SEC Championships

SEC Championships are up and running and I will send twitter updates from the track.
DAY 2- Fantastic day at the track for the Auburn distance group. It started out with the 1500m and in both the men’s and women’s race qualifying was top 4 in each heat plus the next four fastest times. Felix and Julian both auto qualifed for the men’s 1500m final on Sunday with Felix winning his race and Julian finishing 4th in his. Jeff Sanders came up just short finishing 5th in the first section and being the first runner out of the final.
Next up was the women’s 1500 and Amber and Sabrina were in the first section. In a brilliant performance Sabrina finished 3rd and Amber 4th with both running 4:28. Two hours later Amber came back and gave a gutsy performance to finish 5th in the steeple and earn a valuable 4 points for the team.
In the men’s steeplechase Scott Novack had monster run to finish 3rd and crush the 9 minute mark by running 8:53 and picking up 6 very important team points.

DAY 1
First night is done and it went well with us scoring 14 points between the men’s and women’s 10,000m
The night started off with Julian running a new pr of 1:50.22 finishing 4th in his heat and just missing the final. Julian is back at it today in the 1500 as is Sabrina who was also 4th in her section in 2:11.
Then it was the men’s 10,000m and Girma and JP came out with 13 points. After 9000 meters of jogging and 8 guys together the race got serious with Scott Macpherson of Arkansas going to the front and quickly it was him, JP, Tyson David and Girma all alone and racing to the line. In the end after laying it all out over a ferocious last 400 meters Girma finished 2nd and Jp 4th. Great result for us.

Then it was to the final race of the night the women’s 10,000 and Laurel, Allison and Cathryn lined up. After a very fast start that saw laurel in the lead pack at 6:46 through 2000m. The race turned tactical and surges were a plenty. At the end of the night Laurel walked away in 8th and a very important point in the team race. Allison and Cathryn in their first ever 10,000’s hung tough for 12th and 16th place.

Up today 1500 prelims and Steeple finals

Oregon and Penn Relays

A solid weekend of racing at Penn and Oregon. Thursday night at Penn, Laurel Pritchard finished 4th in the 10,000m in 35:00.56 just missing the NCAA provisional mark by .56 of a second. To finish 4th at such a prestigious meet was a good step as we get prepared for the SEC championships.
At the Oregon relays we added 3 new regional qualifying marks as Girma Mecheso finished 4th in the 5000m in a new pr of 13:50.80 followed by Elkanah Kibet in 5th at 13:52.70 and JP Weerts in 7th in 14:05.23.
In the 1500 the guys competed very well and all ran with 1 second of their pr’s. Jeff Sanders finshed 3rd in his section in 3:49, Felix Kiboiywo was also third in the championship section in 3:43 while Julian was 7th in 3:47.

War Eagle Invite

Saturday was an exciting day and we had some solid runs including Cathryn Albright picking up her first college win. Taking control of the 5000m with a mile to go and never looking back winning in a time of 17:57. Jeff Sanders also lined up in the 1500 and took 4 seconds off his pr running 3:48.97 in a very impressive race just a day after rabbiting the 1500 for Felix.
Friday was a beautiful night of racing. No wind,62 degrees, DJ Tiesto playing over the speakers and very good rabbits. With two very small fields it was set up to run fast over 1500meters for both men and women and that is what took place.
In the women’s race Laurel got the race going and a nice line of runners followed. Of the eight girls who started 6 hit the NCAA regional mark including Amber Riley who took 4 seconds off her pr and finished 4th in 4:25.73 and Sabrina opened up her season at 4:36.
Up next were the men and this race got cracking with Jeff Sanders taking the lead and taking Felix and the pack through 800 in 1:55. After this it was Felix all by himself and a big chase group chasing the regional mark. When all was said and done, Felix won in 3:42.30, Julian was 4th in 3:46.79 and JP was 5th in 3:47.09. Quickly following and just missing the regional Elkanah came across the line in 3:48 and Scott Novack in 3:50.04.
It was a very fin night of racing

Week 3 update week 4 preview

We went to Arizona for the sun and found rain! It never rains in Arizona or so i was told.
Despite the rain the meet was pretty successful for us with 2 regional marks, 5 pr’s and a good time by all.
First off we have to recap the women’s 5000 where Laurel Pritchard finished 3rd in 16:42.88 running a very controlled race and looking very strong and setting herself up for a very big 10,000 in two weeks at Penn relays. However the story of the 5000 was the performance by Allison Smith and Cathryn Albright who broke 18:00 for the first time in an impressive way. With Allison taking 21 seconds from her pr of 18:06 and running 17:45. Then Cathryn comes along and takes almost a minute (not including her 17:51 from penn state indoors that was actually only 4800 meters! Cathryn you would have lapped yourself with this performance!) and run 17:47. Great job girls.
Amber Riley registered her first ever regional mark knocking 17 seconds off of her steeplechase running 10:39 and I know she has a lot more left in her.
In the men’s 1500’s Julian again shaved off a massive amount of time from his pr, I think it was about .4 seconds this time with his 3:50 in his first 1500 of the year and then Jeff Sanders continues to shouw great improvements and took 3 seconds from his pr in running 3:52.
Scott Novack ran a solid 5000, with the goal of staying controlled and running a strong last mile he turned it into a 3rd place finish and a 14:24 5000m.

So now to this week. Friday night will be fun with the men’s and women’s 1500’s looking to be very fast. We will run a women’s 1500 at 7:15 and a men’s at 7:25. Weather looks great and the fields are good. I think it will be a fun event running the 2 races under the lights here at Auburn.
Saturday the rest of the meet will go on and it will be a low key affair with races at Penn Relays and Oregon Relays coming up early next week.

Auburn Tiger Week 2 update Week 3 Preview

The third weekend of outdoor season is here and that brings about our trip to Arizona State university. We are taking nine runners with us in search of some regional marks. We have Julian, Scott and Jeff running 1500’s, with Scott also running a 5000. Isaac will take a shot at the steeple as will Amber, who is looking quite good in daily training. Sabrina will have a go at an 800 and is looking to dip under 2:10 and punch her ticket to the regional meet. The women’s 5000 will have 3 girls running led off by Laurel Pritchard who will be looking to lower her pr into the 16:20’s, While Cathryn and Allison will be looking to break 18:00 for the first time. Updates will be done on twitter throughout the meet. Flotrack will be there as well taping all the races fro you to watch.

Had wonderful day of weather at the track yesterday for the Auburn Tiger invite. We had a small group racing but walked away with  handful of pr’s and nice performances.

Amber Riley leading the way with a solid 4:29.09 1500m in which she slashed 11 seconds from her pr. Followed soon after with Allison Smith running 4:53 for a nice pr and placing 3rd in her section. Cathryn Albright had a good race hanging tough in the women’s 3000m and running under 10:30 for the first time.

On the guys side both freshmen racing had a good day. Julian Matthews taking a massive .5 of a second or so off his 800 mark to bring it to 1:52.02 in his first track race in an Auburn uniform. Jeff Sanders running 3;55 in the 1500 was also a very solid run. 

So this week is a big week of training for the longer guys and then we also take a group out to Arizona State on Thursday for some fast 1500’s and steeples.w

Outdoors week 1 recap. Week 2 preview

Week 1 is done and what a great week it was out at Stanford. Girma and Elkanah running 28:26.09 and 28:26.97 (Video can be seen at  http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234811/165212   

Felix running 13;50.8 and laurel had a solid run to conclude a successful trip.

This week we are at home and we will be running everyone who didn’t get a chance to race last week. The weather looks great as do the fields for each race.  In the Men’s 800m we will see Jeff Sanders and Julian Matthews opening up their outdoor seasons chasing pr’s. Jeff will also be running a 1500m along with Ben Cheruiyot. In the steeple Isaac Kipruto will run his first outdoor race as an Auburn Tiger. So it looks like a meet for all the freshmen.

On the women’s side in the 800m Sabrina Fischer will be chasing a regional mark that is well within her grasp. In the 1500m we will see Amber Riley, Allison Smith and Madeline Collins. At the end of the meet in the women’s 3000 we will see Becca Bell, Cathryn Albright and Allison Smith trying to run as close to 10;00 as possible.

It should be a fun weekend of track and field

To the NCAA indoor Championships

 

Updated 3.15.09- We are on twitter http://twitter.com/auburnxccoach

2009 Outdoor Regional qualifying standards

Men                     Women

800 Meters# 1:50.40          2:09.80

1,500 Meters# 3:47.80       4:27.80

 Steeplechase# 9:07.00      10:50.25

5,000 Meters# 14:12.00    16:52.00

10,000 Meters# – Auto 28:45.00  33:30.00

10,000 Meters# – Prov 29:30.00  35:00.00

Team Video and pics

 

We will add random video’s of training and racing here during the year. Let’s see if some of the kids on the team can provide me with better quality video than what I have done thus far. So everyone on the team feel free to email me links to your video’s and we will add them here