Not suggesting we sacrifice the development in the sprints area. But a complete contender will have competitive runners in some of the distance and middle distance. Ran middle distance myself in college. I can tell you that there is plenty of distance talent in Texas, particular lay in the El Paso area.
I think we have built a foundation on sprints, which we should have, and are now increasing our presence in the longer distances and field events. It is a constant work in process but we solidly have strong foundation with our sprint prowess.
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The 4x100 relay would have given 10 pts for 1st place in the event, so that alone wouldn’t have been enough. W/O mentioning s/a names the pts that were expected in the 100 and 200 meter race did not come through. Injury and bad start cost pts in those events or should say more pts than were gained. Still good year for T&F and big strides have been made in last couple yrs for program to be on Natl level.
Yes, that is probably where we would need to recruit more for distance. That is where Barraza is from. I don’t even consider El Paso as this part of the country, lol. We currently have two young guys to keep an eye on, Jemal Wote (5k) and Gabriel Armijo (10k).
Our middle distances will get better. Christian Gilmore is a guy who will be at nationals in the 800, probably next year.
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If any of the programs finish in the top 10, I am cool with it.
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It would be interesting to know if Burrell had enough scholarships for field athletes whether he would be able to win the NC. I’m thinking if he did have enough scholarships to award, he would win it all.
Finishing #3 is close, very close to winning it all.
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Program needs more money and resources to be able to expand beyond sprinters. Coaches are trying to recruit more guys from those events, but it’s difficult with the limitations we have. We do have a couple of good pole vaulters coming in, have some solid younger guys in the 800m and have a decent distance guy coming in.
Most people in the T&F world are amazed that a non-P5 is even at the level that we are at. Finishing 3rd overall is nothing to sneeze at. Sometimes, you just need a little luck to get over the top and we haven’t gotten enough of that yet.
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Coaches do realize that they need to have more diversity though:
“We’ve got some more things that we need to do in this program,” Burrell said. “I think right now we’re too reliant in the sprints. We’ve got to spread it out and get a few more events covered in the distances and the field. We have younger athletes who can help us get there in the field. We need that to happen.”
On the women’s side, Burrell said the Cougars are in position to contend for a title in 2020 with a youthful roster that redshirted several key contributors this season. UH sent three individuals and the 4x100 relay to the NCAA meet, failing to advance to the finals in any of the events.
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