No thread yet but the heptathlon and decathlon are underway in Charlotte. We've got two entries in the Heptathlon (Giulia Sportoletti and Zinedine Russell) who rank 1-2 in the conference so I'm assuming that should be one of our stronger events (and they both seem to be off to solid starts after 2 events). Charlie Card-Childers ranks 1st in the decathlon but that's just because the UTSA freshman hasn't competed in one this spring. If both are healthy (CCC seems a bit off his bests in the first 3 events), I'm assuming they will go 1-2 (with UTSA in 1st).

Live results here

https://flashresults.com/2019_Meets/Outdoor/05-09_CUSA/

Charlie Card-Childers enters the 8th event (pole vault) work a solid 2nd place in the Decathlon. Naturally, he no-heights, continuing the long Rice tradition of men's pole vaulters choking.

Charlie still can get 3rd if he finishes 10.46 seconds ahead of Yardley who's in 2nd - IF he stays ahead of Corbett Fong of Rice.

Last year, Charlie ran 4:50.47 and Yardley 5:05.39

Yardley ran almost 30 seconds faster than last year - a huge lifetime best. Charlie got 4th, and Corbett Fong 5th.

All events today have been moved up by many hours to stay ahead of likely afternoon thunderstorms. The problem with that is that Hannah Jackson, Nicole Mitchell, and Mike Otoo are arriving this morning after graduation last night. Losing Hannah for the 100 and 200 would crush any hopes of Rice's women winning the meet.

BALANDRAN qualified for the women's 1500m finals.
TOPINI and OLGUIN qualified for the men's 1500m finals.
JACKSON qualified for the women's 100m finals.
OLGUIN and BUGG qualified for the men's 800m finals.
JACKSON qualifed for the women's 200m finals.

HELMERS was 7th in the women's 3000m steeplechase.
PEREZ was 3rd in the women's discus.
HARRISON was 3rd and SWIEKATOWSKI was 4th in the women's pole vault.
FOKAM won the women's long jump with a facility record 6.27m.
HICKS was 2nd in the men's discus.
ABIKHALED was 6th and CARVALHO 7th in the men's 3000m steeplechase.

PLACE WOMEN [7 out of 21 scored] SCORE
1 Rice 45
2 Charlotte 44
3 Southern Miss. 40
4 North Texas 28
5 FIU 24
6 Marshall 21
6 UAB 21
8 UTEP 18
9 Western Kentucky 9.5
10 Louisiana Tech 9
11 UTSA 8.5
12 Mid. Tenn. State 5

PLACE MEN [7 out of 21 scored] SCORE
1 Charlotte 67
2 Rice 37
2 UTEP 37
2 UTSA 37
5 Mid. Tenn. State 36
6 Southern Miss. 29
7 Louisiana Tech 11
8 FIU 10
9 North Texas 9

It was expected that Charlotte would win the men's competition. They are too deep in too many areas. But, Time is in the mix for a top-3 finish, but we need solid efforts from Reagan Olguin in the 800 and 1500, as well as good results in the pole vault.

The women actually have an outside chance to win, but they'll need some surprises. Hannah Jackson should get 3rd or 4th in the 100, and 2nd or 3rd in the 200. We should get big points in the shot put, but I just see enough in other events. We probably will get shut out in everything from the 400 through the 1500, with a chance of a point or two in the 5000. Charlotte probably has enough to win, but UTEP likely will get 20 points from Lilian Koech, 10 more from Winny Koech, and 10 in the 100 meters. I'm thinking it will be Charlotte, UTEP and Rice.

? Jon Warren, Jim Bevan, and long jump champion Michelle Fokam share their thoughts on an eventful Saturday at the #CUSATF Outdoor Championships in Charlotte!

#GoOwls? x #RFND https://t.co/aD4DUE8loi

Not Rice related but congrats to Matthew Boling of Strake Jesuit for running a legal 10.13 to win the 100 meters at the Texas state meet (and a 44.71 400 split to win the 4x400 with his unbelievable anchor). Pretty special talent going to UGA next year.

Events will be streamed LIVE - go to the C-USA website for the link.

Field events begin at 7:00 a.m. CDT and running events at 9:00 a.m. CDT. The streaming begins at 7:30 a.m.

A couple more champions on the women's side this morning.

Erna Gunnarsdottir, a freshman from Iceland, won the shot put.

Michelle Fokam had an impressive last jump (13.48 meters, 44-2 3/4 with a legal wind) to win the triple jump with a new personal best and facility record.

Jackson was 2nd in the 100m and first in the 200m!

Hannah Jackson just won the 200 too with a PR (23.16, legal wind). Thank goodness for no flight delays.

Looks like the women are going to finish 2nd to UTEP or possibly 3rd behind UTEP and Charlotte, but it will be close. They have a few points in the high jump and maybe some in the 5000.

Actually Russell just cleared a PR 5-8 in the high jump so that's some big extra points. Charlotte does have the top 4x400 time though entering that race. Rice will re-take the team lead after the HJ so then it comes down to 2 events - 5000 and 4x400. Rice won't score in the 4x400 so really it will come down to the 5000. UTEP has one of the favorites there (Winny Koech who easily won the 10K) but Rice has one runner (Lourdes Vivas De Lorenzi) who was 4th in the 10K so maybe if she has the race of her life, they still have a chance.

(05-12-2019 06:34 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Events will be streamed LIVE - go to the C-USA website for the link.

So others don't have to look it up, here's the link to today's livestream video: http://conferenceusa.com/watch/default.aspx?Live=8044

UTEP's runner is pulling away halfway thru that race - looks to be an easy 10 points for them which I think will be enough for them to win. UAB is 2nd right now but that girl tried to stay with the UTEP runner and perhaps she will pay the price later. A big pack of runners was well back and it's tough to see if Rice has any runners on that group. We need a 3rd place finish at least (and no other points from UTEP in the last 2 races) to still have any chance to pass them again.

We got 5th in the 5000 so that won't be enough. UTEP will win. Charlotte was 4th and 6th so they still may finish 2nd ahead of Rice. Actually in doing the math, if they win the 4x400, they may beat UTEP barely? It's very close as I said a few posts ago. But I'm pretty sure Rice can't win barring a 4x400 finish where 8 or 9 teams are DQ'ed.

ETA - they changed the result for the Rice runner. She's 8th, not 5th.

Our inability to do anything in the sprints on the men’s side kills us.

Dane Stolsig will place 4th in the men's javelin (61.98m / 203-4); Charlie Card-Childers is 7th (55.44m / 181-11)

(05-12-2019 11:40 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Our inability to do anything in the sprints on the men’s side kills us.

FBO or WRC, or anybody more knowledgeable than I am, would there be any benefit to working with football to recruit some RBs or DBs or WRs with exceptional speed and having them run sprints as well? I've been a proponent, at least conceptually, of emphasizing multi-sports athletes in recruiting, and making solid commitments to then that they could participate in multiple sports, as a way of improving the quality of our football recruiting. I still think the ability to add maybe 2 or 3 better athletes each year outweighs whatever benefit might be imparted in off-season football training, but I must admit that I don't know if there are really enough multi-sport athletes left to make a difference in track. The high schools have pretty much forced specialization in one sport on lots of kids, with which I totally disagree.

Confession: My roommate was a baseball player when half the baseball team were football players, and it was a pretty good team until the then football coach/AD took steps to end the practice, so my judgement is not exactly objective. And being a rugby coach may have pushed me even more in that direction. My friend, Sir Ian McGeechan, coach and head of rugby for Scotland for several years, was a huge proponent of having kids play multiple sports, and that may have influenced me as well.

(05-12-2019 11:40 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Our inability to do anything in the sprints on the men’s side kills us.

But I thought that was our flagship men's athletic program? To be fair, the men have had some okay results the last few years. But this weekend was not a strong performance on the men's side.

Charlotte's fast 3rd & 4th legs secured their win in the 4x400m relay and the conference meet. Owls are 3rd in conference.

The women's final team leaderboard:

CHAR 103.5
UTEP 102
RICE 93.5
MTSU 81
USM 77
UNT 73
Marshall 58
FIU 56
UAB 46
UTSA 43.5
WKU 37.5
LaTech 30
FAU 14