GNAC track and field

[Runnin' Cat]

There's so much High School track and field town in Washington every year that there's really no reason for Central Washington to not be competitive in track and field. From the big schools to the small schools from west to east there's just tons of prep talent and good high school coaching going on. Central should be able to get a lot of those kids.

That was a lot of the discussion from the weekend.

I would go after the 4.5.6 kids from the AA on down and hope to land a couple of premium kids every couple of years. It is all about development, much like WOU has done with kids like Ribich.

[tsull]

CWU has not fielded a decent team in years. There was a time where CWU would dominate the distance events, have good field events, and muster some points in the sprints.

I see that Coach Adkisson is not going to have his contract renewed. I have met him, and he is a decent person. I just think he has never connected with any of the alumni that have been part of the rich history of CWY XC and T&F. He also doesn't seem to have any connections to the WA HS scene. I attended the WIAA State Championships last weekend in Tacoma. My daughter coaches in WA, so I was there to watch her coach as well as meet up with some of my former teammates and others I ran with in HS and college. It was interesting to hear feedback from coaches and these former athletes about the CWU program. One mentioned that CWU was not even regionally relevant anymore.

I hope this give Francios an opportunity to reset the program and bring it back to relevance. There are a lot of coaches out there that could bring the program back to what it once was.

There's so much High School track and field talent in Washington every year that there's really no reason for Central Washington to not be competitive in track and field. From the big schools to the small schools from west to east there's just tons of prep talent and good high school coaching going on. Central should be able to get a lot of those kids.

[Runnin' Cat]

Western Oregon has a great track and field coach right now, with some heavy D1 experience, they moved him up from the assistant job couple years ago. They won a pair of conference titles indoors. He really knows what he's doing.

That said, Western Washington stacked 40 plus distance points on Friday, basically positioning themselves for the title. Western Oregon's best sprinter is also on loan from the football team. So there's some huge gaps in men's track with not very good distance guys and not enough sprinters. They make hay in the field events, which is fine. Western Washington was pretty loaded across the board and you just can't surrender 60 to 70 points in the distances. I was a bit surprised that Central Washington wasn't stronger in track and field.

There are runners out there, Northwest Nazarene had a great runner, who got second in the 5,000 and 10,000 and he's a true freshman from a small Idaho town. He was very impressive. There are people to be found out there all over the Northwest and West Coast. Have a guess there's some decent printers out there too. Nevertheless, I'm really pleased about the coach at Western Oregon and what he's doing with the program, they just need to add to a few events.

CWU has not fielded a decent team in years. There was a time where CWU would dominate the distance events, have good field events, and muster some points in the sprints.

I see that Coach Adkisson is not going to have his contract renewed. I have met him, and he is a decent person. I just think he has never connected with any of the alumni that have been part of the rich history of CWY XC and T&F. He also doesn't seem to have any connections to the WA HS scene. I attended the WIAA State Championships last weekend in Tacoma. My daughter coaches in WA, so I was there to watch her coach as well as meet up with some of my former teammates and others I ran with in HS and college. It was interesting to hear feedback from coaches and these former athletes about the CWU program. One mentioned that CWU was not even regionally relevant anymore.

I hope this give Francios an opportunity to reset the program and bring it back to relevance. There are a lot of coaches out there that could bring the program back to what it once was.

[tsull]

Western Oregon has a great track and field coach right now, with some heavy D1 experience, they moved him up from the assistant job couple years ago. They won a pair of conference titles indoors. He really knows what he's doing.

That said, Western Washington stacked 40 plus distance points on Friday, basically positioning themselves for the title. Western Oregon's best sprinter is also on loan from the football team. So there's some huge gaps in men's track with not very good distance guys and not enough sprinters. They make hay in the field events, which is fine. Western Washington was pretty loaded across the board and you just can't surrender 60 to 70 points in the distances. I was a bit surprised that Central Washington wasn't stronger in track and field.

There are runners out there, Northwest Nazarene had a great runner, who got second in the 5,000 and 10,000 and he's a true freshman from a small Idaho town. He was very impressive. There are people to be found out there all over the Northwest and West Coast. Have a guess there's some decent printers out there too. Nevertheless, I'm really pleased about the coach at Western Oregon and what he's doing with the program, they just need to add to a few events.

[Runnin' Cat]

CWU had their first placer in 12 years in an event 800m or longer on the men's side.

I remember the good old days when CWU would dominate the distance events and winning district titles. That program has fallen a long way.

[tsull]

Attended the meet in Monmouth, warm weather, well-run, some great performances. Track can be a tough watch, worked a prep meet recently, it went from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., and the timers were 1 hour ahead of schedule. The GNAC meet took "only" 4 hours, all finals on Saturday, no heats which was great. WWU was impressive, winning both men's and women's team titles; WOU was 2nd in both men's and women's team titles. Wolves hopes went out the door late in the meet as WWU had some great 5K runners (the 2nd to the last event), while WOU did not; same in the women's race. WOU is good at middle distance; not good at distance. They get most of their points in the field events on both men's and women's teams. WWU has large teams and are pretty balanced across the board in sprints, distance, field events, and relays.

Simon Fraser women's sprinter Marie Eloise-Leclair, winning the 100 in 11.4 and 200 in 23.9, times that would win a lot of D1 conference meets. She also ran on two winning relay teams. Only a sophomore, she's a pretty incredible athlete. Simon Fraser women got third, good team. I know track and field isn't for everyone, but I enjoyed the meet.