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.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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.
Heath Moenck 400m Challenge from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Monday, January 25, 2010
From Cross Nationals
I was talking to recruits on the phone tonight about what its like to be a viking and several of them were getting pretty pumped up. The following video epitomizes just what its like. Notice the Viking mascot at the center of the chaotic fan romp. This is what it means to be a Viking.
Track and Field Videos on Flotrack
Track and Field Videos on Flotrack
Graphic Edge Invite
Graphic Edge Results
This weekend was highlighted by some great performances by several athletes. Corey Sugden jumped 6'4 in the high jump joining Blake Ridgeway as the second Viking over that height in the last two weeks. Along the same lines Freshman Holli Bloom jumped 11' in the pole vault which makes her the second Viking over that height in consecutive weeks. Paul Mallory made his way into finals by running 8.84 in the hurdles. In the finals he got a much better start and ran a new season best of 8.48. Adou Omot ran to an indoor best of 50.92 in the 400m dash. Expect him to continue to drop time in each race this season as he adjusts to running the indoor 400. Last year as a high school senior Adou ran a personal best of 49.2
On the distance side of things Caitlin Polgreen ran 3:02 in the 1000m dash. To place that time in perspective 3:03 was the winning time in the 1000m at last years conference championship in Bemidji. Freshman Molly Kokesh was impressive as she follow Caitlin through in 3:04. The 1000m dash was a good event for the Vikings as senior Brian Werner also posted a fast time running 2:31.39 which is slightly faster than his conference leading time from last week.
The throwers had a great weekend. For the first time this year all of the throwers competed in a meet. Kevin Knapp continued to improve in the weight throw as he threw 49-0.25. Knapp has a school and personal record toss from last year over 54'. He should continue to improve as he gets a chance to put in more repetitions. Tyler Lynch opened up the season in the weight throw with a toss of 44'. He too will continue to improve as he gets a chance to throw more throughout the year. On the women's side all three ladies threw the weight. Noel Bentele led the way with a toss of 51-2.25, Rachel Christiansen managed a toss of 47-2.25 and freshman Kristin Nielsen put in a mark at 39-08. The shot put was impressive for the women. Both Noel and Kristin managed to put throws out over the 40' mark. For the men Aaron Jung opened up the season with a 48-10 throw. Jung has a collegiate personal best of over 50 and should improve at each meet this year. He is coming of a slight shoulder injury which held him out of the last few meets. Tyler Lynch also threw and managed to come up with a toss of 46 feet. That's just slightly off the 47 foot throw that he managed last week and two feet short of his 48 foot collegiate personal best that he put in last year at the indoor conference meet. All three male throwers are also football players that balance their time between throwing and lifting with the football team. In the next four weeks that lead up to conference look for them to improve and move up the conference lists.
This next weekend the team will be competing with a limited squad at Mankato. Some kids will head home for a short break between J term and the beginning of second semester. With the conclusion of J term you will see the return of several athletes that have been gone for the past month. Claire Severson, Carissa Hotovy and Meagen G return from off campus activities and top finishers for the cross country team Tom Korbo and Matt Braithwait return from overseas to begin their indoor season. Both the men and women are looking to qualify teams for the national meet in the Distance Medley Relay. The men will be chasing an automatic time of 9:52 while the women will be chasing 11:48. The relay is made up of legs of 1200, 400, 800 and 1600 meters. Both men and women will be running at Iowa State on the weekend of February 12-13.
This weekend Jacob Pohlmann will be competing in his first Heptathlon. That means that he will do a couple of things. One he'll set a personal record and two because no one from Augustana has ever completed a heptathlon, he'll set a new school record in the event. Jake is a freshman from Harrisburg, SD. He's a great athlete and should be able to push the school record in the heptathlon beyond the national qualifying standard of 4550 points in the next year or so. Look for those results this coming weekend.
I'll be continuing my coverage throughout indoors including commentary on performances and highlighting athletes to watch as we head toward the conference meet. Later today I will be scoring the conference meet as it currently stands in an attempt to determine where teams stand as of this last weekend.
Go Vikings!
This weekend was highlighted by some great performances by several athletes. Corey Sugden jumped 6'4 in the high jump joining Blake Ridgeway as the second Viking over that height in the last two weeks. Along the same lines Freshman Holli Bloom jumped 11' in the pole vault which makes her the second Viking over that height in consecutive weeks. Paul Mallory made his way into finals by running 8.84 in the hurdles. In the finals he got a much better start and ran a new season best of 8.48. Adou Omot ran to an indoor best of 50.92 in the 400m dash. Expect him to continue to drop time in each race this season as he adjusts to running the indoor 400. Last year as a high school senior Adou ran a personal best of 49.2
On the distance side of things Caitlin Polgreen ran 3:02 in the 1000m dash. To place that time in perspective 3:03 was the winning time in the 1000m at last years conference championship in Bemidji. Freshman Molly Kokesh was impressive as she follow Caitlin through in 3:04. The 1000m dash was a good event for the Vikings as senior Brian Werner also posted a fast time running 2:31.39 which is slightly faster than his conference leading time from last week.
The throwers had a great weekend. For the first time this year all of the throwers competed in a meet. Kevin Knapp continued to improve in the weight throw as he threw 49-0.25. Knapp has a school and personal record toss from last year over 54'. He should continue to improve as he gets a chance to put in more repetitions. Tyler Lynch opened up the season in the weight throw with a toss of 44'. He too will continue to improve as he gets a chance to throw more throughout the year. On the women's side all three ladies threw the weight. Noel Bentele led the way with a toss of 51-2.25, Rachel Christiansen managed a toss of 47-2.25 and freshman Kristin Nielsen put in a mark at 39-08. The shot put was impressive for the women. Both Noel and Kristin managed to put throws out over the 40' mark. For the men Aaron Jung opened up the season with a 48-10 throw. Jung has a collegiate personal best of over 50 and should improve at each meet this year. He is coming of a slight shoulder injury which held him out of the last few meets. Tyler Lynch also threw and managed to come up with a toss of 46 feet. That's just slightly off the 47 foot throw that he managed last week and two feet short of his 48 foot collegiate personal best that he put in last year at the indoor conference meet. All three male throwers are also football players that balance their time between throwing and lifting with the football team. In the next four weeks that lead up to conference look for them to improve and move up the conference lists.
This next weekend the team will be competing with a limited squad at Mankato. Some kids will head home for a short break between J term and the beginning of second semester. With the conclusion of J term you will see the return of several athletes that have been gone for the past month. Claire Severson, Carissa Hotovy and Meagen G return from off campus activities and top finishers for the cross country team Tom Korbo and Matt Braithwait return from overseas to begin their indoor season. Both the men and women are looking to qualify teams for the national meet in the Distance Medley Relay. The men will be chasing an automatic time of 9:52 while the women will be chasing 11:48. The relay is made up of legs of 1200, 400, 800 and 1600 meters. Both men and women will be running at Iowa State on the weekend of February 12-13.
This weekend Jacob Pohlmann will be competing in his first Heptathlon. That means that he will do a couple of things. One he'll set a personal record and two because no one from Augustana has ever completed a heptathlon, he'll set a new school record in the event. Jake is a freshman from Harrisburg, SD. He's a great athlete and should be able to push the school record in the heptathlon beyond the national qualifying standard of 4550 points in the next year or so. Look for those results this coming weekend.
I'll be continuing my coverage throughout indoors including commentary on performances and highlighting athletes to watch as we head toward the conference meet. Later today I will be scoring the conference meet as it currently stands in an attempt to determine where teams stand as of this last weekend.
Go Vikings!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
TFRR's System
The conference has a new location for their conference lists. We are hosting our information on the new track and field reporting system called the TFFR's system. Here you can take a look at where our kids stack up compared to the rest of the conference. It's a relational database so you can adjust the reports in the system so it provides you with different looks at the information that is available. Enjoy!
NSIC Conference Lists
NSIC Conference Lists
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Hurdling 1-14-10
Jake and Paul did some hurdling this morning and these are some of the video's that we shot today. Both are getting better and I expect good things from them to come this year. Enjoy!
Jake
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 1 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 2 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 3 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 4 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 5 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 6 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 7 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 8 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 9 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Paul
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 1 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 1 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 3 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 4 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 5 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 6 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 7 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 8 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Jake
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 1 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 2 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 3 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 4 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 5 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 6 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 7 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 8 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Jake - 9 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Paul
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 1 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 1 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 3 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 4 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 5 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 6 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 7 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Hurdling 1-14-10 Paul - 8 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
D2 Cross Strikes Again
http://d2cross.blogspot.com/2009/12/getting-to-know-womens-field.html
The d2cross blog gave us some more positive press when some of the ladies appeared in a picture with the editors daughter. Goes to show who is noticing the level of enthusiasm about the program. Go Vikes!
The d2cross blog gave us some more positive press when some of the ladies appeared in a picture with the editors daughter. Goes to show who is noticing the level of enthusiasm about the program. Go Vikes!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
J Term
School is finally back in session. We are currently in the section of the year called J Term. For the month of January students take classes in blocks, travel, or complete internships. Track continues to go on and we travel to our next meet in Fargo on the 17th. Every one seems to have made it back from the break in one piece. During the break the Sioux Falls area received more than twenty inches of school and today we are supposed to receive another 4-6 inches. That makes for a lot of white stuff outside. Thank goodness we have a great indoor facility where we can run and jump.
This week the 400m group will be running 4-6 320's with 2 min recovery today and 2x5x160 w/30 rest on Friday. Should be a good chance to get some hard workouts done and it will give me a chance to evaluate every one's fitness. The jumpers will be doing 4-6 160's with 2 min recovery today which should be a challenge for them as well.
Recruiting
It seems like the year has flown by. So far we have had some really great student athletes on campus and we are looking forward to February when we can begin signing kids. I know we've had some great verbal commitments that will help to fill in our team and put us in a great position to be top three in our conference for the next few years.
During January we will be hosting visits on the final two Sundays of the month. The 24th and the 31st. We look forward to seeing every one who will be visiting!
DSC
As I talk about the recruiting process it brings my mind to the Distinguished Scholar program. We will be having several of our recruits participating in this scholarship competition. The high numbers of students that we have competing points to the type of athletes that we recruit here at Augustana. We are looking for a strong balance between school and athletics.
Happy Holidays
Finally I hope every one was able to spent time with their families over the holidays. I know I had the opportunity to play cribbage with the folks for several hours over christmas day because of the snow storm. I had a great time and looking forward to seeing them again.
Alumni
Remember if you have alumni news you want passed along feel free to contact me. Our alumni are important to us. I had the opportunity to talk to some alumni over the break. It was great to hear the continued interest that they have in our program and its future. Let's us know what you're up to.
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