Sun Angel Classic Features Loaded Men’s 400

NEW ORLEANS—College track & field is in a weird and fun place right now. The way we do things is not at all calcified.  Running track is pretty simple—first one to finish wins—but structuring track meets and how one meet leads to another is anything but. 

For a nearly perfect summary of the flux that our sport is in, as always, look to TrackTown. The perfectly anodyne and competent Eric Jenkins and Ed Cheserek were booed (booing at a track meet! I have the vapors!) at Stanford for jogging 29-minute 10ks and losing to literally dozens of athletes they could have beaten if titles were at stake.

It’s easy to argue that the two best distance runners in the NCAA entering a race and not really trying is bad for that sport. (I just had a straw man make that very argument for me) But Andy Powell proffered the semi-questionable explanation that the duo was saving itself for this weekend’s tri-meet with Kentucky and Washington—and here’s where booing gets logically fraught.

There’s ample disagreement among the major stakeholders in the sport (coaches, media, athletes) about how to make track more relevant, but there is very, very broad consensus that the path to relevance includes a gentle shift away from ten-hour time trial meets (one example: Stanford) and towards concise, team-oriented competition (one example: the Oregon-Kentucky-Washington tri meet). So Cheserek and Jenkins thumbed their noses at the fans last weekend… so that they could please the fans this weekend.

At least Powell and Oregon took action to put on a meet that exists to entertain the fans, and explained their actions when they were a blatant disservice to the fans. There’s an emerging class of programs—with the resources to do so—that are taking advantage of the sport’s flexibility to make it more appealing and engaging.   This isn’t altruism, necessarily; it’s also how you save the sport (not just your own program) from being a deleteable cell on an athletic director’s budgetary spreadsheet. 

One such program is Arizona State. Sun Devils assistant Jeremy Rasmussen created last weekend’s entertaining Pac-12/Big 10 Challenge.  And this weekend’s Sun Angel Classic is structured in a way that actually shows attentiveness to every constituency in the sport.  There are endless open sections, giving athletes ample opportunities to compete.  Those are simply not for the fans, and they’ll take about eight hours on Saturday.  Then from roughly 6 to 9 local time on Saturday night, it’s the elite sections of every event. This is a pretty peaceful compromise between serving fans and athletes.  Here’s what fans should be paying attention to on Saturday night.

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Race of the Weekend

Kirani James and Deon Lendore have been the two fastest indoor 400 performers in the world in the decade since Kerron Clemont set the world record at the NCAA meet. The two studs—who were born just eight weeks apart in 1992—headline the spiciest matchup of the weekend at 7:22 PT/10:22 ET.

This is the outdoor 400 season debut for both men. James, the defending Olympic champ, suffered a surprising world championship loss to Lashawn Merritt in Moscow, but rebounded in 2014.  He ran 43.74 to beat Merritt in Lausanne and tie him for the fifth fastest man in the event of all time.

Lendore had a similarly auspicious 2014, winning The Bowerman and every final he entered. But 2015 has not lived up to the stratospheric standard he set last year.  He injured his groin at SECs and simply has not been the same since.  At indoor NCAAs, Lendore wasn’t even the first Aggie in the 400—that would be Bralon Taplin, who’s entered on Saturday as well.

The senior has only run one open race this outdoor season: his first-ever outdoor 200, at Stanford in 21.04 seconds.  That time might not be as bad as it seems—Stanford isn’t known for producing fast sprint times and he won 0.38 seconds racing into a -1.0 headwind. 

On Saturday night, we’ll know much more about how Lendore’s recovery is going.  The forecast is favorable for sprinting, and the competition is the best that the planet can provide. Remember, Lendore entered this meet with injury questions a year ago after the Texas Relays, and provided a definitive answer with a then-career-best 44.90.

(If that’s not enough spice for one event, indoor 800 champ Ed Kemboi of Iowa State is running the 400 in one of the open sections. He’s never run an outdoor 400 in an Iowa State uniform, but he ran 48.37 this winter)

The Shelbi/ys and the Littles

Shelby Houlihan, Shelbi Vaughan, Shamier Little, and Ashante Little all won NCAA titles in 2014, but have yet to do in 2015.  That doesn’t mean they’ve regressed—Houlihan was merely eclipsed by the supernova of Leah O’Connor, Vaughan (discus) and S. Little (400 hurdles) won their titles in outdoor-only events, and Little graduated—but it does mean that they’re hungry as hell this outdoor season.

Last year, Houlihan opened her outdoor season with a 2:05 800 before running 4:13 for 1500 at Sun Angel. This year, she switched the order up, running a 4:14 1500 last week at the Pac-12 vs. Big 10 meet and contesting the 800 this week. The eight is the only event that Houlihan has done in 2015 without PR-ing in it.  She slashed two seconds from her 3k best and improved her mile from 4:38 to 4:28; with likely only one more 800 on her docket between now and outdoor nationals, 2:02.95 is the number to watch this weekend.  On Saturday at 8:16 PT/11:16 ET, she’ll face off against Karine Belleau-Believeau and Hilary Stellingwerff.  Both of those women are excellently named Canadians in their early 30s who have run 2:01 before.

Vaughan is the defending NCAA discus champ and the current national leader.  She’ll throw against Northern Arizona’s Julia Viberg, who’s currently sitting second on the descending order list.  The women’s premiere discus is at 1:00 PT/4:00 ET; unfortunately, the stream starts at 6:00 PT.

After spending her indoor season running extremely well in only flat events, Shamier Little opened her hurdling season with a 56.42 400H at Stanford last weekend.  That’s 1.16 seconds faster than what she ran in Palo Alto a year ago;  at 2014 Sun Angel, she ran 56.55.  If she continued last week’s trend and ran 55.39 at Sun Angel on Saturday (at 6:51 Pacific/9:51 Eastern) she’d be #2 on the national list, behind the stellar 54.94 from Kendra Harrison of Kentucky. 

Texas A&M’s Little lost to Harrison by over a second at last year’s SEC meet before beating her by half a second for the national title in Eugene.

The other Little has never broken 58 seconds, but merits mention because she’s that rarest of unicorns: a Division III alum making it as a professional sprinter.

Three More Events to Watch

Women’s 100 (7:33 PT/10:33 ET): Texas A&M’s Ashton Purvis, Ashton Purvis, and Jennifer Madu will chase pro Muna Lee.

High Jump (Women at noon PT, men at 3 PT): Will Arizona State’s Bryan McBride (2.28m) and Kansas State’s Kimberly Williamson (1.87m) jump to the potential that their elite PBs suggest?  McBride won outdoor nationals last year, but neither cracked the top ten at NCAA indoors.

Men’s triple jump (1:00 PT/4:00 ET):  2015 national leader Latario Collie of Texas A&M faces off against the…

Name of the Meet

Event 64 Men Triple Jump OPEN

3 Hernandez, Aaron Chinook Trac 15.50m