Track and Field at NCAA Indoor Championships (Albuquerque, 3/13-14/2020) & Dani Jones earns another honor

[AztecBuff]

It's about a week until the top Buff's track stars start their Indoor Championships at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It looks like the Buffs will have 7 athletes competing, 3 in individual events, and 4 competing as part of the women's distance medley relay (DMR).

Go Buffs!

Initial article from 3 days ago about the CU student-athletes competing-

Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/3/3/t...en-to-ncaa-indoor-national-championships.aspx

"
BOULDER – The University of Colorado track and field program has declared three individuals and a distance medley relay for the 2020 NCAA Indoor National Championships March 13-14 in Albuquerque, N.M., the NCAA announced this afternoon.

Colorado will have seven individuals in seven different events. Redshirt seniors Dani Jones, Makena Morley and Joe Klecker all will double in individual events while CU will run a women's distance medley relay as well. Jones will attempt the rare double of the 800 and mile, while Klecker and Morley will both double in the 3,000 and 5,000-meter runs.

Jones is the heavy favorite in the women's mile with the top time of 4:27.88 at the Millrose games. The next two fastest times in the NCAA have both scratched from the event, leaving Danae Rivers of Penn State with the second-best time of 4:32.95. Stanford's Ella Donaghu has scratched as well as a woman from Oregon, leaving the eighth-best time entering the championships at 4:35.33.

The schedule will be a difficult one with Jones running prelims in the mile at 5:35 p.m. on Friday, March 13, then the 800 prelims at 7:10 p.m. She only needs to get in the top-12 in prelims in the mile and top-eight in the 800, though she will aim for an automatic qualifying mark and not leave things to chance. Saturday the first final is at 4:20 p.m. in the mile, followed by the 800 just 80 minutes later.

In the women's 800, Nia Akins of Penn has the top time at 2:00.71. Jones is ranked fifth in the event at 2:03.58, a converted mark from her time run in Boulder this season when she broke the school record at altitude.

For the men, Klecker will forgo his top time in the nation in the mile to go after the 3,000/5,000 double that he did last year where he scored 14 points by himself, the most by a CU male athlete at the NCAA Championship. He is ranked sixth in the 3,000 at 7:47.57 and will be chasing a trio of Northern Arizona athletes that own the top-three times with the top time four seconds faster than his 7:47. In the 5,000, Tyler Day of NAU has the top time at 13:16.95 while Klecker is ranked sixth at 13:34.10.

Morley will attempt the same double that she did last season, this time entering the championships 10th in the 3,000 and fifth in the 5,000. BYU's Whittni Orton has the top time in the 3,000 and has scratched the mile and 5,000, while Katie Izzo of Arkansas has the top time in the 5,000 and will battle Weini Kelati, both under 15:15.

The final event has not completely been set in stone. Colorado will run a women's distance medley relay with Rachel McArthur, Valerie Welch and Karina Mann, but a fourth teammate that will replace Jones from the qualifying time has not been named.
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Also, just for (probably largely my own) reference purposes, here are the results from last season's (2019) Championships -

• Men's - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2019/3/9//sat_men_results.pdf;
• Women's - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2019/3/9//sat_women_results.pdf

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Championships links -

Host (New Mexico's) Home meets homepage - https://golobos.com/sports/2019/4/29/2020_track_home_meets.aspx?path=track

NCAA-affiliated Championships homepage -

D1 Indoor 2020

www.rtspt.com

Schedule (May be preliminary as I type this) - https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ch...rtf/2019-20DIXTI_EventsSchedule-NewMexico.pdf

Schedule for the races the Buffs' are competing in (From the 3/10 cubuffs.com preview linked to in post #3 below):
"

Time	Event	Round	Athlete	Place	Time
Friday:
5:35 PM	Women's Mile	Semifinal	Dani Jones
7:10 PM	Women's 800	Semifinal	Dani Jones
7:20 PM	Men's 5,000	Final	Joe Klecker
7:55 PM	Women's 5,000	Final	Makena Morley
8:45 PM	Women's DMR	Final	Annie Hill, Karina Mann, Rachel McArthur, Valerie Welch
Saturday:
4:20 PM	Women's Mile	Final	Dani Jones
5:40 PM	Women's 800	Final	Dani Jones
6:10 PM	Men's 3,000	Final	Joe Klecker
6:25 PM	Women's 3,000	Final	Makena Morley

"

Championships' notes - Can't find as I type this.

Entries List:
Men's - http://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1indoor20/men_selected.htm
Women's - http://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1indoor20/women_selected.htm
(As I noted in a couple earlier threads, the top 16 times and marks (with adjustments to times for altitude for the running events) for individuals and top 12 relay teams who elect to compete (or in other words don't scratch) in an event are selected for these Championships.)

Heat Sheets/ Start Lists:
Women's Day 1 - http://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1indoor20/women_start_fri.htm
Men's Day 1 - http://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1indoor20/men_start_fri.htm
Women's Day 2 - http://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1indoor20/women_start_sat.htm
Men's Day 2 - http://www.rtspt.com/ncaa/d1indoor20/men_start_sat.htm

Video - Per https://www.ncaa.com/news/trackfiel...a-division-i-mens-and-womens-indoor-track-and, "ESPN3 will stream the championships live starting at 7:15 p.m. Eastern time March 13 and starting at 6 p.m. Eastern time March 14. A re-air of the championship will take place starting at 9 p.m. Eastern time Monday, March 16 on ESPNU." So, coverage begins at 5:15 PM MT on Friday and 4:00 PM MT on Saturday.
Assume that, in addition to being accessible on the various ESPN Apps, the streams should be available through https://www.espn.com/watch/video_highlights when coverage starts.

Live results (As the meet gets closer, will also probably function as an up-to-date schedule and contain start lists for all the events.) - https://dt8v5llb2dwhs.cloudfront.net/Indoor20/index.htm

Scoring -As is common in NCAA track and field, the top 8 finishers in each event will earn points for the their team, with points earned from 1st through 8th place finishes in every event being 10, 8,6,5,4,3,2,1.

 

[AztecBuff]

One reason I wanted to start this thread earlier than normal (for the Championships themselves I'd usually just start it a couple days before they start) was to use it to say CONGRATS to senior Dani Jones on earning yet another honor!


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/3/6/t...ca-mountain-regional-athlete-of-the-year.aspx

"
NEW ORLEANS – Colorado track and field star Dani Jones adds another honor to her resumè Friday morning as the United State Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association named her the USTFCCCA Mountain Regional Women's Track Athlete of the Year.

Jones becomes the third CU student-athlete named to the honor during the indoor season, joining Jenny Barringer in 2009 and Emma Coburn in 2013. This honor is just the eighth regional track athlete of the year for the squad all-time.

The redshirt senior will be in action next weekend in the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 800 and mile. She had an outstanding season, recording the best time in the nation in the mile, third-best time in the 5,000 and fifth-best mark in the 800. In region, she is first in both the mile and 800 and second in the 5,000. Jones became the only female student-athlete in the NCAA All-Time Top-10 in both the mile and 5,000 after putting down the sixth-best time in the mile and ninth-best mark in the 5,000.

This is Jones' second USTFCCCA Athlete of the Year honor as she was named the Cross Country Athlete of the Year following her 2018 National Championship. She also becomes the fifth CU student-athlete with a USTFCCCA Regional and National Athlete of the Year honor, joining Barringer, Dathan Ritzenhein, Jorge Torres and Adam Goucher.

Northern Arizona's Tyler Day was named the Mountain Region Track Athlete of the Year while Texas Tech's Justin Hall and Ruth Usoro took the Men's and Women's Field Athlete of the Year honors, respectfully. The Red Raiders' assistant coaches Calvin Robinson and James Thomas took the Men and Women's Assistant Coach of the Year honors, while NAU head coach Mike Smith took the Men's Coach of the Year honor and Doug Reynolds of New Mexico State took the Women's Coach of the Year honor.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, no surprise, but wanted to nention that in the most recent update to the Bowerman Awards' watch lists, Ms. Jones remains one of 10 on the women's list (as she has since the beginning of the season). (Source - http://www.ustfccca.org/2020/03/featured/the-bowerman-2020-womens-pre-ncaa-indoor-watch-list .)
(For those not familiar, the Bowerman Awards (one male and female is awarded each year) can roughly be considered the track and field equivalent to the Heisman Trophy.)

 

[AztecBuff]

The official cubuffs.com preview is now available-

Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/3/10/track-and-field-colorado-set-for-2020-national-championships.aspx
(I edited the original post in this thread to include the schedule from this article that lists when all the Buffs will be running this weekend.)

"
BOULDER – The University of Colorado track and field program is sending seven individuals to the 2020 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., beginning Friday, March 13, and running through Saturday, March 14.

The meet will be televised on ESPN3 beginning at 5 p.m. MT on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday. Live results are available here along with start lists and team scores.

Dani Jones' pursuit in the 800 and mile kicks off the championship action as she runs the mile semifinal at 5:35 p.m. Friday and the 800 semifinal at 7:10 p.m. Jones will look to finish top-four in her heat to advance to the finals in the mile, then top-3 in the 800 in her heat. In both scenarios, the next two best times outside the automatic qualifying positions advance to finals.

Jones is the first CU athlete to attempt an 800/mile double or even a double including an 800 (i.e. 800/1,500). She is the first CU woman in the 800 at a national championship since Lee Ballenger at the 1979 outdoor championships. The last Buff to line up for an individual 800 in a national championship was Mike Macinko 30 years ago in the 1990 indoor championships.

Just 10 minutes after Jones finishes the 800 semifinals, Joe Klecker and Makena Morley will begin their first of two event finals. Klecker is up first in the men's 5,000 where he will match up against Edwin Kurgat for the third time this season. Kurgat won the cross country individual title but was far from Klecker's finish at the Millrose Games in the 3,000. They will also face off with Tyler Day of Northern Arizona and his teammate Luis Grijalva. Klecker enters the race as the sixth seed.

Morley will be up on the track next in the women's 5,000 where she will look to chase top-seeded Katie Izzo of Arkansas and the cross country national champion on her home track in Weini Kelati. Both ran under 15:15 this season, but after Morley is in a tight pack with Bethany Hasz of Minnesota and Carmela Cardama Baez of Oregon. The three women are separated in the seedings by less than a second before there is a large 11-second drop off.

The final event on the track for Colorado in the first day of action is the women's distance medley relay team of Annie Hill, Karina Mann, Rachel McArthur and Valerie Welch. BYU has the top time in the nation at 10:53.95, followed by Stanford, Washington, Arkansas and Oregon. Colorado hopes their altitude training will propel them up the field.

Saturday will be the final test piece in the Jones double. Beginning at 4:20 p.m., Jones is the heavy favorite in the mile with the top-seed time of 4:27.88. BYU's Whittni Orton had the second-best time at 4:29.76 but scratched to focus on the 3,000. Kelati also dropped at 4:32.66 to focus on the 5,000, leaving Penn State's Danae Rivers as the second-seeded time at 4:32.95.

Less than 80 minutes after that Jones will line up again in the women's 800. She enters with the fifth-best time at 2:03.58, an altitude adjusted time from her school-record performance at the Colorado Invitational. Nia Akins of Penn is the top-seed at 2:00.71 along with a freshman from Washington and a pair of seniors from Georgia and Delaware.

Klecker's second round of competition begins at 6:10 p.m. in the 3,000. Grijalva has the top time at 7:43.73, followed by his teammates Geordie Beamish and Day. Oregon's Cooper Teare is the fourth seed, followed by Yared Nuguse of Notre Dame and James West of Oregon. Kurgat is also in the field, making for a loaded field in the men's 3,000. Klecker is the seventh-seed entering the final.

Morley's second round is also a stacked field with Orton of BYU leading at 8:49.63. Behind her is the defending national champion Alicia Monson of Wisconsin, Kelati, Ella Donaghu of Stanford and Izzo of Arkansas. Morley enters as the 10th seed at 9:00.36, an altitude converted time from her mostly solo effort at the Colorado Invitational.
...
"

 

[WarBuff]

The official cubuffs.com preview is now available-

Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/3/10/track-and-field-colorado-set-for-2020-national-championships.aspx
(I edited the original post in this thread to include the schedule from this article that lists when all the Buffs will be running this weekend.)

"
BOULDER – The University of Colorado track and field program is sending seven individuals to the 2020 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., beginning Friday, March 13, and running through Saturday, March 14.

The meet will be televised on ESPN3 beginning at 5 p.m. MT on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday. Live results are available here along with start lists and team scores.

Dani Jones' pursuit in the 800 and mile kicks off the championship action as she runs the mile semifinal at 5:35 p.m. Friday and the 800 semifinal at 7:10 p.m. Jones will look to finish top-four in her heat to advance to the finals in the mile, then top-3 in the 800 in her heat. In both scenarios, the next two best times outside the automatic qualifying positions advance to finals.

Jones is the first CU athlete to attempt an 800/mile double or even a double including an 800 (i.e. 800/1,500). She is the first CU woman in the 800 at a national championship since Lee Ballenger at the 1979 outdoor championships. The last Buff to line up for an individual 800 in a national championship was Mike Macinko 30 years ago in the 1990 indoor championships.

Just 10 minutes after Jones finishes the 800 semifinals, Joe Klecker and Makena Morley will begin their first of two event finals. Klecker is up first in the men's 5,000 where he will match up against Edwin Kurgat for the third time this season. Kurgat won the cross country individual title but was far from Klecker's finish at the Millrose Games in the 3,000. They will also face off with Tyler Day of Northern Arizona and his teammate Luis Grijalva. Klecker enters the race as the sixth seed.

Morley will be up on the track next in the women's 5,000 where she will look to chase top-seeded Katie Izzo of Arkansas and the cross country national champion on her home track in Weini Kelati. Both ran under 15:15 this season, but after Morley is in a tight pack with Bethany Hasz of Minnesota and Carmela Cardama Baez of Oregon. The three women are separated in the seedings by less than a second before there is a large 11-second drop off.

The final event on the track for Colorado in the first day of action is the women's distance medley relay team of Annie Hill, Karina Mann, Rachel McArthur and Valerie Welch. BYU has the top time in the nation at 10:53.95, followed by Stanford, Washington, Arkansas and Oregon. Colorado hopes their altitude training will propel them up the field.

Saturday will be the final test piece in the Jones double. Beginning at 4:20 p.m., Jones is the heavy favorite in the mile with the top-seed time of 4:27.88. BYU's Whittni Orton had the second-best time at 4:29.76 but scratched to focus on the 3,000. Kelati also dropped at 4:32.66 to focus on the 5,000, leaving Penn State's Danae Rivers as the second-seeded time at 4:32.95.

Less than 80 minutes after that Jones will line up again in the women's 800. She enters with the fifth-best time at 2:03.58, an altitude adjusted time from her school-record performance at the Colorado Invitational. Nia Akins of Penn is the top-seed at 2:00.71 along with a freshman from Washington and a pair of seniors from Georgia and Delaware.

Klecker's second round of competition begins at 6:10 p.m. in the 3,000. Grijalva has the top time at 7:43.73, followed by his teammates Geordie Beamish and Day. Oregon's Cooper Teare is the fourth seed, followed by Yared Nuguse of Notre Dame and James West of Oregon. Kurgat is also in the field, making for a loaded field in the men's 3,000. Klecker is the seventh-seed entering the final.

Morley's second round is also a stacked field with Orton of BYU leading at 8:49.63. Behind her is the defending national champion Alicia Monson of Wisconsin, Kelati, Ella Donaghu of Stanford and Izzo of Arkansas. Morley enters as the 10th seed at 9:00.36, an altitude converted time from her mostly solo effort at the Colorado Invitational.
...
"

It would be great to see Dani honored at halftime next football season. She has been phenomenal.

 

[AztecBuff]

The Start lists (AKA Heat Sheets) have now been released, and I've inserted the links in the original post.

With Dani Jones being the only Buff having prelims in this Championship to worry about (distances over a mile and the DMR don't have prelims), the heat sheets were I assume mainly of interest to her. With her high expectations, assume it may not be too important, but it looks like she has ended up in heat 2 of 2 in both the 800M and 1 mile runs. Although it often doesn't seem to be utilized, the truism in track is that being in the later heat is an advantage as the runners in that heat will have already seen what the heat 1 times are. Because of this, they'll know how much effort they need to put out to help maximize the chance that those who don't finish in auto-qualifying spots (which are the top 3 finishers in the 800M heats and top 4 for the mile) go quick enough so the they earn one of the two time qualifying spots.

 

[AztecBuff]

Wanted to add that (Edit- actually feels a little weird to me as I think more of it), re the Corona virus, the latest thing I could find says the CURRENT plan is for the Championships to still take place per https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerq...nships-continue-despite-coronavirus-concerns/ . (Looks like this article was updated EARLY this morning; don't know if there have been later developments.)

"
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Despite the coronavirus outbreak, thousands of people from all over the country are traveling to Albuquerque this week for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Events all over the country have been canceled due to coronavirus like SXSW in Austin but for now, this weekend’s track championships are still on.

The Albuquerque Convention Center is expecting a sell-out crowd of as many as 3,000 athletes, coaches, and their families. With that comes increased cleaning measures.

The convention center said it has added hand sanitizer stations throughout the building and is reminding their employees to wash their hands. They will also be repeatedly cleaning high touchpoints like elevator buttons and handrails.

“With no confirmed cases in New Mexico, we still have a lot of guests coming in from other states so we want to make sure that we do our part to help prevent the spread,” Convention Center General Manager Jose Garcia said.

Convention center officials said it would be up to the NCAA to cancel the event if the concern was high enough, but right now, everything is still on track for this weekend.

The NCAA released the following statement on Tuesday:

“The NCAA continues to assess how COVID-19 impacts the conduct of our tournaments and events. We are consulting with public health officials and our COVID-19 advisory panel, who are leading experts in epidemiology and public health, and will make decisions in the coming days.”

“The city and state and university and especially the convention center is excited about the NCAA D1 championships,” Garcia said. “To be able to see and experience the level of athleticism here is tremendous.”
...
"

 

[AztecBuff]

Believe this tweet was already posted in another thread/ Allbuff's forum, but the NCAA's track and field twitter account (https://NOPE/NCAATrackField) did retweet the below from the head of the NCAA. (Be interesting to see how this ends up; hope everyone stays safe out there.)


Also, the article in my last post above said there were no confirmed cases in New Mexico. Per https://www.krqe.com/health/coronav...cases-of-coronavirus-confirmed-in-new-mexico/, looks like that's changed.

"
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The New Mexico Department of Health and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham have confirmed on Wednesday, March 11 that three New Mexico residents have tested presumptively positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). According to NMDOH two cases are in Socorro County and are a husband and wife both of which are in their 60s and recently traveled to Egypt.

The third case is a woman in her 70s in Bernalillo County who recently traveled to the New York City area. All three individuals are at their homes in isolation. A statement was issued by the University of New Mexico Hospital:
...
"

Edit - Per the below Instagram from one of their student-athletes, Harvard has scratched the 3 track people (without their consent or input) it had going to NCAA's, so they won't be competing.

 

[AztecBuff]

 

[AztecBuff]

(Pending any additional changes given the very dynamic situation)- Looks like it's just going to be the athletes, their coaches, competition officials, facility support, and (hopefully) cameramen and announcers at the Championships.

 

[AztecBuff]

 

[WarBuff]

I like to think that Dani is fast enough to outrun both the competition and the virus.