Day 2 Preview - Women
Today it's the ladies turn on the track! While our Aggie men took care of business yesterday sending 12 athletes to the quarterfinals tomorrow and with one athlete punching his ticket to the National Finals in Eugene, Oregon. The same events as yesterday will be on deck for the women! We'll have a few field event athletes looking to qualify as well a bunch of runners trying to make it to Saturday's quarterfinal for the women!
Our women's team does not have the depth the men's team has so it's important we get as many girls as we can to the next round. Our women's team has some heavy hitters in our sprinting duo of Camryn Dickson and Jasmine Montgomery, one of the best multi's in Sofia Iakushina (who isn't competing this weekend), one of the best triple jumpers in Winny Bii, one of the best high hurdlers in Jaiya Covington, two solid relays and a few other solid field event athletes and a solid steeple duo in Debora Cherono and Kennady Fontenot. So we have to make sure the runners can get through! Winny Bii and Abigail Martin will contest their field events Saturday as is when the steeple will take place.
Women's Javelin - 2:30
Two Aggie throwers will kick things off today in Ana De La Garza and McKenzie Fairchild! It will be hard not having McKenzie's older sister Katelyn compete as her season never began due to an injury and we also lost Lianna Davidson a 2 time ncaa silver medalist who transferred to Georgia. McKenzie comes in ranked 11th and had a great conference meet. She's definitely capable of advancing for the first time, so let's stay tuned for that! De La Garza is the daughter of Aggie throws coach Chico De La Garza. She made a huge jump this year as a junior! Should be a fun competition to follow!
Women's Pole Vault - 5:30
The second field event that an Aggie is in today is the pole vault! School record holder and senior Heather Abadie will compete today in hopes of returning back to the national finals. Abadie's best is 14'5 and last year 14'1 is what it took to advance. So Heather needs to be near her best and not have any slip ups. Aside from Solovev our guys struggled in the pole vault so hopefully Heather can have a great day! This event might be worth the price of admission getting to watch the Moll sisters of Washington who have bests of 15'8 and 15'3! There's 4 15 foot vaulters in this competition. The competition is a little more stiff than last year. Abadie is ranked 12th.
Women's Shot Put - 6:00
Our last field event will be the women's shot put. Here we'll have Carlie Weiser in the second flight! Her best this season is 52'10 but she threw over 53 feet last year. The last flight will be fireworks with a bunch of heavy hitters who have PR's near 60 feet or over including Brock Lesnar's daughter Mya who has a throw of 64'3!
Women's 100 Hurdles - 6:00
To get things started on the track, we'll have the 60 Hurdle NCAA Champion Jaiya Covington contesting the 100 hurdles as well as Jasmine Harmon! Covington comes in with the 4th best time in the country and 2nd in this region! Jasmine Harmon is sitting close to the qualifying bubble at 18th so a good run for her can get her through! The hurdles can be tricky as there are 10 barriers in between them and the finish line so let's hope for a clean race and two Aggies advancing!
Women's 1500 - 6:30
Now this might be the most competitive event this weekend with some heavy hitters, but it's also an event that had many girls drop in favor of the steeple, 5000 or 10000. This allowed Elise Smoot to qualify her senior year and she is well deserving of it! She's made huge strides her few years here in Aggieland and it's fitting she gets to compete once more! She will be in the third heat and like we saw with the men, it's more about strategic racing and a strong kick! So let's hope Smoot can get top 5 in this heat! Last year the women took the pace out really fast compared to what the men did yesterday, let's see what they do this year.
Women's 100 - 7:00
A huge event for the Aggies as our sprinting duo of Camryn Dickson and Jasmine Montgomery will contest this race as well as Bria Bullard! If we want to make noise at nationals Dickson and Montgomery are a huge part of that equation. They are ranked 3rd and 11th in the region. Although I think they are stronger in the 200, they can certainly fight to score in the 100. They should easily advance through today!
Women's 400 - 7:25
After the 100 we have the women's 400. This group isn't a strength like it has been for so long. It's been a strange year for this group as none aside from the freshman have had a personal best all season long. You see it a couple atheltes on a start list, but it's kinda hard to see all 3 of our upperclassmen haven't had a great year. Hopefully they've saved the best race for this weekend! Latasha Smith has ran a 51.21 in the past and comes in ranked 12th with her seasons best. She has the best shot of advancing. Kennedy Wade is in her heat and needs to run her best to get 3rd behind Smith and Olympian, Kaylyn Brown of Arkansas. Jaydan Wood is in a tougher heat, but is a whole second behind her best this year. Tyler Lowe is a freshman competing and ranked 45th. I hope Smith, Wade, and Wood can get through today to give themselves a chance Saturday!!
Women's 200 - 8:45
Another event with Montgomery and Dickson and it's their strongest one. Both should smoothly qualify to Saturday as they are ranked 1st and 4th in the region and 2nd and 5th in the country! Montgomery has a really easy heat and should walk to a heat win, Dickson should be running closely with a USC girl and TCU girl, but should have no problem advancing and winning the heat is she chooses to do so.
Women's 10000 - 9:10
The final event of today is a 25 lap affair and redshirt freshman Megan Roberts will contest the race! Her stellar year and ultimately the breakout athlete of the entire team has led her to the ncaa championship prelims in a race that is always loaded and competitive. Competing on the west regional side you have to go against distance powerhouses of BYU, NAU, New Mexico, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Utah, Wisconsin and others! Lots of these schools are loaded primarily on the distance side and have the advantage of altitude training! Coming to a flat place like College Station should feel a lot easier but this time of year humidity is the enemy! Maybe that'll give Roberts an advantage! She comes in ranked 26th and had a great conference meet in the 5k/10k! I'm excited to see what she'll do! In only one year she's had such a great season and although the next 3 years will only be higher, I can't wait to see her compete this weekend!
Today it's the ladies turn on the track! While our Aggie men took care of business yesterday sending 12 athletes to the quarterfinals tomorrow and with one athlete punching his ticket to the National Finals in Eugene, Oregon. The same events as yesterday will be on deck for the women! We'll have a few field event athletes looking to qualify as well a bunch of runners trying to make it to Saturday's quarterfinal for the women!
Our women's team does not have the depth the men's team has so it's important we get as many girls as we can to the next round. Our women's team has some heavy hitters in our sprinting duo of Camryn Dickson and Jasmine Montgomery, one of the best multi's in Sofia Iakushina (who isn't competing this weekend), one of the best triple jumpers in Winny Bii, one of the best high hurdlers in Jaiya Covington, two solid relays and a few other solid field event athletes and a solid steeple duo in Debora Cherono and Kennady Fontenot. So we have to make sure the runners can get through! Winny Bii and Abigail Martin will contest their field events Saturday as is when the steeple will take place.
Women's Javelin - 2:30
Two Aggie throwers will kick things off today in Ana De La Garza and McKenzie Fairchild! It will be hard not having McKenzie's older sister Katelyn compete as her season never began due to an injury and we also lost Lianna Davidson a 2 time ncaa silver medalist who transferred to Georgia. McKenzie comes in ranked 11th and had a great conference meet. She's definitely capable of advancing for the first time, so let's stay tuned for that! De La Garza is the daughter of Aggie throws coach Chico De La Garza. She made a huge jump this year as a junior! Should be a fun competition to follow!
Women's Pole Vault - 5:30
The second field event that an Aggie is in today is the pole vault! School record holder and senior Heather Abadie will compete today in hopes of returning back to the national finals. Abadie's best is 14'5 and last year 14'1 is what it took to advance. So Heather needs to be near her best and not have any slip ups. Aside from Solovev our guys struggled in the pole vault so hopefully Heather can have a great day! This event might be worth the price of admission getting to watch the Moll sisters of Washington who have bests of 15'8 and 15'3! There's 4 15 foot vaulters in this competition. The competition is a little more stiff than last year. Abadie is ranked 12th.
Women's Shot Put - 6:00
Our last field event will be the women's shot put. Here we'll have Carlie Weiser in the second flight! Her best this season is 52'10 but she threw over 53 feet last year. The last flight will be fireworks with a bunch of heavy hitters who have PR's near 60 feet or over including Brock Lesnar's daughter Mya who has a throw of 64'3!
Women's 100 Hurdles - 6:00
To get things started on the track, we'll have the 60 Hurdle NCAA Champion Jaiya Covington contesting the 100 hurdles as well as Jasmine Harmon! Covington comes in with the 4th best time in the country and 2nd in this region! Jasmine Harmon is sitting close to the qualifying bubble at 18th so a good run for her can get her through! The hurdles can be tricky as there are 10 barriers in between them and the finish line so let's hope for a clean race and two Aggies advancing!
Women's 1500 - 6:30
Now this might be the most competitive event this weekend with some heavy hitters, but it's also an event that had many girls drop in favor of the steeple, 5000 or 10000. This allowed Elise Smoot to qualify her senior year and she is well deserving of it! She's made huge strides her few years here in Aggieland and it's fitting she gets to compete once more! She will be in the third heat and like we saw with the men, it's more about strategic racing and a strong kick! So let's hope Smoot can get top 5 in this heat! Last year the women took the pace out really fast compared to what the men did yesterday, let's see what they do this year.
Women's 100 - 7:00
A huge event for the Aggies as our sprinting duo of Camryn Dickson and Jasmine Montgomery will contest this race as well as Bria Bullard! If we want to make noise at nationals Dickson and Montgomery are a huge part of that equation. They are ranked 3rd and 11th in the region. Although I think they are stronger in the 200, they can certainly fight to score in the 100. They should easily advance through today!
Women's 400 - 7:25
After the 100 we have the women's 400. This group isn't a strength like it has been for so long. It's been a strange year for this group as none aside from the freshman have had a personal best all season long. You see it a couple atheltes on a start list, but it's kinda hard to see all 3 of our upperclassmen haven't had a great year. Hopefully they've saved the best race for this weekend! Latasha Smith has ran a 51.21 in the past and comes in ranked 12th with her seasons best. She has the best shot of advancing. Kennedy Wade is in her heat and needs to run her best to get 3rd behind Smith and Olympian, Kaylyn Brown of Arkansas. Jaydan Wood is in a tougher heat, but is a whole second behind her best this year. Tyler Lowe is a freshman competing and ranked 45th. I hope Smith, Wade, and Wood can get through today to give themselves a chance Saturday!!
Women's 200 - 8:45
Another event with Montgomery and Dickson and it's their strongest one. Both should smoothly qualify to Saturday as they are ranked 1st and 4th in the region and 2nd and 5th in the country! Montgomery has a really easy heat and should walk to a heat win, Dickson should be running closely with a USC girl and TCU girl, but should have no problem advancing and winning the heat is she chooses to do so.
Women's 10000 - 9:10
The final event of today is a 25 lap affair and redshirt freshman Megan Roberts will contest the race! Her stellar year and ultimately the breakout athlete of the entire team has led her to the ncaa championship prelims in a race that is always loaded and competitive. Competing on the west regional side you have to go against distance powerhouses of BYU, NAU, New Mexico, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Utah, Wisconsin and others! Lots of these schools are loaded primarily on the distance side and have the advantage of altitude training! Coming to a flat place like College Station should feel a lot easier but this time of year humidity is the enemy! Maybe that'll give Roberts an advantage! She comes in ranked 26th and had a great conference meet in the 5k/10k! I'm excited to see what she'll do! In only one year she's had such a great season and although the next 3 years will only be higher, I can't wait to see her compete this weekend!
