K-State Track Marks

[KSUron]

Kendra Wecker won the Drake relays friday with a Javlin throw of 169 ft 7 inches. That is an automatic NCAA championships qualifying mark and places her fourth all time in the javlin at KSU.

Brie Madden has gone 5' 10.5" in the high jump. That is a NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

No wonder Kendra can throw the basketball full court and Brie can block shots.

[dem]

To continue following Wecker and Madden as they climb the charts, consult:
http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/lists/index.html

the best collection of track and field lists around. I'm looking forward to seeing Wecker among the top 25 in the world some time in the next year or two.

[KSUron]

Hey thanks Dem! That's a great resource.

[KSUron]

Kendra won the track meet at Nebraska Saturday with a NEW KSU record throw of 179' 9"! That beat the old KSU mark by seven feet. It was the seventh best throw in the US this year. I think Kendra's personal best was around 174 prior to that throw.

[dem]

Originally posted by dem:
I'm looking forward to seeing Wecker among the top 25 in the world some time in the next year or two.

Oops. Make that, some time in the next few weeks. Wecker's throw Saturday of 179' 9" (54.79 meters) ranks her as the 33rd best thrower in the world this year, and third best among U.S. women. This immediately stamps her as a leading contender for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team, and for next year's U.S. World Championships team competing in Paris (not to mention for the upcoming NCAA National Championships).

This mark also makes Kendra the ninth best U.S. thrower ever with the new javelin that was first introduced in 1999. (The very best throw ever by a U.S. woman with the new javelin was 192' 3", performed in 1999.)

[KSUron]

Kendra won the Javelin competition at the Big XII meet to help KSU win the title by one point over Texas. Kendra's throw of 173 feet was nearly 20 feet beyond the second place finisher. I hope she and the rest of the Big 12 ladies have good luck at the NCAA's.

[dem]

By what unfathomable chain of reasoning did the Big 12 coaches arrive at their choice for Female Freshman Performer of the Year? They chose Brooklyn Hann of KU, who won the triple jump at the Big 12 Championships by a margin of less than 3 inches, with a (season's best) mark that is not an NCAA automatic qualifying mark, and ranks her only 16th among all U.S. women (11th among collegians), and nowhere on the world ranking list. This, while Kendra Wecker won the javelin by almost twenty feet, with an NCAA automatic qualifying mark, while HER season best mark ranks her fourth in the country (3rd among collegians), and among the top 40 in the world. (Even her Big 12 mark alone would rank 7th nationally and 6th among collegians.)

I suppose the coaches felt that by making a substantial improvement on her season-best mark to defeat the defending champion, Hann was deserving of the honor. This seems to be a rather strange reason to penalize an athlete like Wecker who has been performing consistently throughout the season among the nation's top competitors in her event.