Athletes to watch at Vanderbilt Indoor HS Meet

Vanderbilt High School Indoor

 Everything we do ends up in some way related to math.  Yea, I know, not your favorite topic!  Driving out to the track, I find myself calculating miles per gallon in the car and how long it'll take to drive.  I've calculated tips, savings, spending limits, and just about everything using math.  Yep, math is a part of a coaches and athletes life as well.  Take the splits we mark down and use later on for training.  Or figure out the difference between one interval and the next on the track during practice.  

Without getting into a lesson here, take a look at these numbers... 52.94, 9.01, 9.05, 1.52, 300M, 2.12, 2.13, 2.16, 4.14, 4.14.6, 5:09.

So what are those numbers?  Those are some of the times ran by the athletes entered into this meet -  there will be some very fast races Saturday and you don't want to miss them!  Steaming live or on site, you will see some of the best races around!

So back to those numbers, the first one is what Simon Kennedy ran and captured the Georgia state championships in the 400.  She'll be running Saturday and I'm really curious what she can do on this track.   Anybody want to guess what this 400M race is going to look like!  If you said fast... welcome to the club!   

The 9's are two of the most prolific distance athletes in TN, Titus Winders and Carter Coughlin. Both these guys are state champion cross country athletes and have run against each other on several occasions.  Racing side by side, well neither one of these likes to lose, and truthfully, they rarely do. Count on a fast race here as well.

The 1.52 comes from Devonte Fuller, Colin Jones (second at AAU JO Games) and Kenton Bachman who won the Tony Parrilla 800-Thrilla race.  The 300M is saved for Brian Herron who is #5 overall in the world and holds that distance world junior record.   Brian is entered in the 400 and who knows what he can do on this very fast course.  The 400 boys and 800 boys races are nothing less than straight out sprints! 

The 2.12, 13 and 16 is for the girls 800M race that looks to be packed solid with talent.  Emoni Coleman, last year's 800 winner here and a champion at the USATF National JO meet last July.  The 2.13 is for TN state champion Meghan Underwood and the 2.16 is a guess as to the time it took to just qualify for the fastest heat of this race.   

Then there's the 4.14 and 4.14.6 that is for the PR's of the top two seeds in the boys mile.  Sean Prendeville a 4.13.58 in the 1600M at the 10th annual Schrader Mile in Cedar Park Texas last season to win that race and also recently comes off a win in the mile at the Arkansas HS invite in January.  And for those from Tennessee, Carter Cheeseman is a very familiar name.  This is kind of a homecoming of sorts for Carter who was a standout runner at Brentwood Academy and now is living in Texas and going strong there as well. 

The 5:09 is the time that the third girl coming into this meet with a sub 5:10 has.  That is Brentwood Academy's state champion distance runner, Meredith Helton.  And she is being topped by Knoxville areas Niki Narayani and Dresden's Loral Winn.  These three girls will for sure be battling it out in what should be one heck of a fast mile.  With more than a dozen girls in the mile with sub 5:20's, you can be sure this is another great race to watch.  But of course, we're talking Vandy... all the races are great to watch, every event, and every heat!

So that's a bit of a run down on some math... yep, Vandy Math!!

But there's still more with the field events that are looking like a late season outdoor meet with these marks.  The pole vault, which happens to be one of my favorite events, is one that always amazes me.  Unless you happen to have access to an indoor facility, it's cold out there!  Coming into this meet, the vault for the boys is headed up with Brian Hauch, the Georgia athlete who has jumped over 16' and a winner at the New Balance outdoors last season.  Right by him is Lee Garrett, a local Kindersport athlete, Cole Shea of Mt Juliet and Wyatt Lefker of Ohio with marks right up there and close to the 15 foot mark. 

The girl vaulters are an impressive group as well with Courtney Long coming in with a best of 12-10.25 that she did at New Balance Nationals last season.  Courtney is likely looking to improve on her second place finish here last year.  Ariel Arbiv, another Georgia vaulter has a best of 12-5.25 (and New Balance too) last year and has already vaulter a 12-7.25 this season at the RMA Indoor winter challenge in January. 

The throws here are always fantastic; Javon Joyner is heading up the girls weight throw and with the best in the nation so far.  I'm betting at this meet she'll better that mark as well.  She comes in with the Throw 1 Deep club that every year pushes the limits here at this Vanderbilt HS meet!  Nice to see this group out here again! 

I haven't even touched on the tons of talent coming into this meet... Tia Jones and Darci Khan in the hurdles, GiGi Maddox, Jenna Strange and Faith Bobak in the Girls 2 mile.  Meredith Helton, Niki Narayani and Loral Winn in the mile, Katherine Coffey in the girls shot.  And who knows, with the likes of Daloria Boone and Zion Pearson in the girls long jump, we could see a 20 footer Saturday.  The boy's hurdles should be fun to watch as well with Myles Marshall, Brevin Simms, and Joshua Browning all posed to post a really low mark here as well. 

Ok, time to wrap up - and YES, you don't have to tell me that I missed someone that should be mentioned, I'm sure I did... this meet is so packed with talent, this article would be ten pages long if I talked about everyone.  But why not come out to the meet and watch the performances and see for yourself who will be coming out on top in their event! 

See you on the track,

Coach Ted