CONFERENCE PREVIEW: What to Watch Beyond the Power Five

We’re breaking down all the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field conference championship action going down this weekend, and that’s not limited to just the ACC, SEC, Pac-12 (coming soon), Big 12 (coming soon), and Big Ten (coming soon).

From sea to shining sea and from the North to the South, there are match-ups and athletes to watch all over the country.

While those big conferences will get much of the attention this weekend, we’ve picked out some events the discerning track & field fan might want to keep their eyes on.

For the details on every conference championship meet this weekend – including the ones listed below – be sure to check out the USTFCCCA Conference Championships Central page.

Summit League Championships

Erin Teschuk of North Dakota State has been one of the biggest breakout distance runners of the 2015 track & field season, and she’s going to try to capitalize on that with a distance triple this weekend in Macomb, Illinois.

Her biggest breakthrough of the year may have come in the 3000-meter steeplechase, in which she ran a 40-second career-best 9:43.83 for the No. 4 spot on the 2015 collegiate list. That’s where she’ll begin her distance triple today at 7:45pm ET.

She’s also lowered her career-best 1500 time by 10 seconds this season, coming in at No. 23 in the nation with a 4:17.10 (after finishing fifth in the NCAA indoor mile championship). She’ll contest that event on Friday at 1:35pm ET.

She caps off the weekend with a 5000-meter race on Saturday at 3:30pm ET. She’s only finished one 5k in her NDSU track career: an 18:01.36 from the 2014 indoor season that’s just begging to be broken.

WAC Championships

From one breakthrough steepler to another, UMKC’s collegiate-leading Courtney Frerichs will be doing a steeple/5000-meter double in Orem, Utah, at nearly 5,000 feet of elevation. This will be the junior’s first race since winning the Payton Jordan steeplechase in 9:32.12 to move to No. 3 on the all-time collegiate performers list and being named to the Bowerman Trophy Watch List.

She’ll contest the steeple Friday afternoon at 3:20pm ET.

Saturday will see her double back for the 5000, an event in which she ran a career-best 15:47.56 during the indoor season to finish fifth at the NCAA Championships. Look for her to top her former career outdoor best of 16:22.98 from the 2013 season – which was the last time she raced this distance in the great outdoors.

Mid-American Conference Championships

As of publication, collegiate-leading hammer thrower Brooke Pleger of Bowling Green claimed her third consecutive MAC title while bolstering her position as the No. 10 collegian of all-time with a career-best winning heave of 228-9 (69.72).

But don’t despair, there’s still much more hammer throw MACtion to be had. On Friday at 10am ET, defending national men’s champion Matthias Tayala of Kent State will step into the ring and look to defend his two MAC crowns. The senior is currently ranked No. 3 in the country at 233-1 (71.05m).

From throwing far to jumping high, the Year of the Vault continues Saturday at 2pm ET as Shawn Barber of Akron looks to finally topple the collegiate pole vault record of 19-7½ (5.98m) held for nearly two decades by Lawrence Johnson of Tennessee (1996).

The two-time indoor champ’s outdoor season hasn’t been as consistent as his stellar indoor campaign, as evidence by his last two weekends. At the Drake Relays he defeated world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie of France with a jump of 19-1 (5.82) and then jumped 19-4¾ (5.91m) the following week, before no-heighting at 17-¾ (5.20m) this past weekend.

Mountain West Championships

Distance standouts Emma Bates of Boise State – the reigning national champion at 10,000 meters – and Calli Thackery of New Mexico will duel with one another over two difference distance in the span of less than three hours on Saturday at the conference championships in San Diego.

The two will first square off at 1500 meters at 2:20pm ET (assuming both make it through qualifying on Friday). Thackery holds the edge in this event this year, having run 4:15.41 (No. 15 in DI this year) to Bates’ 4:16.37.

Both are also scheduled to then compete at 5000 meters at 4:40pm ET. Bates has the upper hand here, having run 15:32.46 (No. 3) to Thackery’s 15:42.57 (No. 12). Thackery will be joined by her Lobo teammate Alice Wright, who is No. 14 this year at 15:45.87. If this turns into a sit-and-kick, will Thackery be able to outmaneuver Bates? Or if this becomes a true test of aerobic endurance, will Bates be able to wear down Thackery?

The wild card is that Wright is also ranked No. 7 at 10,000 meters, about 30 seconds behind Bates’ No. 4 rank.

Big Sky Championships

As Bates and Thackery battle in San Diego, another distance duel will be underway at the Big Sky Championships at Eastern Washington: breakout mile/1500 star Cristian Soratos of Montana State and Northern Arizona’s Futsum Zienasellassie & Co.

The two first go head-to-head in Soratos’ specialty, the 1500, at 3:35pm ET. The senior is No. 7 in the country at that distance with an altitude-converted 3:39.65 after finishing runner-up at the NCAA indoor championships in the mile, while Futsum is seeded at No. 9 at 3:50.27. His NAU teammates Weston Strum and Nathan Weitz are also in the mix at 3:44.27 and 3:44.67.

Just less than three hours later at 6:25 pm ET, the two are scheduled to square off once more at 5000 meters, which is more in the wheelhouse of cross country star Futsum. The junior is the top seed in this event at 13:49.34, while Soratos is No. 7 at 14:07.57. Again, Strum and Weitz are in the mix again at Nos. 4 and 5.

Whether Soratos does indeed run the 5k is yet to be seen, as he is also slated to compete in the 800 meter final (should he qualify, though he is the top seed) at 5pm ET.

Missouri Valley Conference Championships

After a dominant indoor season in which she won the NCAA shot put title as a frosh, Raven Saunders of Southern Illinois has flown somewhat under-the-radar by comparison during the outdoor campaign. Though she approached the 60-foot barrier with a heave of 59-9¾ (18.23m) at the Mt. SAC Relays to move to No. 2 in the country, she’s been hovering in the low-to-mid 17-meter range for most of the outdoor season. Granted, she’s also been pulling triple duty between the shot put, hammer throw and discus.

Will this be her big breakthrough meet that propels her over the 60-foot threshold and into/near the collegiate lead currently held by indoor runner-up Tori Bliss once more? Find out beginning at 4pm ET on Saturday, from Normal, Illinois.

Conference USA Championships

Speaking of under-the-radar throwers, how about collegiate-leading men’s javelin thrower John Ampomah of Middle Tennessee State? He threw an incredible 267-7 (81.55m) to win the Penn Relays by nearly 30 feet in mid-April.

In his one competition since, he managed just a season-low 230-2 (70.15m) at the UT Challenge. Though he has multiple meets in the neighborhood of 250 feet, can he recapture his Penn Relays form to truly become an NCAA Championship contender? After all, that monster heave is his only throw of the season that has left the 250-foot ballpark.

He takes the runway at the Conference USA Championships at 5:30pm ET on Saturday.

Later that night at 11:20pm ET, two-time defending national steeplechase champion Anthony Rotich of UTEP will take the track in his signature event. He’s currently ranked No. 8 in the country at 8:39.70, though he hasn’t raced in a big-time meet like Mt. SAC, Payton Jordan or the Stanford Invitational.

This will be his first of three events on the weekend, so he should be fresh for a fast time, should he choose to go for it. He’ll be back Sunday at 7:05pm ET in the 1500 (remember he was the indoor mile national champion a year ago) and at 9:15pm ET in the 5000 (he’s ranked No. 3 nationally over that distance).

American Conference Championships

If the final event on our list – the men’s 4×400 at the American Conference Championship – is anything like how it went down during the indoor season, it is most certainly a fitting ending to this list. Houston, Tulsa and Connecticut were all alive for the team title with just the meet-finale 4×400 relay to go, and it took a new conference record to seal the event and team title win.

The times weren’t the fastest in the country by any means, but pure competition over-rode the pursuit of the stopwatch in this instance. Houston won by less than half a second over Tulsa, 3:13.53 to 3:13.96, as UConn finished third in 3:14.09 and all three teams finished under the previous meet record. And that was the order in which those teams would finish in the overall team standings, as well.