https://ucasports.com/news/2021/12/3/womens-track-and-field-bears-break-5-school-records-at-woo-pig-classic.aspxI was able to be at the meet in Fayetteville.....I would guess most of the athletes that competed were from UCA, UALR and UAPB.....however, pretty good sampling of athletes from Texas A&M, Tulsa and UAF plus some from Ok State, Washington, Minnesota, TCU, Iowa State and numerous unattached former college runners and wannabe pros....for a very early season meet this was pretty good...
The best races (I did not get to see much of the field events) were:
*Men's 600m where a TAM runner ran 1:15+..opened with a 49 400m ..this translates to about a 1:45 800m which is FAST....
* Men's 300m where a TCU runner posted a 33+ clocking which would be about 45 for 400m.....again FAST....
* Men's 5000m where several runners raced in a small pack and seemed to pick the pace up every 200-300m after the first mile until the winner from Tulsa took off with 400m to go and won in 13:40.....very good early time....
* Women's 3000m where a small group raced close together until the winner form Ok State took with 800m left and won in a very nice 8:58..probably a NCAA indoor qualifying time...
* Women's 5000m where a small group from UAF, Washington and Minnesota raced together for about 2 miles then a UAF and Washington runner set a gap on the others and finally with about 1000m to go the UAF runner went off and no ne followed to win in 15:34...Top 4 all under 16 minutes....probably a couple of NCAA qualifying times...
Having said that, the short sprints and hurdles were very competitive with several near qualifying times and a lot of good times....
So, how did UCA do? The UCA news article sums up the meet for both teams but what caught my eye were:
* Jaron Hamilton ran a very nice mile and ended up racing a TAM runner to the end but got 2nd in 4:11.....potential here for a 4:05 indoor mile.....
* Wesley Suen was 15th in the M60 dash but at a fast 6.96.....it usually takes about 6.60 to make NCAAs but this had a lot of good times with 17 under 7.00....Suen will have to knock off a few tenths to get to NCAAs but looking good for ASUM meet....
* Laila Cleare and Kendelle McCoy took 7th and 8th in a stacked W60m dash field and looked very impressive at 7.69 and 7.71...the race was won by former a UAF runner who was All-SEC (and maybe AA) at 7.25...pretty good for two FR!!
* Tristan Lavan was 9th in 1:19.31 for the 600m...about a 1:49 for 800m...excellent for early season indicates maybe very competitive at ASUN.....long shot for NCAAs but not out of reach...
* Jaiden Ventour ran 34.06 in the 300m dash for 6th and a FR Bear ran in the 34s also...these are about 47 for 400m..not going to make NCAAs at that but very good for ASUn and really helpful for 4x400 relay team..
* Tyler Rose was 11th in W300m at 39.79..maybe 54 or better for 400…..3 other SugarBears were in low 41s.....Rose later ran on the 4x400 team that got 5th in 3:48.....she is a smooth 400m runner with power.....3:48 will have to come down but should for ASUN...takes mid 3:30s to get to NCAAs...which is about 52-53 for 400m.....probably a stretch.....
* The top Bears and SugarBears distance runners other than the two in the M1000m did not compete ....however, the 1000m crew was strong....Jesse Applewhite was 12th in 2:28.34 and Niklas Iking 13th in 2:28.68……they came from back to win their heat…..both looked very strong and in control….wish they had been in the following heat with Iowa State and Ok State runners....these times imply about 4:05 for the mile now.....maybe lower with a few more weeks of training....some day we will have a 4 minute miler....
Overall good meet and the Bears and SugarBears competed well against some pretty good SEC and Big 12 athletes....