âŠalong with all the others, is mighty impressive.
Refresh my memory, is it Top 16 that go to NCAA Championship? Does it break down to Top 8 from each Regional, or is it the Top 16 overall times/distances?
Just going by current rankings, you would think weâve got a good chance to send 3 or 4 in the 100m, 2 in the 200m, maybe 2 in the 400m, Amere in the 110mH and 400mH, both relay teams, and maybe a long jumper. Iâd have to look back at how that compares to last year.
Scratch Obi Igbokwe from the 200m, but he stays in the 400m.
Scratch Amere Lattin from the 400m (stays in the Hurdles events)
Scratch Quivell Jordan from the 110m H (focusing on the 400m H apparently)
Colin George is 3/8" (and two scratches) from taking the #48 spot in High Jump.
Something else that stood out as interestingâŠUSC scratched from the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, and they were Top 10 in both.
The Cougars will send 19 competitors on the menâs side and five competitors on the womenâs side to compete in 13 events, that include the menâs 4x100-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay. Qualifiers will look to finish in the top-12 in their respective events to qualify for the 2019 NCAA Division I Track & Field Championships in June.
So the top 12 finshers at Regionals qualify for Championships. Itâs a bit arbitrary, but letâs say the Top 18 seeds in each event have the best chance of advancing to Nationals. In other words, if you were ranked #48 in the 100m dash, youâre probably not going to shock the world and move up 36 places at Regionals. It could happen but not likely.
So I looked at the NCAAâs top 25 ranked teams (USTFCCCA rankings):
NATIONAL
RANK TEAM
1 Texas Tech
2 LSU
3 Florida
4 BYU
5 Texas A&M
6 Oregon 7 Houston
8 USC
9 NC A&T
10 Alabama
11 Stanford
12 Miss. State
13 Northern Arizona
14 Arizona
15 Virginia
16 Georgia
17 Texas
18 South Carolina
19 Iowa
20 Florida State
21 UCLA
22 Kansas
23 Kentucky
24 Arkansas
25 Baylor
Re-ranking them based on the number of Top 18 seeds entered in the Regionals looks a little different:
Rank Team (# Top 18 entries) (Difference, Top 25 rank - # Top 18 Seeds rank)
1 Texas Tech (18) (-) 2(tie) Houston (17) (+5)
2 (tie) BYU (17) (+2)
4 Oregon (16) (+2)
5(tie) Arkansas (14) (+19)
5(tie) UCLA (14) (+16)
5(tie) Texas A&M (14) (-)
8(tie) Iowa (12) (+11)
8(tie) Arizona (12) (+6)
8(tie) LSU (12) (-6)
11 Texas (10) (+6)
12(tie) Baylor (9) (+13)
12(tie) Alabama (9) (-2)
12(tie) Florida (9) (-9)
15(tie) Kansas (8) (+7)
15(tie) NC A&T (8) (-6)
17(tie) Kentucky (7) (+6)
17(tie) Stanford (7) (-6)
17(tie) USC (7) (-9)
20(tie) No. Arizona (6) (-7)
20(tie) Miss State (6) (-8)
22 South Carolina (5) (-4)
âŠand the tribute to the last album recorded by the late, great Minutemen: â3-Way Tie (for Last)â
25(tie) Florida State (3) (-5)
25(tie) Georgia (3) (-9)
25(tie) Virginia (3) (-10)
What does it all mean? Nothing until they cross the finish line. This doesnât take into account the relative rankings of the Top 18 (in other words, are your Top 18 entries ranked high or low).
That said, I think UH has a solid chance to be in the mix if everyone does what theyâre supposed to do.
OK, I got curious and tweaked the spreadsheet to see who has the most âhigh endâ talent. I changed he calc to look only at the number of entries that are Top 4 seeds in their Region. My rationale is, those are the most likely to score points at Nationals (if memory serves, the Top 8 get points).
Again, Texas Tech comes out on top. UH still in striking range.
I think last year commentators said Houston doesnât compete in enough events to win National team title, canât accumulate enough points, now why we donât compete in enough events I donât know
Weâre still in the running for the top spot. Really, thereâs 4 teams that have a shot at the title this year: Texas Tech, Florida, LSU, and us.
They still have to run the races and our coaches always try to get our guys running their best at this time of year. Once they get to qualifiers and eventually to Austin, throw out the times and distances because all that matters is what they do at that point.
At indoors, we got a huge 2nd place finish from Trumaine Jefferson in the long jump that helped us finish 2nd. Going into that meet, Jefferson wasnât even on the radar to place in the event.
Still, weâll need some luck, but I wouldnât count us out yet.
Jefferson didnât score any points for UH in the AAC meet⊠which was opposite (nice surprise) from indoors nationals⊠he must get us top8 points in Austin
Now is just up to our athletes to qualify as many as possible for Austin and get âbodiesâ at nationals
You donât see BYU in the mix? Looking through the entries I was stuck by how much high end talent they have in the distance races. Like #SLCDistanceCity to our #HTownSpeedCity.
I think they also were decent in field events, maybe not high end like they are in distance.
Happy to see this because it has seemed like Obi runs out of gas doing so many events. If he just focuses on 400 and 4x400, it is best for him individually and the team.