Oquendo Featured in Staten Island Live.com

Recently an article was published on Diego Oquendo. Here is the link.

"When I left Tottenville, I never thought six years later I'd be in South Dakota," he laughed. "But I'm not complaining about two scholarships, one for undergrad and now for a Masters. And I really like Division II. It's a smaller atmosphere. And it doesn't feel like a business. Division I always felt like that, a business."

http://www.silive.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/03/oquendos_journey_full_of_hurdl.html

Conference Pictures

I finally received pictures from conference and want to share them. If you are looking for specific pictures of your son or daughter feel free to contact me and I'll be sure to send some along to you.

We've had a great year so far and this weekend was no different. We had a ton of fun in New Mexico where we experienced snow, rain and sun all in the same day! I managed to fall asleep in the sun and caught some color. The most exciting thing was returning to Minneapolis only to find that it was a balmy 64 degrees. We need to take another trip to the south if this is what happens when we come back.

Augustana Vikings Fare Well at Nationals

The lady Vikings placed 6th in the DMR to capture four All-American awards. Diego Oquendo placed 9th in the 60m dash. Linn Nilsson placed 11th in the mile. Cecilie Udstuen was the lone Viking to advance to tomorrow's finals. She advanced in the 800m dash and will compete tomorrow in an effort to capture her second All-American trophy of the meet. I'll upload pictures and video after we have dinner. Let me just say that it was a great day at a great meet at a great venue. Look for more great news tomorrow. Go Vikings!


Women's DMR - NCAA D2 Championships - 6th place from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.




Diego Oquendo - NCAA 60m Dash 6.89 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.



Diego Oquendo Post Race Interview from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.



NCAA Day 2 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Welcome to Albuquerque!

Here we are in New Mexico. We had a good time traveling here and now we're ready to race. We've taken some time to warm up and catch some food and sights. We're having a good time. Tomorrow there is supposed to be a streaming video of the meet. Below I'm including links for you so that you can enjoy the meet with us. From what I hear there is terrible weather out in the mid west. My condolences to those who were hoping to come to the meet. I hope that the video feed will help.


Welcome to Albuquerque! from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.


In the next few days we are hoping to have great news to pass along. Here is the link to the video.

NCAA Indoor Championships

Looking for more information? This page has it all!

NCAA D2 Home

Below I've included some video and pictures from our early time at the meet. I hope that you're having a great time. I'll try to make sure that I get some great video of the meet that I can upload tomorrow. Please feel free to email me at jim.vahrenkamp@augie.edu if you have any questions about the meet or our coverage.

Augustana at the 2010 Indoor Meet!

Diego posed with us just to illustrate how serious he is about being an All American.

Ever had a band play in your ear while you try to eat?

Listen here......

Coach Hellman Receiving his Regional Coach of the Year Award

Coach Hellman and other recipients.

Welcome to Albuequerque!

US Team at NACAC

I was checking the web site where I get most of my running news, www.letsrun.com and found that they had a link up concerning and mentioning one of our young ladies today. I'm pretty proud that our program made mention on such a high profile site. Coach Hellman took off for Trinidad yesterday and texted me this morning letting me know that he was on the ground and in the sun! All of us here should be a little jealous. Below is the link to the story on letsrun. It's not long but just mentions the field. The field is made up of a bunch of girls from mainly D1 schools and unattached high school seniors. Kyle is the first Augustana Viking to represent the program at this event and we wish her will. I will post more information as I come across it on the internet. Otherwise I'm off to work for the day. Two recruits on campus today. We'll soon be posting profiles of recruits that have signed with us so you can get a good look at who is coming in and how they will impact the team.

Coach Vahrenkamp

http://www.letsrun.com/2010/nacac0304.php

Same article but at USATF
http://www.usatf.org/news/view.aspx?duid=USATF_2010_03_04_07_02_01

Conference Champions!

v
It's not every year that you get to post the words "Conference Champions!" multiple times. It was so exciting to be in Mankato this weekend. Both the men and the women had great performances that resulted in a great team finish for both squads. The women captured the first ever indoor conference championship. The men improved on their 9th place finish from last year and moved up to 3rd. With the young men and women who have already decided to join the program for next year I have no doubt that we will again find ourselves on top of the podium.

Because I was coaching so much I didn't get a chance to get many pictures. One of our athletes Halvard Lange was able to get some pictures. I will include them in this post just as soon as I can get my hands on them.

Final Results

Looking Forward

The next two weeks are going to be busy for our coaching staff. This weekend head coach Tracy Hellman will travel to the Caribbean to watch freshman Kyle Blakeslee compete in the North American, Central American, & Carribean Cross Country Championships, held in Mt. Irvine, Tobago on March 6. This will be a great experience for Kyle and for coach Hellman.

The following weekend we will be taking a group of athletes out to Albuquerque, NM for the national championships.





Current National Qualifiers - 14 Provisional Marks / 1 Automatic Mark

Women

800m
Udstuen,Cecilie FR-1 2:11.11# Raw: 2:11.01 2010 ISU Classic 02/11/10

1 Mile
Nilsson,Linn FR-1 4:55.30# Raw: 4:55.90 NSIC Conference Indoor Championships 02/26/10
Pfeifle,Annie FR-1 5:03.29# Raw: 5:03.88 NSIC Conference Indoor Championships 02/26/10
Polgreen,Caitlin SR-4 4:59.24# Raw: 4:59.84 NSIC Conference Indoor Championships 02/26/10
Udstuen,Cecilie FR-1 4:58.58# Raw: 4:59.18 NSIC Conference Indoor Championships 02/26/10

5000m
Blakeslee,Kyle FR-1 17:35.48# Raw: 17:37.28 NSIC Conference Indoor Championships 02/26/10
Clark,Molly SR-4 17:31.25# Raw: 17:33.05 NSIC Conference Indoor Championships 02/26/10
Falch,Runa FR-1 17:25.24# Raw: 17:27.04 NSIC Conference Indoor Championships 02/26/10

60m HH
Buyck,Bobbi Jo SR-4 8.99 NSIC Conference Indoor Championships 02/26/10

4000mDMR
Squad A 11:50.46# Raw: 11:49.55 2010 ISU Classic 02/11/10

LJ
Buyck,Bobbi Jo SR-4 5.60m MSU Pent/Open 01/29/10

Men

60m
Oquendo,Diego FR-1 6.82 NSIC Conference Indoor Championships 02/26/10

800m
Werner,Brian SR-4 1:53.49# Raw: 1:53.39 2010 ISU Classic 02/11/10

60m HH
Oquendo,Diego FR-1 8.18 2010 Nebraska Tune-Up 02/19/10

4000mDMR
Squad A 9:58.41 2010 Nebraska Tune-Up 02/19/10