U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) > Division I > MEET PREVIEW: Mt. SAC Relays

MEET PREVIEW: Mt. SAC Relays

Courtesy: Tyler Mayforth & Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA

April 14, 2016

NEW ORLEANS — For one weekend in mid-April, Walnut, California is the epicenter of track & field.
That’s because the Mt. SAC Relays, hosted by Mt. San Antonio College, take precedence.
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This year marks the 57th version of the meet, but unfortunately it won’t be held at historic Hilmer Lodge Stadium due to ongoing renovations. Instead, the action will take place 30 miles away in Norwalk on the campus of Cerritos College.
Still, the same level of talent will be present this weekend as top-ranked collegians compete against professionals.
We break down eight of the best events from the 2016 Mt. SAC Relays in chronological order based on their finals.

Women’s 5000 Meters Invitational

Friday | 10:45 p.m. ET (7:45 p.m. PT)
Without any context, Michigan’s Erin Finn finishing 18th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships seems like a disappointing result for the Ann Arbor standout. It’s considerably less so when you factor in that she ran a majority of the race with just one shoe, and her pair of runner-up finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships at 3000 and 5000 meters four months later are a far better indicator of her form.
Unfortunately, however, she will be competing at Mt. SAC unattached as she appears to be redshirting the 2016 outdoor season. She missed the 2014 cross country postseason with injury problems, which carried over into the winter and sidelined her for the 2015 indoor season. She returned for the outdoor season, and now appears to be balancing out her eligibility by putting away the Maize and Blue uniform for the spring.
Regardless, her race this weekend with two recent breakout stars will be an entertaining one to watch. North Dakota State’s Erin Teschuk made a big splash last season with All-America finishes in the indoor mile and the outdoor steeplechase — she represented Canada at the IAAF World Championships in the latter — and has this year earned All-America honors both in cross country and indoors in the mile and 3000.
One of this year’s biggest surprises from the cross country season was the emergence of Ednah Kurgat of Liberty. In her first year of NCAA cross country eligibility she finished 12th nationally, and her second season of competition on the track has been highlighted by a ninth-place finish at 5000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Men’s 5000 Meters Invitational

Friday | 11:20 p.m. ET (8:20 p.m. PT)
By sheer volume, this is the race with the most All-America contenders of any event in the country this weekend.
From this past cross country season you’ve got third-place Pierce Murphy of Colorado, 12th-place Erik Peterson of Butler, 13th-place Jefferson Abbey of Colorado State, 21st-place Lane Werley of UCLA, and 23rd-place Jack Bruce of Arkansas, plus former All-Americans on the track in various events and in past XC seasons in Mason Ferlic of Michigan, Patrick Corona of Air Force, Lawrence Kipkoech of Campbell.
Murphy finished third at this distance indoors and is the lone finalist from that race in Walnut this weekend. This will be his first 5000 of the season, while the next two men on the XC list — Peterson and Abbey — will be making their overall 2016 outdoor debuts.

Women’s 4×100 Invitational

Saturday | 4:45 p.m. ET (1:45 p.m. PT)
Oregon and Southern California are probably getting tired of racing each other in the 4×100.
But the fans can’t get enough of it, because it creates some history.
This past weekend at the Pepsi Team Invitational, the Ducks and the Women of Troy added another thrilling installment to their lengthy rivalry. Oregon came through with a commanding win (42.88 to 43.59) and became the seventh fastest team in collegiate history.
Southern Cal, however, wasn’t at full strength. The Women of Troy ran without Alexis Faulknor (No. 9 USTFCCCA Individual Rankings), but the senior will be back this weekend.
Look for this one to be won by a lean.

Women’s 100 Meters Invitational (Sections 1 & 2)

Saturday | 5:45 p.m. ET (2:45 p.m. PT)
Question: What do you get when you cross three former The Bowerman winners with four collegians who are blazing fast?
Answer: Two incredible sections of the 100-meter dash that have a chance to steal the show.
The first section features two former The Bowerman winners in Kimberlyn Duncan (2012) and Jenna Prandini (2015) versus Oregon teammates Hannah Cunliffe and Jasmine Todd.
Duncan and Prandini have personal bests of 10.96 and 10.92, respectively, while Todd’s fastest wind-legal time is 11.12. Cunliffe has yet to run an open 100 this season, but did finish second at 60 meters at NCAAs this past month. (Look above to see what Cunliffe and Todd did as part of a team last week.)
Now that’s just the first section.
Here are the competitors in the second heat: 2013 The Bowerman winner Brianna Rollins, Oregon’s Ariana Washington and USC’s Alexis Faulknor.
Rollins specializes in the hurdles, but did post a time of 7.29 over 60 meters at the Cherry and Silver Invitational in January. Faulknor has a personal best of 11.30, while Washington falls in at 11.34. (Washington also joined Cunliffe and Todd on that aforementioned relay team.)
The meet record in this event is 10.87, set by Merlene Ottey in 1987.

Men’s 800 Meters Invitational

Saturday | 5:55 p.m. ET (2:55 p.m. PT)
After leading the NCAA Indoor Championships final late and for a significant amount of the race, MTSU’s Eliud Rutto had to settle for runner-up honors to Akron’s Clayton Murphy by just over a tenth of a second in 1:46.81.
The three-time All-American will make his Mt. SAC debut against the top freshman from the NCAA Indoor Championships. Nope, it’s not Donavan Brazier of Texas A&M or Isaiah Harris of Penn State or Carlton Orange of Arkansas. It’s Wake Forest’s Robert Heppenstall, who was fifth in Birmingham in 1:49.06. His collegiate outdoor debut was a win in his section of the Florida Relays in 1:47.76.
Reigning NCAA DII National Athlete of the Week Abraham Alvarado of Cal State Stanislaus is back in action just one week after becoming the eighth man in DII history to run sub-1:48. His 1:47.28 was good for fourth in the same Sun Angel Classic race where BYU’s Shaquille Walker went 1:44.99.
They’ll be battling world-class professionals like Duane Solomon, Brandon Johnson, Lopez Lomong and David Torrance.
The second section of the invitational field will pit NCAA indoor mile leader and 3000-meter fourth-place finisher Izaic Yorks of Washington against Oklahoma State’s Tre’Tez Kinnaird.

Women’s 800 Meters Invitational

Saturday | 6:05 p.m. ET (3:05 p.m. PT)
It’s NCAA Champion vs NCAA Champion in one of the young outdoor season’s premier individual match-ups thus far. Raevyn Rogers of Oregon is now the defending indoor and outdoor national champion at this distance, while Kaela Edwards of Oklahoma State stepped up to the mile this indoor season to win her first national crown.
Rogers made her outdoor 800 debut this past weekend with an easy 2:03.77 victory at her home Pepsi Invitational, while Edwards will be taking the track for the first time since her title-winning 4:35.62 mile in Birmingham, Alabama, a month ago.
The sophomore Duck could use this as a chance to become the first collegiate woman to break two minutes twice in her career — she also ran 1:59.71 to win the NCAA Outdoor title a year ago.
Edwards, meanwhile, will be looking to translate her tremendous career indoor success — she became the first woman in collegiate history to finish top-three two years in a row at 800 meters and then win the mile title — to the outdoor circuit, where she’s had decidedly less success.
They’ll face off with such professionals as former Bowerman Winner Laura Roesler, Shelby Houlihan, and Molly Ludlow. Notably, Roesler currently owns the regular-season (i.e. prior to the NCAA Championships) record at this distance, having run 2:00.54 here two years ago en route to The Bowerman.

Women’s 100 Hurdles Invitational

Saturday | 6:20 p.m. ET (3:20 p.m. PT)
It’s Cindy Ofili versus Sasha Wallace once again.
During the winter, Ofili and Wallace waged a tremendous battle over 60 meters with hurdles in the way. Ofili, a senior at Michigan, nipped Wallace, an Oregon junior, at the line at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. The former collected her first NCAA title with her time of 7.89, while Wallace settled for second at 7.91.
Ofili and Wallace have yet to turn it up this season. They both ran 13.12 within one week of each other.
The lifetime bests for Ofili and Wallace are 12.60 and 13.00, respectively.

Women’s 200 Meters Invitational

Saturday | 7:50 p.m. ET (4:50 p.m. PT)
Just when you think you saw enough of Hannah Cunliffe, Alexis Faulknor, Tynia Gaither, Deanna Hill, Dejeah Stevens and Ariana Washington, they come back for more.
Those six athletes will likely take the track for the third time in one day when they compete over 200 meters.
According to the USTFCCCA Individual Rankings, Hill is ranked highest at sixth. Hill ran 22.71 this past weekend at the Pepsi Team Invitational. Gaither lands at 13th, Todd falls in at 16th, Faulknor at 23rd and Stevens at 31st, while Cunliffe and Washington aren’t ranked.
At the 2016 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, Cunliffe and Stevens placed third and fourth, respectively, while Hill finished sixth.