Ohio State finished in what has to be an extremely disappointing 4th place at the Big Ten Championships. Indiana took 1st with 104 points, Minnesota was 2nd with 100, Nebraska was 3rd with 98, and OSU finished with 94.33. The 4th itself isn't what's so disappointing, it's that the title was right there for the taking, and to be blunt, they blew it. That's not to say there weren't many great Buckeye performances, and credit has to to be given to IU, Minny, and Nebraska, as they all performed very well. But this one really stings.
One note before I look at each event. In my predictions I forgot to account for the fact that the Men's and Women's meets were held at the same site this year. In the past they were separate. This allowed for athletes to run more events than they could in the past due the additional recovery time. Specifically, this helped Minnesota by allowing Abda to run the 400 and 600, as opposed to only one, OSU somewhat by allowing Leslie to run the 800 in addition to the Mile, and Indiana by giving Bayer and Hubers much more recovery time before they 5k. They would have run that anyway, but it would have been much tougher.
60 Meter Dash - 1 Point
This did not go well. To be fair, Blackwell set a PR of 6.75 in the prelims to make the final, which was great. Bogle did not run well and finished 15th after coming in ranked 4th. In the finals something must have happened, because Blackwell ran 7.15, which isn't just a bad race, that's pulling a hamstring, falling out of the blocks, etc. If he would have run 6.75 again he would have placed 3rd and earned 5 more points.
200 Meter Dash - 6 points
Murdaugh took 3rd, as I thought he would, but I assumed he would get beaten by Justin Austin, who pulled out of the final. This was an ok performance for Murdaugh, but I think he's 2nd if he runs well. Batcha ran ok and wasn't expected to make the final. Bogle ran this for the first time and did not do well. Not a disaster, but 2 points were left on the table. Nebraksa and Minnesota both overachieved a bit here, as well.
400 Meter Dash - 6 points
Not good at all. Abda (who won) is very good, but is an 800 guy. You don't expect the two-time defending conference champ to finish 3rd behind a guy who doesn't run the event and a guy he's half a second better than, and nearly finish 4th (only .01 ahead). That they were from Minny and NU didn't help. If Murdaugh wins this OSU finishes 2nd in the meet.
600 Meter Dash - 3 Points
Marvel Brooks was solid here, finishing in 6th place and nearly 5th. Brother Marcus missed the finals after scoring in this event last year, though he hasn't run well all season. This went as expected.
800 Meter Run - 6 Points
This was a mixed bag. Leslie ran great in the prelims and finals, incredibly running the exact same time in both (1:48.42 - a very strong mark). The winner is a returning All-American in the event and the runner up has the second best time in the country, so finishing third, after already running the Mile, was great. The bad news was that White did not run well at all, not coming close to making the final.
1 Mile Run - 11 Points
This went really really really well and was nearly the highlight of the meet. Cory finished an agonizing second place, only .05 seconds behind huge stud Andy Bayer of Indiana and well ahead of the rest of the field, which included multiple sub 4 milers. Fallon finished 6th was the icing on the cake. Fantastic performance from him. After his performance at this meet, I will be shocked if Cory isn't in the hunt for the National title in the mile - he is running that well. I think focusing on the 800 as his secondary event is playing to his strength and really helping this year, as opposed to doing the 3k in the past.
3000 Meter Run - 2 Points
Adam Green has been a great big meet performer and stepped up here again, finishing 7th in a stacked field in a new PR of 8:04. PRing in any championship race is very tough to do, especially one such as this which was very tactical (winner only ran 8:01). Big run for Adam.
5000 Meter Run - 0 Points
Nothing to say here other than that this event needs to be beefed up. Hopefully Bradjic will be strong here in the future.
60 Meter Hurdles - 0 Points
This was a disaster. Andrew Riley is the defending National champ and was clearly going to win. Bogle and Iowa's Jordan Mullen had marks well ahead of the rest of the field and should have battled for 2nd. Mullen ended up not running, leaving Bogle the clear favorite for 2nd place. His worst time this year would have placed him second. But instead he set a new season's worst in the prelims and then got DQd in the finals. This should have been 8 points and ended up a 0. Huge huge turn. I have to wonder if Bogle was sick or injured, because this was a terrible meet for him, and he ran very well at indoor and outdoor B1Gs last year.
4x400 Meter Relay - 10 Points
The team of Antonio Blanks, Marvel Brooks, Korbin Smith, and Thomas Murdaugh won and set a new B1G meet record in 3:08.06, which was fantastic. Great way to overcome the disappointment they had to feeling to get a huge result.
Distance Medley Relay - 5 Points
The DMR team of Josh Sabo, Korbin Smith, Dan White, and Chris Fallon ran 9:48 to finish 4th and just miss the school record. I though OSU would win this even with Cory on the anchor not thinking he would run the 800. But this was a very good effort and points wise this worked out in the end. Assuming OSU wins this but no Leslie in the 800, OSU would have lost 1 point, plus Minny would have gained 2. Not huge, but every point matters.
Pole Vault - 11 Points
This was a very exciting result. Nickles was really struggling in the Hep, and I was not bullish on his PV prospects. But Heath came out and set a PR of 17'5.5" to finish 1st. Big result. Cody Marshall was also solid at 16'9.5" to finish 8th.
High Jump - 0.33 Points
Devin Smith went 6'9.5" to finish in a three-way tie for 8th. Not great, not terrible. I have to assume track is tough right now with all the football training they are doing. Brant Reardon did not place with his 6'7.5", and has really struggled so far.
Long Jump - 9 Points
Well, if it wasn't for Nebraska joining the conference OSU would have finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th here and continued to dominate the conference in the event. Sadly Nebraska went 1-2-4 and knocked OSU down to 5-6-7. McCarty was right where he's been all year at 24'6.5" to take 5th. Hartfield, still clearly recovering from injury (I assume) took 6th in 24'4.25", a foot better than his last time out, so a solid result, just not what was anticipated at the beginning of the season (1st place). Korbin jumped ok (24'3.5") to take 7th.
Triple Jump - 4 Points
Another solid performance from Hartfield (50'7.5") to take 5th. If healthy, he would have been in the running for the win. Losing these points stinks, but injuries happen and for the most part can't be controlled. Props to Mike for working in the right direction and putting up his best marks of the season. Blevins continues to struggle and didn't place.
Shot Put - 0 Points
Disaster. DeChant and Branch took six total throws and fouled 5 times. The one throw DeChant did get off was his worst of the year. If he throws the same as last week, he takes 2nd. A mediocre throw places him 6th and puts OSU in 3rd place in the meet. Uggh.
Weight Throw - 15 Points
While Shot was awful, Weight went great. As I said in my preview, this event was extremely tough, with 9 of the top 21 nationally in the B1G. But the boys showed up here - Mays took 2nd in 69'09", DeChant took 3rd in 69'06" (big props to him for bouncing back like this in an event that has typically been secondary for him), and Bill Gehring snuck in for 8th in 63'03.5". Top point event for the team.
Heptathlon - 5 Points
While none of OSU's three Hep guys had their best performances, this actually went ok. McCarty and Nickles finished behind the three guys who were ranked ahead of them, and then two others competed in their first Hep of the year and finished better than Nickles PR, so what can you do? 6th for McCarty, who will be missed, and 7th for Heath.
What this breakdown demonstrates is that while OSU didn't dominate any event besides maybe Weight, they are very very solid across the board, which was not the case only a few years ago. The only events where no one scored were the 5k, Shot Put, and the 60 Hurdles, and in Shot and 60 Hurdles, OSU has guys who will likley be going to Nationals in those events just completely collapse. 5k was the only "hole," and in this conference you need to have All American type talents to score in that event.
Individually, here's how the points break down:
Murdaugh - 14.5
Leslie - 14
Nickles - 12
Mays - 8
McCarty - 7
Hartfield - 7
DeChant - 6
K. Smith - 5.75
Marvel Brooks - 5.5
Fallon - 4.25
Blanks - 2.5
Green - 2
White - 1.25
Sabo - 1.25
Blackwell - 1
Marshall - 1
Gehring - 1
D. Smith - 0.33
What you will see is that this was a very balanced team. Indiana only scored 9.66 more points than OSU, but look at it's top guys:
Bayer - 26
Butler- 20
Hubers - 15
King - 10
Poore - 8
Olamigoke - 8
That's 87 points for only 6 guys, with 61 from the top 3.
Looking ahead, OSU will be at Notre Dame this weekend for their last chance meet, then off to Nationals. As of now here is how things looks on that front:
IN: Leslie (Mile), DeChant (Weight), Mays (Weight)
LIKELY IN: DeChant (Shot), Bogle (60H), Murdaugh (400), 4x400, Leslie (800, but likely wouldn't run this event)
NEEDS TO IMPROVE: Nickles (Vault needs to get to 17'7.75 minimum, Hep - which won't happen), DMR (if they run the A squad), Hartfield (if he can pop a big jump)
Here are the full results:
http://www.huskers.com/fls/100/trac...?&SPSID=92&DB_LANG=C&&&&SPID=32&DB_OEM_ID=100
I'll get a recruiting update up here soon after Nationals, but immediate recognition needs to go to OSU recruit Donovan Roberton from Berea, OH, who set the National Record for the 60M Hurdles last weekend in a time of 7.57 seconds. Kid is going to be a stud.
