V 12 N. 19 Some Notes Gathered from the NCAA Meet This Past Week

March 15, 2022 

First the stories are not mine, they were gathered from comments by others who were privy to them.

There are three stories.  

Story 1  The Grand Niece of the First Woman to Break 5:00 For the Mile Placed 3rd in the Mile.

So who was that first woman under 5:00 minutes and when did she do it?   I hear pages turning in old record books, not fair.  I'll save you the trouble.  It was Diane Leather who less than a month after Roger Bannister first broke 4:00  for the mile.  In 1954, Miss Leather went under 5:00 and continued to improve and lower the record eventually to 4:45.    The grand niece is Ellie Leather also of England but wearing a Cincinnati Bearcats uniform ran to third place in 4:35.62.    Who says genetics are not important?  Given all the upgrades in running surfaces, shoes, and training techniques, Diane might well have been capable of knocking off another 10 seconds.    Congrats to Ellie.

                                                             Ellie Leather and Auntie Diane

Here is a posting we did on Diane in 2018   Once Upon a Time in the Vest    link

Story 2      Micaela Degenero Wins NCAA Mile Going From Last To First in Last 400

One of our readers David Agosta coached Miss Degenero in high school in Granville, Ohio.  She attended the U. of Michigan and now in grad school at Colorado won the race for the Golden Buffaloes.

David's comments:   

She was 4th or 5th outdoor last year, ran 4:09 (1500), made the trials but was eliminated in the first round.  

She had Covid in January.  Her first race, an 800 was terribly flat and she had trouble breathing, then a 4:40 for a distant 3rd at a home meet where she again struggled breathing.  She was 2nd at conference coming from last with 80 to go, but afraid to go with the pacer and teammate that went with the pacer.  That time made nationals by the slimmest of margins.

Her prelim Saturday was terribly blah.  She said she felt horrible, couldn't breathe, and had no zip at all.  2 heats, top 4, plus two times advanced.  She was 6th in the first heat.  In the second heat, at the 800 her teammate took the lead and slowed things to a crawl.  I don't know if that was her idea, Wetmore's input, or just coincidence, but it allowed Micaela to get to the final on time.

Again, it could have just been coincidence, but I always preached to kids and specifically her that coming off an injury, illness, or terrible feeling race, go in without a specific plan and "let it come to you."  Read your body and go with what it allows.  In her post race interview she mentioned that she had no plan and was just reading how she felt.  So, whatever the source, I was really proud that she let it come to her.  She's probably the most intense competitor and driven individual I have been around and when that includes John Anich, John Zishka, and Rob Myers, that is saying a lot.  

Dave

                                                                   Micaela Degenero

 Here is the last 400 of that mile.  You can see both Micaela and Ellie Leather clearly in this video:

Talk about holding onto your form over that last 400.

Women's Mile NCAA indoor 2022   Link

Story 3   

This comes from our friend Richard Ceronie at the University of New Mexico.  Rich is the historian/statistician and former coach at Miami of Ohio and UNM.  His research is exceeded by few if anyone in our sport.  He sends out a newsletter regularly covering the events and deeds of the UNM Lobo track team, and that crew provides him with plenty of material.  In the women's 5000 this year they qualified 4 runners in that event and two of them came out All Americans.  It was noted that qualifying this year in any event was really a huge mountain to climb for the university athletes, like few years ever in the history of the NCAA.  How many men had broken 4:00 for the mile?  Something like 90 this year and it took a 3:56+ to get to Birmingham in that event.  Here is Rich's discussion of the women's 5000.

For the 16 athletes selected in each of the 15 events (the two relays only select

12) they knew it had been the hardest in  NCAA history to qualify for the meet. But

what does that really mean? Well, let’s do some simple math to explain how challenging it had really been. Each year there are approximately 6000 collegiate women who race over the indoor 5000 meter distance and those athletes come from NCAA Division I, Division II, Division III, NCAA Junior College, and the NAIA. 

The NCAA began offering indoor championships for women n 1983 while the NAIA began in 1981.  

So roughly, in that 40-year time span there had been oh about 240,000 collegiate women who had

run the indoor 5000 meters. In all of collegiate history (that’s like everyone who ever raced it) the  four Lobos entered into the 5000 meters ranked 39th (Adva Cohen), 73rd (Emma Heckel), 75th (Gracelyn Larkin), and 77th (Amelia Mazza-Downie).  So just to put that into perspective Amelia was the 77th fastest collegiate runner over the 5000 meter indoor distance IN HISTORY and she was the 16th and final athlete accepted into the 2022 NCAA Division I meet!

In an earlier “Wolftracks” newsletter it had discussed how during the 2022 indoor season 90

men had run under the once magical 4:00.00 mile threshold and the fastest it had ever taken to qualify for the NCAA meet had been 3:58.28 in 2018.  And there were 44 men who ran faster in 2022 than that mark.  When all was said and done it took a world-class 3;56.60 to earn an invitation to the NCAA meet.  Just wow!  Or how about the men's Long Jump.  The 56th best performance in the world right now is 25' 8" (7.82m) and that is what it took to advance to the NCAA Division I Championship.  Imagine telling that to a freshman guy who long jumped.....hey son, all you have to do is be at least the 56th best in the world to be the final accepted qualifier to the NCAA Championship. Think that kid would be scared to death? At least on the women’s side it’s it's a speck easier....all you have to do is be at least 74th best in the world.

For the four Lobo women who qualified in the 5000 meters they had achieved something that had never been done before?  And what was that?  Well, no team had ever qualified four athletes into the 5000 meters during the indoor championship.  There had been teams that go three qualified, but never four.  So 255 of the total runners on the starting line would be ones wearing the turquoise tops, and cherry red bottoms.  What a great day and special day for Lobo track and field.  

Rich goes on to give a very detailed description of the race with two of the Lobos Amelia Mazza-Downie 7th, and Gracelyn Larkin 8th earning All American honors.  

You can see all the results including post race interviews at FloTrack  use the following link:

NCAA DI Results

In closing, I just heard of the passing of sprinting great  Charlie Greene, University of Nebraska.

I'll be putting together a posting about him in the near future.

George