionOpen/
 
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As I noted a few posts up (#50), the venerable Millrose Games is now being televised on NBC, and Joe Klecker's 3000M race is now a minute or two away from starting, with Dani Jones then scheduled to start her mile race ~3:33 MT. A few notable times they may be looking at, from the CU indoor record books:
  • Joe Klecker is currently listed #5 in Buff history with a 7:51.43. The Buff indoor record is 7:46.03, held by Adam Goucher (from 1998).
  • Dani Jones is already #3 in the indoor mile Buff record book at 4:31.82. Jenny Simpson holds the Buff AND NCAA record at 4:25.91 (in 2009).
 
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Don't know for sure what his goal(s) may have been, but have to think a VERY good race for Joe Klecker, as he has a ferocious finish (per the splits, he was in 9th with 200M to go) to finish 2nd overall (behind only a pro), and he becomes the #2 all-time fastest Buff at the distance with a 7:47.57.
(2019 NCAA cross country champion and considered a/ the major rival for this year's NCAA Championships, Edward Kurgat from Iowa State, finished in 5th at 7:49.19.)
 
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The women's mile was one of those races where the pro's went out so fast (the American Record was set by the winner) she wasn't on camera much after the start, but Dani Jones easily becomes the 2nd fastest Buff ever (~2 seconds ahead of great Emma Coburn) with a personal best 4:27.88 while finishing in 7th overall. That's almost 2 seconds faster than the fastest NCAA time this year, as well as (for reference only) >1-1/2 seconds faster than the fastest qualifying time from last season.

 
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