NCAA Champs Update, World Record Broken, HS Indoor, Collegiate Indoor, & Athlete Spotlight
RunRank Issue #19 | A Weekly Column focused on running news and culture from around the world
Welcome back to another weekly recap at Run Rank! Competition is coming back in full force now so there is a lot more to cover this week.
NCAA Championships came out with a new schedule to help hold the meet even through covid restrictions.
A world record was broken this week. Keep reading to find out what event and what the mark was.
We will cover some of the top high school indoor track performances this past weekend.
NCAA universities are coming back strong as many schools opened up their indoor season this weekend.
This week’s athlete spotlight will cover an athlete who recently retired in the marathon at the age of 33.
Let’s go!
NCAA Champs Update
The NCAA came out with an update on the Division I championships this week. Unlike the past announcements over the past few months that cancel major events around the world, the NCAA is moving to a three-day schedule to help reduce the amount of people in the building at once and to reduce the risk of covid transmissions.
The event will now take place from March 11th-13th. On Thursday, the venue will consist of the first half of the Men’s Heptathlon and Women’s Pentathlon as well as the weight throw. On Friday, the Men’s Heptathlon will wrap up in the morning before the semifinals for the sprint events, the majority of field events, and the finals for the 5000m and DMR take place. On Saturday, the final day of the meet, finals for all remaining events will take place. On Friday and Saturday, the aim looks to run the majority of men’s events prior to women entering the venue with very few exceptions.
You can find the full updated schedule here.
World Record Broken
A world record was broken this past week in the men’s triple jump. Hugues Fabrice Zango broke the indoor world record for the men’s triple jump with a jump of 18.07m. This is the first jump indoors of over 18.00m ever as well as a very big PB for Zango. His previous personal best was 17.66m set back in 2019 at the Doha World Championships where he earned bronze.
If you combine the indoor and outdoor all-time list, this jump places Zango 6th all-time, just 1 cm behind 5th place. In 2016, Zango competed for Burkina Faso at the Olympics, and finished 17th. Throughout history, the country has sent 41 athletes to Olympic Games, but have yet to earn a medal. Zango will look to be the first from his country to earn a medal in 2021 in Tokyo.
HS Indoor Update
The Virginia Showcase was this past week and like always, it brought in elite talent from all over the country. To put it in perspective, I use milesplit.com to find meet results for US high school meets, and while a normal meet has about 15-30 gold standard performances, the Virginia Showcase had 146 this year.
You know its a good meet when you can only cover the US #1 times because there are too many US top-10 times for one article.
For the girls, the performance of the weekend was easily Juliette Whitaker. The high school, junior hit the US Olympic Trials standard for the 800m with a time of 2:02.07. This heat of the girl’s 800m was FAST as the top 4 times run all season were run here. In the girl’s 4x400m, the top 7 times in the country were run at this meet, led by MVP League from Virginia in a time of 3:47.68. In the 55m Hurdles, there were several new top 10 times in the US led by Falon Spearman from North Carolina in a time of 7.95. Virginia Tech commit Victoria Perrow led the 55m dash in a time of 6.93 for a US #1 as well. Last but not least, University of Arkansas commit Sydney Thorvaldson led the girl’s 1-mile race in a time of 4:43.90 for a new US #1 while leading several others into the top-10.
For the boys, Jaylen Slade continues to find more success with a new US #1 in the boy’s 300m in a time of 32.77, leading seven other boys to the top-8 this season. This time is the US #2 all-time. Slade also was a part of the IMG Elite 4x400m that also took the new US #1 in a time of 3:16.98. Also out of Florida, Leonard Mustari took the new US #1 in the 55m hurdles to add to his standing US #1 in the 60m hurdles in a time of 7.21. Terrell Robinson Jr. of North Carolina took the new US #1 crown in the 55m dash with a time of 6.31, and leading three both boys into the US top-5. University of Florida commit Samuel Austin took the US #1 800m time with a time of 1:53.30. Nathan Green, University of Washington commit, ran a time of 4:13.25 for a new US #1 mile and the fastest converted time in the country between the 1500m, 1600m, and boy’s mile. And last but not least, Cooper Mack of South Dakota set a new US #1 in the boy’s shot put with a throw of 19.75m.
And after typing all of those new US #1 performances, my hands need a little break from typing.
Collegiate Indoor Update
Unfortunately that break wasn’t long enough since the collegiate indoor season also has several new #1 marks. On the men’s side of the NCAA DI alone, the only two events without a new #1 mark are the high jump and weight throw. So prepare for a lot of results very quickly. We will divide it among men and women, and go through each collegiate division. Not all performances will be covered, so feel free to check TFRRS.org for a full list of results.
For NCAA DI men, Kasaun James of Florida State opened up the season with a 6.57 60m dash, just 0.02 off of his personal best. Courtney Lindsey of Texas Tech ran 20.45 to hold a comfortable #1 spot atop DI men. His teammate Takieddine Hedeilli ran a personal best and new #1 time in the 800m with a 1:45.98, a several second PB. While there were other great performance, these three hold very respectable leads over second place.
For NCAA DI women, Abby Steiner of Kentucky opened the season with a 22.83 200m in her first race since winning the SEC Indoor Championship last year with a 22.57. In her collegiate debut, Athing Mu ran a 2:01.07 800m, less than half a second from the NCAA Indoor collegiate record. Bethany Hasz may have dropped to 5th in the 3000m, but ran a 5000m #1 with a time of 15:50, a considerable improvement from the 16:26 she ran last year at the Big 10 Championships in her last indoor 5000m.
For NCAA DII men, Benjamin Azamati ran a new personal best of 6.60 in the 60m. In the men’s mile, Christian Noble ran a personal best of 4:00.60 that would actually lead the NCAA DI and DII men so far this year. There were no major NCAA DII women’s performances this past week.
For NCAA DIII men, the only major performance came from Joe Freiburger who ran a 14:23 converted 5000m. This converted time would place him 5th in DI. His personal best in the event is a 14:31, and the original time was 14:32 on a flat track. He will be an athlete to watch this season as he enters his senior year. There were no major NCAA DIII women’s performances this past week.
There were no major performances in the NAIA or NCCAA for either men or women this past week.
In the NJCAA, there were no major performances just yet, but there are several athletes close to the brink of making top collegiate lists. We will keep you updated on this over the next few weeks.
Athlete Spotlight
For this week’s athlete spotlight, we will cover the career of Andrew Bumbalough. In his career, he competed at an elite level in events ranging from the 1500m to the marathon. Andrew began his running career in his home state of Tennessee before competing at Georgetown University. He earned several All-American honors while racing for Georgetown before moving on to race professionally. Andrew raced at several major events but most notably was his race at the 2014 USATF Indoor Championships where he was disqualified for interfering with Galen Rupp. The only issue, video replay showed that he did not interfere with Rupp at all. However, the disqualification stood and life moved on. In 2017, he helped to pace for the Nike Breaking 2 event for Eliud Kipchoge. This should not be confused with the 1:59 event where Kipchoge did break 2 hours in the marathon in 2019.
However, even with such a great career and some very notable events, Andrew is deciding to hang up his spikes at the age of 33. He stated that the decision came after a combination of a poor performance at the USATF Marathon Olympic Trials in February 2020 and covid sweeping the world afterwards. He will continue to focus on product marketing for Nike in the future. We at Run Rank wish him the best of luck in retirement!
You can read the full article here.