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2008 Men’s Collegiate Dual-Meet Rankings
Posted May 5th, 2008 at 9:30 AM by Jesse Squire
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, College
Years ago, the dual meet was the cornerstone of the college schedule, with some schools regularly taking part in half a dozen of them per year. Even into the early 80s they were quite common. But when budgets were slashed and team sized plummeted, the dual meet dropped off the radar screen.
The regionals format for outdoor track has taken much of the pressure off in terms of getting an NCAA qualifying mark, and in recent years the meet has seen a bit of a resurgence; a few were even carried on regional cable TV. This past weekend saw the end of the dual-meet season with three rather important matchups (USC vs. UCLA, Washington vs. Washington State, and Arizona vs. Arizona State vs. Northern Arizona).
Recognizing this fact, I’m going to reinstate something Track & Field News once did: National Dual-Meet Rankings. Rules for ranking are as follows.
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Interview with professional steeplechaser Ann Gaffigan (Part II)
Posted June 5th, 2007 at 10:15 AM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Interviews
HerActiveLife.com (HAL), a new member of The Final Sprint Network, published the second installment of a two part interview with professional steeplechaser, Ann Gaffigan. In Part I, Ann discusses how she got into the steeple, who inspires her, her training, and her most recent and widely read blog entry from her site, steeplechics.com. In Part II, Ann offers some incredibly insightful remarks about eating disorders and body image, how she handles disappointment, her Olympic goals, and her personal life philosophy.
Ann graduated from the University of Nebraska in 2004, and quickly made her mark in the professional ranks by setting a then American record of 9:39 in the 3,000 m steeplechase at the 2004 US Olympic Trials. She followed that performance in 2005 by finishing 5th in the USA championships. Before becoming a professional runner, Ann was an Illinois state champion, an NCAA All-American, a Big 12 champion, and Nebraska’s female student-athlete of the year in 2004. Under the direction of Nebraska coach Jay Dirksen, and with her sight firmly set on the 2008 Olympic Trials, she trains upwards of 100 miles per week. The Beijing Olympics marks the official inauguration of the women’s steeplechase as an Olympic event.
In addition to her running accolades, Ann is a computer programmer/web systems developer with a degree in Computer Science, and she is webmaster for the popular site, steeplechics.com.
PART II
HAL: The Final Sprint published an article about NCAA runners and eating disorders. How much of a problem do you think eating disorders and body image are in the NCAA, or in elite running in general? Where do you draw the line as an athlete between healthy and unhealthy?
AG: I think it’s a major problem because it’s very under the radar and a lot of athletes may have an issue, but not to the point where they need to be hospitalized. So it’s very hard to tell; someone might seem very healthy, you might see her eat healthy meals, and she continues to run well so you think she must be fine. You usually only think someone has a problem if she is collapsing or if she needs to be taken to the hospital. But it’s hard to see when someone has a problem if she is doing a good job of hiding it, and if she is eating enough to still get by.
Read the rest at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com
Interview with professional steeplechaser Ann Gaffigan (Part I)
Posted June 4th, 2007 at 12:11 PM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Interviews
HerActiveLife.com (HAL), a new member of The Final Sprint Network, published the first installment of a two part interview with professional steeplechaser, Ann Gaffigan. In Part I, Ann discusses how she got into the steeple, who inspires her, her training, and her most recent and widely read blog entry from her site, steeplechics.com. In Part II, Ann offers some incredibly insightful remarks about eating disorders and body image, how she handles disappointment, her Olympic goals, and her personal life philosophy.
Ann graduated from the University of Nebraska in 2004, and quickly made her mark in the professional ranks by setting a then American record of 9:39 in the 3,000 m steeplechase at the 2004 US Olympic Trials. She followed that performance in 2005 by finishing 5th in the USA championships. Before becoming a professional runner, Ann was an Illinois state champion, an NCAA All-American, a Big 12 champion, and Nebraska’s female student-athlete of the year in 2004. Under the direction of Nebraska coach Jay Dirksen, and with her sight firmly set on the 2008 Olympic Trials, she trains upwards of 100 miles per week. The Beijing Olympics marks the official inauguration of the women’s steeplechase as an Olympic event.
In addition to her running accolades, Ann is a computer programmer/web systems developer with a degree in Computer Science, and she is webmaster for the popular site, steeplechics.com.
Her Active Life (HAL): Before getting into your upcoming season and your goals for 2008, I am sure a lot of people wonder about this, and I am sure you get asked this question a lot, but how did you gravitate toward running the steeple – which is arguably one of the toughest races on the track?
Ann Gaffigan (AG): When I arrived at Nebraska my coach, Jay Dirksen, articulated that I was an all around athlete and he thought that I could do really well in it, and I said “okay.” It was pretty rocky at first.
HAL: Do you consider yourself a steeple pioneer?
AG: I’ll consider myself that if I make the 2008 Olympic games. There are a lot of women steeplers that deserve recognition, but they are very under the radar, like Lisa Nye, Elizabeth Jackson, and Karen Harvey. Those women were really the pioneers.
Read the rest at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com
Outdoor Collegiate Track and Field
Posted May 13th, 2006 at 9:30 AM by Andrew Goodman
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
May 13, 2006 marked the opening of the collegiate track and field conference championships all over the country. With many teams and individuals vying for spots in the four regional championships, the conference meets were sure shows of individual athleticism and team unity.
Some individual great efforts included:
- Chelsea Johnson (UCLA-PAC-10 Conference Championship), who cleared 15-01, breaking her own record 15-00, which made her the first ever woman pole vaulter to clear 15 feet.
- Priscilla Lopes (Nebraska-Big 12 Conference Championship) smashed her individual record in the hundred meter hurdles with a time of 12.63 seconds.
- Mickael Hanany (UTEP-WAC Conference Championship) placed first in all three jumping events, and was named Outstanding Performer of the Year for 2006.
Taking place May 26th-27th in Austin, Texas, Greensboro, North Carolina, Knoxville, Tennessee and Provo, Utah, the four regional championships will feed their champions into the NCAA National Track and Field Championships June 7th-10th in Sacramento. Some of the top competitors for this years men’s title include Florida State, University of Texas-El Paso, and Louisiana State University. Some of the top Women’s competitors include University of Texas-Austin, University of Southern California, University of Miami, and University of Nebraska.
Who had the more impressive Boston Marathon debut?
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The Final Sprint
On March 15, 2010
SDrunner said:
Great review, I wrote one on the Ironman Road Trainer HRM, which is similar to this one, without the...