Mankato Minnesota - Two Days of Conference Championships

Its that time of year again. If you've been wondering where all of my updates have been I can report that I've been busy preparing young men and women for the conference meet. Every one is rounding in to form perfectly and we are looking forward to going to the conference meet. Below is information regarding the meet.

Meet Information
Schedule
Conference Records
Heat Sheets

The meet will be contested at Meyers Field house at Mankato, MN.
Meyers Field House

I want to take a moment to highlight some of the races and athletes that you should be paying attention to.

60m Dash

Men

Diego Oquendu is originally from New York City, NY and came to Augustana from Michigan State to take another shot at playing football. He's been on the team for about a month and a half and has made an immediate impact. He's run 6.91 in the dash and should vie for a conference championship in this event. Things look good because the 60m Hurdles, his other main event are about an hour apart. Watch for Diego to run in the 6.8's and win a conference championship.

Women

Bobbi Buyck is a Senior with a personal best of 7.76 in the 60m dash. This season she has run 7.92 at the MSU pre season meet and because she has been competing in quite a few events hasn't run it since the NDSU meet in January. She should run in the 7.8's or lower and get into finals and finish high.


60m Hurdles
Men

Paul Mallory is returning to the indoor season after capturing the conference title in the 110m Hurdles a a year ago at the outdoor meet in Wayne, NE. This year he has run 8.48 and should finish in the top 8. I fully expect that Paul will find his way into the 8.30's at this meet and establish a new personal best in this event.

Diego Oquendu is also in this event. Last week he ran 8.18 and should challenge Moorehead freshman Laquone for the conference championship. Laquone has only run faster than Diego one time this year and that was early at the NDSU invite in January. Each week Diego has been getting faster and there is no indication that he plans to stop at 8.18.

Women

The women have a trio headed to Mankato with the intent of making it into the finals. Last weekend Claire Severson took a big chunk out of her personal best by running 9.39 in the finals. Her previous best was a 9.56 that she ran in prelims that day.

That same day Meagan Grandgenette also posted a 9.56 in the hurdles. Look for her to also run either 9.3 or 9.2 at Mankato. Both girls have been looking sharp in practice.

Senior Bobbi Buyck has run the 60m Hurdles once this season and posted a relatively quick 9.31. Hopefully she'll be able to break into the 9.10's and lead this group of three into the finals.

200m Dash - Men

Dieogo Oquendu has yet to participate in the 200m indoors this year but should challenge to get into the finals.

400m Dash - Men

Freshman Adou Omot will contest the 400m dasy for the Vikings. This year he has run better at each meet. Last weekend he turned in a 48.7 split in the DMR and a 49.1 in the 4x400m. This should be a breakout meet for him as he looks to go under 50. for the first time indoors. He has a personal best of 49.2 from his senior year of high school.

600m Dash

Women

LeAnn Severson, Kelly Kougl and Rachel Biederman will all compete to make it out of three heats of the 600m to make it to a final. LeAnn enters the race with the third fastest time. I fully expect that she will run 1:38 and vie for the win in this race.

Kelly Kougl won the 1000m last year at the indoor championships and will be in the hunt to win this race as well. She and LeAnn will be followed closely by Rachel Biederman who enters the race with a 1:41.38 clocking. All three girls have a chance to place.

800m Dash

Men

Brian Werner is the lone representative from Augustana in this race. At Iowa State he put up a lifetime best of 1:53.39 That was good enough for a provisional qualifying. Brian is going to need a faster time to get into the national meet as an individual. Watch for him and Mokoya to make the final an honest race and push the pace in an effort to get Brian the time he needs to get in.

Women

The Women have three in the 800m this year. Miriam Hovda, Cecilie Udstuen and Megan Erspamer. The women will need to eliminate one from the field of nine before advancing to finals. Cecilie is the favorite and will most likely run what it takes to win since she is doubling in the mile as well.

1000m Run

Men

Last year Travis Beniak won the 1000m as a freshman. He returns his sophomore with a goal of repeating his freshman performance. He will also be racing in the mile which will make it difficult to do so. Joining him in this race will be Senior Dan Black. Black had a stellar performance at the Regional Cross Country Championships and has proven he can be counted on to turn in big performances when it counts. Freshman Jordan Slusser sill be right in the hunt for points as well.

The men will be in the third of three qualifying heets which should aid them in their attempt to move on to the final on Saturday.

Mile

Men

Austin Vandeberg, Travis Beniak will be running the mile. Austin comes in with a 4:19 season best while Beniak comes in with a 4:21 seasons best. Both young men should run faster than they have this season and finish in the top 8. Both are doubling, Austin in the 3k which will happen at the end of the first day and Travis will try to repeat as conference champion in the 1000.

Women

The women will race, Linn Nilsson (4:58.06), Cecilie Udstuen (5:15.48), Caitlin Polgreen (5:03.01) and Annie Pfiefle (5:10.84.) There will be a two heet prelim. All of the Augustana women are in the first meet and will need to run well to make it to the final. If the women are to do well as a team the middle distance races will be an essential place for them to garner much needed points.

3k

Men

Matt Braithwaite (8:47.69), Tom Karbo (8:31.19), Matt Heesch (8:53) and Austin Vandeberg (NT) lead the men. The 3k will be the first race on Friday that will be a final. Augustana will definately get on the board following this race. Watch for Vandeberg to finish near the front with Braithwaite and Karbo.

Women

The women will be racing Kyle Blakeslee (10:24.82) Annie Pfiefle (10:12.62) Molly Clark (10:24.80) Leah Hansen (10:36.15) and Runa Falch (NT.) This will be a race to watch. Each girl is in shape and ready to race. There should be some fun results to watch for here.

5k

Men

Both the men and women should score big points in the 3k and 5k. The men will be racing Tom Karbo, Matt Heesch, Ryan Evans and Matt Braithwaite. Look for Braithwaite and Karbo to finish in the top three. Both Heesch and Evans should be in a position to pick up some much needed points as well.

Women

The women will race a 28 person final. The Augustana women racing include Jillian Tholen, Molly Clark, Runa Falch and Kyle Blakeslee. None of these ladies have raced a 5k this year but you can bet that each one of them will be in a position to score points at the final bell. Look for Blakeslee, Falch and Clark to be lead the group.

Shot Put

Men

Tyler Lynch and Aaron Jung will both compete for the Vikings in Mankato this weekend. Jung has been consistent around 51'6 this year and Tyler will need to break into the 49' area to score. Both are capable of finishing in the top 8.

Women

Rachel Christiansen, Noel Bentele and Kristen Nelsen will throw the shot this weekend for the Vikings. Bentele comes in with the best mark of 12.43m while freshman Nielsen is close behind with a mark of 12.19m

Weight Throw

Men

Last year Kevin Knapp set the school record with a large pr at the conference meet. He has been almost completely absent this year as a result of a back injury early on. He will be back at this meet and ready to set another personal record in his last indoor meet as a Viking. Tyler Lynch has gotten things going of late and has had some great tosses in warm ups and practice over the 50' mark. Aaron Jung has been doing some work in practice as well and may take a shot at placing.

Women

The women have two ladies in the top ten in Noel Bentele (16.01m) and Rachel Christiansen (15.65m.) Both should have a chance to score points. Freshman Kristen Nielsen has a pr just over 12.40 and continues to improve with each meet.

Long Jump

Women

Bobbi Buyck will try to move up the national list in this event. Her current best is 5.60m. She will need a jump of more than 5.75 to make it to nationals. That should put her in the top three at this meet as well.

Triple Jump

Men

Paul Mallory, Jacob Pohlmann and Blake Ridgeway will all attempt to see if they can jump far enough to place in this event.

Women

Both Karissa Pepin and Bobbi Buyck will try to put up marks of over 36' to score much needed points in this event for the women.

High Jump

Men

Corey Sugden leads a trio of men in the High Jump. Corey has a season best of 2.01m. Both Ridgeway and Pohlmann have jumped over 6'3 with Blake owning the slight edge at 6'4.25. It will more than likely take 6'4 to place at the conference meet.

Women

Karissa Pepin is the lone contestant in this event for the Lady Vikings. She'll need a jump over 5'2 to place at the meet. Karissa owns a personal best of 5'5 and should score some points.

Conference Time Again

Here we are just a few days away from the conference meet and I feel I've done a poor job of covering the indoor season. Below is a video from the first part of the conference meet just a short two weeks ago. Both Blake and Jake competed as you can see from the video and did well.

Untitled from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Speed Development

Included below are videos that I will be using in a speed development talk on Monday February 22 2010.

My personal belief, one which is shared by the sprinting community the world over is that speed is a skill. As it is a skill it is something that can be constantly developed and improved. Much like a concert pianist hones his or her skill with hour upon hour of practice our athletes spend time each week working on their skills.

Take for example your feet. Take a moment and tap them as fast as you can simultaneously while seated. Continue to do so for the duration of ten seconds. You will find that initially you are able to tap them quite fast. As time progresses you will find that your muscular coordination begins to lag and your are forced to tap them more slowly and with much more concentrated effort. In the same way the mechanical inefficiencies of sprinters become apparent at the end of their race. The race may only be 60m but the affect of muscular fatigue is still readily apparent.

Now if you were to take time each day and practice your foot tapping skill you would find that you would soon be able to increase your total taps over ten seconds. The only explanation for this is skill acquisition. How then do we teach sprinters to be faster? If we have a modest goal of reducing each touch down time in a 100m race by .005 we can receive the benefit of a reduction in our total time.

Some Good Clean Fun.......

I was down in the gym  today working with some of the ladies on shot put and another athlete on some speed work. In come coach Hellman and coach Moenck. Heath had it on his mind that he could run 60 sec in the 400m dash. The following video is the result.


Heath Moenck 400m Challenge from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.