Success!

It was a windy day, but overall it was successful for the MU Track and field team. We were looking to host a meet that would be a good final prep for the BIG EAST Conference meet and the Twilight meet was just that. In most events the wind affected the performance in terms of times, heights and distances. Our goal, however, was to COMPETE to the best of our ability in whatever conditions that are in the way. That is exactly what we will be up against next weekend at the BIG EAST meet. We need to compete to the best of our ability to score points and place as high as we can as a team.

There was a palpable level of excitement in practice this past week. I think the seniors were especially pumped to compete in the first home meet of their Marquette careers. At the meet I saw fire in the eyes of all those in MU blue and gold. I think the results say it all – we won 17 events.


Though there weren’t a ton of PRs (primarily due to the weather), there were a couple of notable performances….

Rachel Thiel, SO: Shot Put – 48-5.5, 1st place, #2 in school history, facility record, improves her NCAA Regional qualifying mark.

Tyler O’Brien, FR: 100m – 10.55, 1st place, #2 in school history, US Junior National qualifying mark, it would have been a NCAA Regional mark but the wind was over the limit (No wind requirement for JR Nationals). Here is the video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q35d1vwL03U

Carrie Schmid, JR: Pole Vault – 11-7.75, 1st place, facility record. Carrie is currently on a 3-meet winning streak.

Jon Kusowski, FR: Hammer – 161-0, After several weeks inching closer to the BIG EAST qualifying mark, Jon hit it on his first throw!

Here is a link to some pictures courtesy of Eric Vanden Eykel, enjoy! CLICK HERE

MARQUETTE TWILIGHT!
Saturday April 26, 2008

After 6 years track and field is returning to the Menomonee Valley in the form of the Marquette Twilight. After resurfacing the track two summers ago we were set to host the Marquette Invitational last season when we were forced to cancel it due to an untimely April snowstorm. No snow is in the forecast this year as we prep for the Twilight meet. The reason for the Twilight meet you may ask? There is a better chance of calmer winds in the evening. Looking ahead at the forecast, I hope that this holds true! I am sure most of you who have trained at Valley Fields know what the winds can be like.

Field events start at 1:00pm with the Hammer at the MU Throws Field. The rest of the field events start in the Valley at 4:00pm. Running events start at 5:00pm. You can check out http://www.gomarquette.com/ for all the details including meet schedule, heat-sheets, etc. I hope to see many of you tomorrow down in the valley!

Stanford / Purdue
(picture of Randey Fisher handing off toTom Cassady in the 4x400 at Purdue)

In our first split-squad action of the outdoor season we sent a small group to Stanford University while the rest of the team competed at Purdue. The overall highlight of the weekend was Jayne Grebinski’s terrific school record and NCAA Regional qualifying 5000m at Stanford on Friday night. Coach Nelson took the group that also included Brice Cleland (10k), Scott Mueller (10K), Anna Weber (10k), Kaitlyn Chambers (1500m) and Eric Meissner (800m). According to Coach Nelson, Jayne’s race was almost perfect in it’s set-up. The weather and competition were ideal for fast times, and Jayne was ready to compete.

On the season now, we have qualified five women to the NCAA regional meet. That is the most in school history for the women’s team!

The rest of the team headed to Purdue for the Mike Poehlein Invitational. The meet is named for the longtime, now retired, Purdue head coach. I have had the pleasure of meeting Coach Poehlein on a couple of occasions through one of my mentors Coach Irv Ray. Coach Poehlein is definitely a class act!

Year in and year out the weather at Purdue is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. This year we got a caramel-filled chocolate (my favorite!) in that we had almost perfect weather conditions. Low 60s, sunny and no wind provided the perfect backdrop to a Saturday afternoon track & field meet.

As a team, we competed well. We are at the point of the year where we are just finishing up our last major phase of heavy training as we begin to get ready for the stretch run to conference and regionals. That said, we placed well and had some nice performances, but we didn’t see that big breakthrough performance that we should start to see in the upcoming meets with an eye on being in top form for the BIG EAST Conference meet and the NCAA Regional.

Here is a recap of this week’s highlights:

NCAA Regional Qualifier:
Jayne Grebinski (SO): 5000m – 16:46.95 – School Record!

BIG EAST Qualifiers:

Jenna Mahaffey (SR) (pictured throwing the hammer): Shot Put – 43’7”
Jessi Ehlen (SR): Discus – 138’0” Improves her previous BEQ.
Mike Boedeker (SR): Discus – 162’0” – Improves his previous BEQ.

Raymond Bratchett (SR) (picture above): High Jump – 6’7.5” Improves his previous BEQ. Best outdoor jump since 2006.
Mike Heim (SR): Discus – 146’2”
Keith Jameson (JR): Hammer – 159’0”
Jeff Kluge (JR) (pictured throwing the shot): Hammer – 160’9” PR!
Michael O’Brien (SO): 400 Hurdles – 55.04 – Improves his previous BEQ.

Other Notables:

Rachel Thiel (pictured above) won the women’s shot put with a throw over the NCAA Regional qualifying mark, however, she has thrown further earlier this season.
Jed Burey (pictured above) made his first appearance of the season (indoor or outdoor) and finished 2nd in the 800m with a time of 1:54.86. Jed had surgery on his ankle this winter after a terrific fall training season. The key to his strong initial outing was that he had developed a huge aerobic base over the summer and fall that he was able to maintain through his rehab from surgery.
Alyssa Davis jumped 36’4” in the triple jump to place her #10 in MU History.
Katlin Millin placed first in the 800m.

Other Pictures from Purdue:Kyle Saginus (SR) Liz Wilkie (JR)Brittany Rhett (SO) Lana Rabas (SR)

Catching Up

Wow, we are already two meets into the season and there is so much to tell!

Arizona State (3/22 2008):

We had an extra long spring break this year as Easter Break and Spring Break ran together, so we decided to take a week long training trip to Arizona and take advantage of the excellent weather and get in some solid training and good competition.

We flew out Monday morning April 17th and arrived in Phoenix with no travel difficulty. After grabbing our bags we headed to the hotel in Tempe to check in, change into some warm-weather clothes and head out for some lunch. Following lunch the team had a little time to relax before we headed to a local park to get in an easy workout to shakeout some of the stiffness lingering from the flight. Monday evening we headed to Coach Nelson’s aunt and uncle’s house, who live in Phoenix, for a big cookout. What an awesome cookout is was! The team really had a good time as Coach Nelson’s Uncle Bob grilled a ton of burgers and Aunt Mandee cooked lasagna.
On Tuesday we headed to practice in the morning. We trained every day at Mesa Community College. The throwers would generally head out early, usually 7:30 or 8:00am and the rest of team would follow at 9:00am. After practice, about half the group headed off to hike up Squaw Peak. What started off to be a rough trail ended up as a small rock climbing expedition. It took most of the group between 45min and 1 hour to make it to the top. The views were beautiful, and what a hike!

Wednesday morning saw the distance crew head out early for a trip to Flagstaff for a little trail running at altitude. The sprinters and jumpers had a quick practice at the track and followed the distance crew up to Flagstaff a couple hours later to meet up and continue on to the Grand Canyon. What a cool trip! The drive to itself was pretty impressive an scenic as we went from the desert through the mountains and onto the Grand Canyon. I think most of the group was impressed and surprised how the topography changed so rapidly. We spent a few hours at the Grand Canyon.

We have a few thrill seekers who decided to do some amateur rock climbing by climbing our onto some of the rock formations. I am happy to say everyone made it back safely!
Thursday brought our warmest day yet and our last major day of practice. Most of the afternoon was spent relaxing. Most of the team was either swimming/sunbathing by the pool or watching the NCAA Basketball tournament on TV.

Thursday evening we headed to Surprise, AZ for the Brewers spring training game against the Royals. Though the Brewers lost, it was still a fun time and a couple members of the team came home with baseballs.

Friday morning was a quick shakeout workout as most of the team was getting ready to compete on Saturday. The hammer throw was contested Friday night and the rest of meet got underway on Saturday afternoon. The meet saw terrific performances across the board. Many of them would be enough to highlight an individual meet, but the right combination of good competition, favorable weather, and solid preparation combined to result in good stuff.

Here is a recap:

NCAA Regional Qualifiers (also BIG EAST qualifiers):

Erynn James, SO: High Jump – 5’8.75” PR, #2 all-time
Cassie Peller, SR: 1500m – 4:25.85
Carrie Schmid, JR: Pole Vault – 12’7.5” PR, School Record!
Rachel Thiel, SO: Shot Put – 47’9” PR, #2 all-time

US Junior National Qualifiers:

Kristin Pelzel, FR: 3000m – 10:08.33 PR
Peter Bolgert, FR: 3000m Steeplechase – 9:31.53 PR

Big East Qualifiers:
Catherine Benage, FR: Javelin – 124’2” PR, #3 all-time
Kelly Corcoran, SO: Hammer – 164’6” PR, #7 all-time
Jessi Ehlen, SR: Hammer – 173’10”, Discus: 135’10”
Kelly Magennis, SO: Javelin – 124’6”
Rachel Thiel, SO: Hammer – 153’8” PR, #8 all-time, Discus – 133’8”
Liz Wilkie, JR: Pole Vault – 11’1.75”
Men’s 4x100m Relay – 41.62 School Record! (Antonio Jones, Tyler O’Brien, Nick Van Deraa, Raymond Bratchett)
Nick Byom, FR: High Jump – 6’6.75” PR, #5 all-time
Raymond Bratchett, SR: High Jump – 6’6.75”
Mike Boedeker, SR: Hammer – 165’10” PR, #9 all-time, Discus – 157’8”
Jeff Kluge, JR: Hammer – 159’7” PR, Discus – 145’2”
Mark Kopecki, JR: 3000m Steeplechase – 9:24.83 PR
Eric Meissner, JR: 800m – 1:52.11 PR
Tyler O’Brien, FR: 100m – 10.97 PR
Nick Van Deraa, SR: Pole Vault – 14’9”

Other notable performances:
Alyssa Davis, FR: Triple Jump – 35’11.5” #10 all-time
Robert Bleem, FR: Javelin – 174’4” #4 all-time
Dolan Schmidt, SO: Pole Vault – 14’0.5” #7 all-time

Missouri Relays (3/28 – 3/29 2008):

The Missouri Relays were a reality check for the team as we returned to the cool spring in the Midwest. The large 2-day meet featured over 1600 athletes in college, high school, and elite divisions. Despite the cool temperatures, the team really stepped up and competed well. In many cases the weather negatively affected the performances, but our team came to compete and compete they did. We had several victories and people place high in both the university and elite divisions.

Here are the highlights:

Tyler O’Brien, FR: Won both the Elite division 200m (21.56) and the University division 400m (49.99). His 200m time of 21.56 was a PR, Freshman record, BIG EAST qualifier, and makes him #3 all-time right behind Ralph Metcalfe on the all-time list. Tyler was the first person to crack the MU Outdoor 200m top ten list in 14 years!

Rachel Thiel, SO: Placed fifth in a stacked women’s Elite division Shot Put improving her NCAA Regional qualifying mark to 48’5”. That is #2 on the all-time list.

Erynn James, SO: Won the women’s High Jump with a jump of 5’8.75”. This equaled her NCAA regional qualifying mark that she initially set at Arizona State. Her first two attempts at 5’10.75 (1.80m) were excellent, actually getting her hips over the bar before brushing it off with her calves on her second attempt.

Jeff Kluge, JR: Won the University division Discus in a season’s best throw of 154’0”… also qualified for the BIG EAST meet in the shot put (48’6”).

Carrie Schmid, JR: Won the women’s Pole Vault with a vault of 12’1.5”. Carrie overcame swirling winds to beat the Kansas jumper on misses.

Eric Matsuzewski, JR: Placed second in the University division Shot Put with a PR throw of 49'2.5"

Sharon Fritz, JR: Placed second in the women’s Triple Jump with a jump of 36’6.5”

Raymond Bratchett, SR: Placed second in the university division 200m running a PR and BIG EAST qualifying time of 21.86. This is Ray’s first time breaking the 22 second barrier in the 200m.

BIG EAST Qualifiers:

Jessi Ehlen, SR: Discus – 137-2
Jenna Mahaffey, SR: Discus – 138-1, Hammer – 160-5
Rachel Thiel, SO: Discus – 135-4
Rob Bleem, FR: Javelin – 179-1 PR (#4 in MU History)
Mike Boedeker, SR: Discus – 158-11 Season’s Best
Peter Bolgert, FR: 1500m – 3:59.97 PR
Mark Kopecki, JR: 1500m – 3:57.63 PR
Michael O’Brien, SO: 400m Hurdles – 55.19… First BIG EAST Qualifier for Mike!