August is upon us; cross country and other fall sports practices begin in two weeks! Where did the summer go?
But, for a select group of Kansas track and field athletes the summer and the 2012 track & field season isn’t quite over yet. The AAU National Junior Olympics are being held in Houston this week.
Most eyes for the next two weeks are glued to the television for NBC’s taped delay “live” broadcast or to their computer. I hate it when the news people talk about “seeing today’s action ‘live’ from London”.
What I’ve really been pumped about this Olympics is the fact that for the first time, we in the USA really have an opportunity to see all the heats and other sports actually live from these Olympic Games. I may be a track & field fan first and foremost, but I really enjoy just watching good, athletic competition! Be it badminton, water polo, volleyball, swimming, rowing, whatever! (I’m still trying to get into sailing.) I have both my laptop and iPad set up to watch as much of the action from England as I can, action that usually ends up on the cutting room floor at NBC as the network focuses on its “human interest” stories, usually about members of the USA team, or a name athlete or two from outside the USA.
But, on Friday the historical basis of the Olympics begin! August 3rd through 12th, it will be TRACK and FIELD!! Bring it on!
Amy Hastings (former Leavenworth HS), coming off her Olympic Trials win, will make her first Olympic appearance in the women’s 10,000 meters on Friday, the opening day for track. The women’s 10k will be the concluding track event on Friday, August 3, beginning at 3:25 p.m. Central Standard Time. The event will be a finals-only.
Isiah Young (former Junction City HS), who placed third in the USA Olympic Trials, will have to wait until Tuesday, August 7th, to compete in the first round heats of the men’s 200 meters. Those heats will the final event of the afternoon session in London, 5:50 a.m. Central Time, morning for us in Kansas. The semi-finals of the men’s 200 will be contested on Wednesday, August 8th, at in the middle of the afternoon (evening session in London), 2:10 p.m. here in Kansas with the finals scheduled for 2:55 p.m. Central Time on Thursday.
While Amy and Isiah are the only former Kansas preps competing in track in London, there are quite a number of individuals competing in London, some but not all in track & field, who have Kansas connection’s; athletes who may be currently be competing at Kansas colleges or who have competed for Kansas colleges and jucos in the past. Listen and watch close so you don’t miss them. Several have an excellent chance of earning gold, silver, or bronze!
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USATF National Junior Olympics
Hughes Stadium – Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD – July 23-29, 2012
The final meets of the 2012 Kansas prep track & field season continues to see changes in the yearly state prep list.
Caroline Bingham (Maranatha Academy) continued her climb up the 400-meter list, moving into #2 with her 56.80 as she finished ninth at the USATF National Junior Olympics in Baltimore, Maryland.
A name to watch in the coming four years will be Claire Theis, who just finished her 8th Grade at Kingman Junior High. Claire placed sixth in the Youth Girls 800 meters while running the #3 time in Kansas for 2012, 2:16.64. For the sake of comparison, the fastest time by a freshman in 2012 we saw was 2:21.33 by Lauren Harrell, Maranatha Academy. Aubrey Wilson (Ell-Saline) ran 2:16.36 in 2011 as a freshman while Heather Ruder (TMP-Marian) had the best freshman time (2:19.12) in 2010. Anna Church (Bishop Meige) and Emilea Finley (Colby) both ran 2:19+ as freshman in 2009.
Two other up-coming freshmen to watch will be Allison Stutterheim (SE of Saline Junior High) and Katie Adam (Ell-Saline Junior High) who placed 7th in the Intermediate Girls 1500 (4:46.50) and 11th in the Youth Girls 3000 (11:06.07), respectively, in Baltimore. The Kansas Flyers, made up of central Kansas girls for the most part, placed second in the Young Women’s 4x800, 4th in Intermediate girls 4x800 and 6th in the Youth Girls 4X800.
Alexa Harmon-Thomas (Lawrence-Free State) led the Intermediate Girls Heptathlon at the end of the first day with 2823 points, but didn’t go to the line for the second day’s events.
On the boys side, Jackson Barbour (SM Northwest) moved into the #4 spot on the 2012 800-meter list as he finished 12th in the qualifying rounds with a best of 1:56.79. Among the top finishers for Kansas boys was Nick Meyer (Bishop Carroll) who placed fourth in the Young Men’s pole vault with a clearance of 15’5”.
Complete results can be found at http://www.usatf.org/events/2012/USATFJuniorOlympicTFChampionships/schedule.asp
If we missed other Kansas place winners (basically, Youth divisions up), we’d appreciate hearing about them.
YG 800 6. Claire Theis (Kingman JH – 8th) 2:16.64 #3 KS ‘12
YG 3000 11. Katie Adam (Ell-Saline JH – 8th) 11:06.07
IG 200 dnq. Caroline Bingham (Maranatha Acad) 25.55
IG 400 9. Caroline Bingham (Maranatha Acad) 56.80 #2 KS ‘12
IG 1500 7. Allison Stutterheim (SE of Saline JH – 8th) 4:46.50
IG Heptathlon dnf. Alexa Harmon-Thomas (Free State) 2823 (Was leading after the first day of competition) (15.20, 5-05, 29-06.5, 26.56)
YM 400 dnq. Jackson Barbour (SM Northwest) 50.48
YM 800 12. Jackson Barbour (SM Northwest) 1:56.79 #4 KS ‘12
YM Pole Vault 4. Nick Meyer (Bishop Carroll) 15-05
YM Shot Put dnq. Kord Ferguson (Ottawa) 50-10.25
YM Discus dnq. Kord Ferguson (Ottawa) 143-04
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Sunflower Games
Hummer Park – Topeka, KS – July 16-17, 2012
Jaxon Wright (Holton) moved into the state’s 2012 top 10 in the 110m hurdles with his 14.60 in winning the Youth Boys division of the Sunflower Games. That time put Wright into a tie for 9th on the state list and gave Class 4A six of the state’s top 10 FAT marks.
