B12 Conf Track & Field

[Deleted member 807]

I did some digging on the results of the B12 Track and Field championships.
Over all, CU men took 8th and CU women took 10th.
The RSS Bot has been good at telling us about the Amazing performance by Joe Bosshard (1st 5K & 1st 10k w/B12 record) and Emma Coburn's 1st place in 3000 Steeple.
Congrats to both & all who made the trip to Norman last weekend.

Here's what else went on...
CU did NOT field any athletes in these events:

Men's
-1500M
-100M Hurdles
-4x100M Relay
-High Jump
-Pole Vault
-Long Jump
-Triple Jump


Women's
-100M
-100M Hurdle
-4x100M Relay
-Pole Vault
-Long Jump
-Triple Jump
-Shot Put
-Discus
-Javlin

It's hard to score points when 7 of the 21 mens events and 9 of the 21 womens events go uncontested. As this is a conference meet, seems like Coach Wettmore should be able to fill the roster for each of the events at a B12 D1 school.

CU sent 24 men to compete in 14 events. (7 ran the 5000M, 5 ran the 10000M). It surprises me that no one from CU ran the 1500. This should be a bread and butter middle distance race well suited for CU...Stephen Pfifer owns the all time B12 record in this event.

CU sent 16 women to compete in 12 events. (8 signed up for 5000, 5 lined up).

My take away, right or wrong, is that Wettmore is putting his limited T&C resources into a competitive distance powerhouse. But clearly he is resource constrained, or he'd be able to field a Track and Field team that stands a chance of winning a conference title.

Now, the CU contingent participating in the B12 T&F championships indicate that CU T&F is under an austerity program. Wettmore is doing a yeoman's job determining what CU's core competency is, and is putting contenders on the track that are capable of standing on the podium.

I'm hoping that some of the P12 network money gets filtered into Track and Field, an existing sport that is really only operating at half or two-thirds capacity and is cutting corners. The truth is that CU was never in any position to win the B12 (or P12) or even score in the top half with out bringing more athletes to the starting blocks.

 

[Buffnik]

Great post, skid.

We need to be a national power in t&f. We're already damn good, but we will have the resources to take it to the next level. No reason not to do so.

 

[Deleted member 807]

I took a deeper dive on the B12 CC T&F meet.

Mens
School Place Points #Ath # participating events
A&M 1st 175pt. 46 ath 21 events (all)
UT. 2nd. 103.5. 47 ath 20 events (excl Javelin)
OU. 3rd. 90 pt. 28 ath 17 events (host school)
NU. 4th. 85.5 pt. 45 ath 19 events
TT. 5th. 74 pt. 36 ath 17 events
KU. 6th. 65 pt. 34 ath 14 events
BU. 7th. 57.5 pt. 23 ath 12 events
CU. 8th. 52 pt. 37 ath 14 events
MU. 9th. 35 pt. 30 ath 18 events
ISU. 10th. 34 pt. 34 ath 16 events
KSU. 11th. 33 pt. 16 ath 14 events
OSU. 12th. 15.5 pt. 23 ath 7 events

Womens
A&M. 1st. 146 pt. 49 ath 19 events
NU. 2nd. 119 pt. 40 ath 19 events
OU. 3rd. 117 pt. 37 ath 19 events
UT. 4th. 90.5 pt. 35 ath 16 events
BU. 5th. 77 pt. 41 ath 18 events
ISU. 6th. 60 pt. 25 ath 11 events
KU. 7th. 51.5 pt. 34 ath 18 events
TT. 8th (tie) 48 pt. 30 ath 15 events
KSU. 8th (tie) 48 pt. 24 ath 17 events
CU. 10th 38 pt. 27 ath 12 events
MU. 11th (tie) 12 pt. 32 ath 16 events
OSU. 11th (tie) 12 pt. 20 ath 8 events


What is going on at Okie Light? This was held down the road in Norman. OSU has been strong in distance, even winning XC titles on years not claimed by CU. Is there trouble in Stillwater?

A&M swept men & women, bringing more athletes and participating in almost all events. It paid off. In half the events, Aggy had multiple competitors in each event to push each other.

I'm somewhat of the opinion that having a strong womens track and field program is a good for the revenue generating sports and men's track, if not for any other reason to brighten up the training facilities and academic services used by the revenue sports. Recruiting wouldn't suffer if there were a bunch of cut all-conference heptathletes hanging around Balch and the Dal.

 

[dyemeduke]

Great post, skid.

We need to be a national power in t&f. We're already damn good, but we will have the resources to take it to the next level. No reason not to do so.

I agree with Skid that we need to put money into Track and Field, especially because it's been ignored for so long. Wetmore is one of the better long distance coaches around, and he deserves more. If we could get our sprinting up to speed with the competition, then we'd be sitting real pretty (our throwing seems to be okay...not great, but okay).

Our T&F facilities suck. They need an upgrade. We're not going to get top sprinters with the **** we have now.

I disagree though that we're damn good. We are great at distance events, but we have a lot of ground to cover in other areas.

 

[Duff Man]

The facilities are really bad.

As far as becoming a national power in T&F, it is going to take a lot of work. I just do not see it unless Colorado suddenly becomes a warm weather training ground during the winter and spring. Elite high school sprinters tend to want to train in warmer climates. Also, the altitude advantage that distance runners gain at altitude is mitigated for sprinters.