2010 Ohio State Men's Track and Field

[bkochmc]

The Buckeyes ended their National Championships on a high note after some disappointments.

Jeff See finished 5th in the 1500m with a time of 3:48.37. The winner, Andrew Wheating of Oregon, finished in 3:47.94 so it looked like a very tactical race and ended with who had the best kick. I didn't see the race but looking at the times if the pace was 3-5 seconds faster See's typical kick may have had more of an effect.

In a nice surprise Matt DeChant finished 8th in the shot put with a throw of 18.54m (60' 10").

Team scores of note... Top 10 plus Big Ten and future Big Ten schools:
1. Texas A&M - 55
2. Florida - 49
3. Oregon - 45
4. Arizona State - 37
5. Southern California - 35.5
6. LSU - 34
7. Kansas - 26
8. Stanford - 22
9. Virginia Tech - 20.5
10. South Carolina - 20
18. Indiana - 13.5
19. Wisconsin - 12
21. Penn State - 11
21. Nebraska - 11
26. Illinois - 10
42. Ohio State - 5
58. Iowa - 2

Of note: Michigan - 0

 

[LitlBuck]

1. Texas A&M - 55
2. Florida - 49

thank goodness for that or Gator would be all over this threadand whatever happened to that SEC speed

 

[bkochmc]

thank goodness for that or Gator would be all over this threadand whatever happened to that SEC speed

Well, if the rumors that Texas A&M is going to the SEC hold true...

And I want to make a small correction... earlier in the thread I said that Florida was on track to defend their national title... Texas A&M won the title last year so they successfully defended their title this year. I confused Florida's indoor title earlier this year with an outdoor title last year. Also of note, the Texas A&M women also won the title for the 2nd year in a row, both teams have done it with dominating sprints.

 

[bkochmc]

Awesome idea by Mississippi State...

MSU will host SEC/Big Ten Challenge - The Dispatch

MSU will host SEC/Big Ten Challenge
David Miller (contact)
June 15, 2010 11:39:00 AM

STARKVILLE -- For the past three years, the Carl Maddox Track facility at Mississippi State has been dormant.

Aside from practice, the Bulldogs haven't hosted the Jace Lacoste Invitational and Bulldog Invitational. Their facility needed a facelift to attract teams, and with Mississippi State's $3.2 million renovation the Bulldogs will host three spring meets in 2011.

Home meets were anticipated once ground broke two months ago, and Monday the program announced the start of the SEC/Big Ten Track and Field Challenge, which will be held at MSU on March 26.

The meet, which will be the first on Mississippi State's new nine-lane, resurfaced track, pits MSU, Kentucky, Florida and Ole Miss against Indiana, Michigan, Purdue and Ohio State.

Mississippi State coach Al Schmidt came up with the concept in December, hoping to bring an exciting meet to MSU that kept alive the true nature of team competition.

Most meets outside of NCAA regionals and championships don't keep team scores, instead awarding individual medals.

The SEC/Big Ten Challenge will score the best four finishers from each event after seeding the top four times from each conference.

Schmidt picked the current field of teams to maximize the strengths of each school in an effort to have a complete meet. He hopes the solid jumpers from Ole Miss and half-milers from Kentucky can combine with the sprint powers of Florida and MSU to top the Big Ten's strongest programs.

"I think it's going to produce some great times and great competitions," Schmidt said. "Indiana is a top 20 team and Ohio State was second in the conference this year. All of those schools are phenomenal, and we will have every event covered.

Cont...

I think the Big Ten gets it handed to them in this meet... The Big Ten should have an small advantage in a majority of field events and most of the distance events but they can't come close to matching up with SEC sprinters. With that said this meet a great way for athletes of those schools to get some early season competition in some better weather than what Ohio, Indiana and Michigan can provide against some quality competition.

 

[stkoran]

Regarding the 4x4:

I haven't seen the race, but I doubt poor handoffs hand much impact on the result, more likely than not just a bad race. Probably a lot of nerves, being the first time at nationals for the whole team besides Murdaugh. While their time was much worse than at the preliminary rounds, the weather conditions were much different, and all of the preliminary 4x4 times were slower than at the preliminary rounds. OSU's heat was won in 3:06.00, by the eventual national champions Texas A&M, so in that regard, OSU wasn't going to run any faster than 3:06, so comparing it to the 3:03 of two weeks ago is inappropriate. The key here is that Woodward and Smith weren't able to keep OSU close to the lead group in the heat and left Robinson and Murdaugh out in no mans land, where it is much harder to run fast. Texas Tech came through two legs in 1:32.72, A&M in 1:32.78, Iowa in 1:33.16, and George Mason in 1:34.25. Baylor was the only team OSU was close to at this points, coming through in 1:34.93 to OSU's 1:35.29. However, Baylor's Michael Liggins dropped a 45.49 on their 3rd leg, a pace Robinson couldn't hope to keep up with, so he really was just out there by himself. Mason's third leg even ran 45.94, so no ground to be made up there, either. Robinson split a 47.08, not a great performance, but one to be expected on a day that is a little slow, with no one to run with, probably a bit deflated at being in 6th place after running so well at the previous meet. Murdaugh gamely closed it out in 45.86, and perhaps had more in the tank, but he would have had to have run 44.2 for the Bucks to advance, and that just wasn't going to happen.

I don't know if Woodward, Smith, or both ran the poor leg(s), but in a championship setting, one leg can really make or break the entire relay. Once you fall off the pace, it's very hard to get back on it unless your next leg is clearly superior to the opposing teams', something that is rare in a meet of this caliber. Perhaps had Murdaugh run 3rd, he could have run with Liggins, dropped a 45 flat or so, and put Robinson in position to gut it out to advance. But with the order being the reverse, it was all but over.

As for Jeff See, another very solid championship performance. Was hoping he'd get top 4, as that would be best placing ever, but 5th is very strong, finishing just 0.44 off of the win, finishing with the 3rd best final lap of the field in 53.99, and running the final 800 in 1:51.2. Here's the video of the race:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_do7zNgXOY]YouTube - 2010 NCAA Track and Field Championships: Oregon Sweeps Men's 1500 Meters[/ame]

Very glad to see Jeff run well after his sub-par showing at Big Tens in this event. I'd never really seen him tie up like he did in that race - no such issue here.

And a big congratulations to Matt DeChant for stepping up large on the biggest stage, tying his PR and recording his best throw by far of the outdoor season to place 8th, score a point, and pick up his second AA award of the year (and only a sophomore!).

I'll also point out that Thomas Murdaugh was named the Great Lakes Region Men's Track Athlete of the Year. The article is here:

Murdaugh Named Great Lakes Region Track Athlete of the Year - The Ohio State Buckeyes Official Athletics Site - OhioStateBuckeyes.com

While I'm very happy for Thomas to get this award (he also was the indoor recipient), I am a bit surprised that he won. Personally, I think that Jeff See was more deserving after the fabulous season he had, with the Big Ten 1500 being his only blemish. While Thomas placed higher in the 400 at Big Tens, he also didn't run well there, and the even was much much much easier than the 1500. I would have also probably have given the award to Andrew Poore of Indiana (B10 champ 5k, runner-up steeple (could have won, let teammate win)) over Murdaugh as well. If the award was given out post nationals, Jack Bolas of Wisconsin (B10 champ 1500, 4th in the same at nationals) should probably have won (or Jeff), but being that its given out after the conference meets are over, his win in a low key 800 and the B10 1500 title being his only races of the year at that point probably wasn't enough to win.

 

[bkochmc]

See to Compete at USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships This Weekend - The Ohio State Buckeyes Official Athletics Site - OhioStateBuckeyes.com

See to Compete at USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships This Weekend

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Five-time Ohio State All-American Jeff See will represent the Buckeyes at the 2010 USA Track and Field Championships this weekend at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa - the same track where he and his teammates ran a world-best time in the 4x800m relay back in April.

But this time, See will compete in the 1500m run, with the prelims scheduled for 6:25 p.m. CT Friday. If he advances, he will run in the finals at 2:40 p.m. CT Sunday. See has a season-best time of 3:40.95 in the event.

See, who recently earned his bachelor's degree in marketing June 13, solidified himself as one of the top distance runners in Ohio State history. The Middletown, Ohio, native claimed four outdoor All-America honors and one indoor All-America honor in the mile run where he also was a two-time Big Ten champion in the event. He finished fifth at the NCAA championships in the 1500m earlier this month, marking the third-consecutive season See has finished in the Top 6 in the 1500m at the championships.

A complete television listing for all four days of the event is listed below.

On TV: (all times central)
ESPN, June 25 8-10 p.m.
ESPN, June 26 1-2:30 p.m.
NBC, June 26 3-4 p.m.
ESPN, June 27 1-2:30 p.m.
NBC, June 27 3-4 p.m.