A few notes on this Sunday evening…
The USTFCCCA has put together a wonderful National College Championships page, with all the links and info you need for the NCAA’s three divisions as well as the NAIA. If you care about college track at all, you want to bookmark it.
Track and Field News just released updated formcharts for the Division I championships, one each for men and for women.
You can argue about their specific picks for each event, as no one really has a crystal ball. But I think it’s pretty clear that both team titles are three-way battles. For the women it’s Texas A&M, LSU and Oregon; for the men it’s Florida, Florida State and Texas A&M.
I’m a big-time cheerleader for my hometown of Toledo, and the northwest Ohio area has an unusually high number of athletes who have qualified for the NCAA prelims. They are:
Erik Kynard (Tol. Rogers / Kansas State), the prohibitive NCAA Championships favorite in the high jump
Gray Horn (Waynesfield-Goshen / Florida), picked for 3rd in the NCAA Championships decathlon by TFN
Justin Welch (Pemberville Eastwood / Georgia), picked for 5th in the NCAA Championships hammer by TFN
Corey Leslie (Sandusky Perkins / Ohio State), picked for 7th in the NCAA Championships steeplechase by TFN
Cody Riffle (Tol. St. John’s / Michigan), a likely NCAA Championships qualifier in the shot and/or discus
Erin Pendleton (Elmore Woodmore / Michigan), a likely NCAA Championships qualifier in the discus
Bo Waggoner (Maumee / Duke), in the 10,000m
Korbin Smith (Delta / Ohio State), in the long jump and 4×400
Heath Nickles (Columbus Grove / Ohio State), in the pole vault
Princeton Bryson (Tol. Bowsher / Kent State), in the 4×400
Courtney Siebenaller (Tol. Whitmer / Dayton), in the pole vault
Shatora Lewis (Tol. Scott / Michigan State), in the shot put
Emma Kertesz (Tol. Central Catholic / Toledo), in the steeplechase
And in the “local news does something right” department, the Lima News has a piece on champion decathletes Gray Horn and Heath Nickles. And local radio interviewed Horn, beginning at about 7 minutes into this show.