THE WARM-UP LAP: Rod McCravy Memorial Distance and Jumps Preview

If you’re a track & field fan who can be near a computer on Friday and Saturday to watch the two-day Kentucky Rod McCravy Memorial on the SEC Network Plus (online), we’d recommend you do that.

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With 16 teams between both genders ranked in the top 25 of the preseason U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Team Computer Rankings and hordes of national individual contenders descending on Lexington this weekend, this just might be the best track & field meet you’ll see until the NCAA Championships in mid-March (no disrespect intended, Tyson and Husky) – and it’s this week’s National Meet of the Week.

Here’s the full list of nationally ranked teams:

Each of the sports disciplines – sprints/hurdles/relays, distance, jumps, throws, and combined events – are stacked with multiple events pitting NCAA champions and/or title contenders against one another, setting the stage for an all-around fantastic weekend of competition.

We’ll focus on the meets’ deepest distance and jumping events in this section of the preview, but be sure to check out our advance look at the sprints/hurdles, throws and combined event action – featuring Trayvon Bromell, Kendell and Kendal Williams, Jasmine Todd, Kendra Harrison, Kearsten Peoples and much, much more – here.

Friday Night Distance

The good news in the 5k (7:55 PM, all times eastern) is that Oregon’s Eric Jenkins will bang heads with Arkansas’s Stanley Kebenei and Will Geoghegan will make his long-awaited debut. The bad news is that the presence of Jenkins and Geoghegan in the 5000 probably means that Oregon isn’t stacking its DMR. We know that the 5k will be spicy–Flotrack reported that Trevor Dunbar is rabbing the Ducks to sub-13:40–but that concentration of heat probably cools off the distance medley.

(Of course, watch Oregon line up something like Cheserek-Prakel-Franzmair and run 9:25)

Jenkins ran 13:18 at Stanford for Northeastern in 2013; Kebenei’s 8:24 steeple PR indicates that his 13:42 5k is soft; yet-unmentioned Ducks Parker Stinson and Jeremy Elkaim have run 13:31 and 13:39. Sub-13:30 indoors is pretty rarefied territory; sub-13:25 would be in the top ten in collegiate history. Depending on how aggressively Dunbar is directed to set the pace, and of course, his execution, somebody could make history on Friday night. Jenkins is the best guess, but fast 5ks have been known to come out of nowhere.

The women’s DMR (8:15 PM) features defending champs Arkansas and always-respectable (and 2014 meet-record-setting) Oregon. Several teams in the field, including the Hogs, Ducks, LSU, and Baylor, have one or two All-American quality middle distance legs on their roster, but not the three required to threaten eleven minutes. The winner of this race might run the 11:05 or so that it typically takes to make nationals, but we won’t see the 2015 national champions race here. Similarly, the men’s DMR (8:30 PM) could go in the 9:30s–even if Oregon doesn’t run their potentially all-star lineup–but that’s about as explosive as that will get.

Friday Night Jumps

The women’s pole vault (starting at 3:00 PM) has been the best event in the NCAA so far this year. Former collegiate record holder Sandi Morris is in the field; grand-record-holder Kaitlin Petrillose of Texas isn’t. Morris’s 4.61m (15-1.5) is the best in the field, and Georgia’s Morgann Leleux and Oregon assistant coach Melissa Gergel (the 2010 NCAA indoor champ) have each cleared 4.50 indoors.

Last weekend, Morris and Demi Payne were able to set their collegiate records by taking very few jumps and starting when the entire field fouled out before even getting to 4.30 meters. That’s unlikely this weekend with Leleux and Gergel at the meet; the competition could bring out the best in them, but having to jump repeatedly could also tire them out.

The women’s long jump (starting at 3:00 PM) features a fantastic Oregon-Florida showdown.
Jasmine Todd (owner of the #2 mark in the NCAA last season) and Jenna Prandini (the outdoor national champ) will face off against Brittany Harrell, Ciarra Brewer, and Robin Reynolds, who are moonlighting from their best events of the pentathlon, triple jump, and 400, respectively. The men’s long jump (6:00 PM) isn’t quite as loaded, but does feature the season debut of 2014 outdoor national champ Marquis Dendy.

Saturday Distance

Ches alert! The King is making his track season debut in the 3000 (3:40 PM), and it’s more likely than not that this won’t be the sit-and-kick affair that most of Cheserek’s non-Lawi college races have been. For one, Dunbar is also entered here, though it’s unclear if he’s racing or pacing. And Arkansas’ Kemoy Campbell has been away from the scene for more than a year–he made a solid re-debut with a 2:24 1k against Texas, but this is another level–and he’s shown a willingness to run aggressively and has the 7:46 PB to back it up. Two more guys hoping for a fast race are All-Americans Craig Lutz of Texas and Johnny Gregorek of Oregon.

Kentucky and Edrick Floréal have done such a good job attracting talent to this meet that the 3k may not even be the premier men’s distance race on Saturday afternoon. That could be the 800 (3:00 PM), which features Florida’s Ryan Schnulle, Kentucky’s Keffri Neal, and Arkansas’ Patrick Rono, who went 2-3-4 at outdoor NCAAs. They’re joined by Oregon freshman Kiki Franzmair, a 1:46 man from Austria.

The men’s mile (1:40 PM) is a hair less spicy than the two events sandwiching it, but it does feature NCAA debuts from prep star Blake Haney (Oregon) and Iowa Central transfer (a school that’s been pretty kind to Arkansas) Frankline Tonui. One or both could be major dark horses in an event that’s wide-open nationally.

The slight favorite in the women’s mile (1:20 PM) is Dominique Scott of Arkansas, who has finished first or second in every single indoor race she’s run since the beginning of last season. Scott has only lost to (among collegians) Cory McGee, Grace Heymsfield, and Abbey D’Agostino indoors in the last thirteen months, but Colleen Quigley of Florida State hopes to add her name to that list. Her 1500/mile PRs of 4:15/4:34 are almost identical to Scott’s 4:14/4:36. Unanswered: whether or not Scott thinks a hot dog is a sandwich.

Saturday Jumps

Here’s the single most intriguing head-to-head matchup of the weekend: Marquis Dendy vs. Baylor’s Felix Obi in the triple jump (2:00 PM). Obi’s the 2014 indoor champ, Dendy’s the 2014 outdoor champ. As Dendy told us on the podcast, he was out of shape indoors following shoulder surgery, and Obi missed outdoors with knee surgery. We could see two entries into the vaunted indoor 17-meter club on Saturday. (One of its members is Floréal, who went 17.05 to win NCAAs in 1989) Neither Dendy nor Obi has hopped, skipped, or jumped their way to 17 meters indoors yet.

The women’s TJ (11:00 AM) features 2014 outdoor third-placer Ciarra Brewer and the college triple jump debut of Georgia freshman Keturah Orji. The latter is the current national leader in long jump, and went 13.69m at World Youths in 2013. That mark would have been one of the best in the NCAA last year.