NCAA Indoor T&F

[CMUandPitt]

Pitt had two athletes competing, Felix Wolter (Heptathlon) and Greg Lauray (HJ).

Lauray no-heighted at 6'9" so not much to discuss there. His PR is 7'3.75", so super disappointing and a bad underperform. He's a listed senior and will compete outdoor, but unless he's taking the free COVID year this should be it for him indoors.

Wolter is interesting -- an international recruit who competed at the major junior level overseas and I guess came to Pitt to study CS since, not trying to be a dick here, this program isn't in the top 50 I would choose to advance my chances as a professional track athlete. He's also listed as a senior but this is his first year competing for Pitt so I truly do not know his eligibility status.

Wolter finished 4th in the Hep which has to be Pitt's best finish in the multis in God knows how long. He's a classic speed-jump athlete, which translates slightly better in the Dec than it does in the Hep. He lost a lot of points on the SP but PRed in the vault to keep him among the leaders. The winner from Georgia is a legit 8000+ Dec performer and is just in a different class altogether.

Ayden Owens finished 3rd, you might remember than name as he went to NA and single-handedly won the PIAA meet for the school a few years back. I think he's got 8,000+ Dec upside as well, but he transferred out of USC and is now at Michigan, which is a bit of a weird choice. Probably some behind-the-scenes stuff I don't know about.

Would have loved for us to take home two All-Americans as a shingle to recruit on, but not to be. Outdoors, apart from Lauray and Wolter, I could potentially see the 4x400m getting down to 3:05 or so to make the meet but that's probably about it.

 

[singregardless]

Wolter is our first First Team All-American since Desmond Palmer in the 400mH.

Pretty cool that they're roommates and both made Nationals.

Fully expect a bounce back from Greg come outdoor. He's too talented to go out like that.

 

[CMUandPitt]

Wolter is our first First Team All-American since Desmond Palmer in the 400mH.

Pretty cool that they're roommates and both made Nationals.

Fully expect a bounce back from Greg come outdoor. He's too talented to go out like that.

Agreed, he's rarely below 7' so this was just a bad day at the office for him. Awful time for it to happen though.

I wish there was a way to keep tabs on the LOIs coming in for the team because next year's squad looks to be really rough given all of the graduations.

 

[CMUandPitt]

Just scrolling through the results, there's some pretty ridiculous performances, especially when you consider how weird of a year it's been.

A DMR teams runs 9:20 and doesn't win. A miler runs 3:58 and doesn't even make finals. A HJ/LJ double winner -- which I don't remember ever happening -- and he did it with a truly world-class 7'6" and 27'8".

Every Olympic year there's a handful of kids who survive the NCAA season, the pro Euro season, and make it all the way to the Olympics and medal. It's a ridiculous gauntlet. That jumper has a great chance given how weak the US has become in the jumps since the 90s hey-day, and certainly all of the mid-45 400m guys will have a chance to break into the relay squads. Plus Oregon has a kid who ran a 3:50 mile.

 

[mike412]

I’m assuming the “Georgia kid” wasn’t Bolling, and that he is sticking to the sprints.

 

[CMUandPitt]

I’m assuming the “Georgia kid” wasn’t Bolling, and that he is sticking to the sprints.

Yeah, although Boling did also show up in the jumps which I wasn't expecting. His development curve is still very, very promising.

I was referring to Georgia's 1-2 multi duo, which is impressive given that those two aren't even the best on their team. Johannes Erm sat indoors out and would have beat both handily -- he's a legit medal contender in the Dec in Rio.

That's the power of picking a specialty and nailing it; Georgia has the three best multi athletes in the country, two of which will almost certainly go to the Olympics and rep the program. As I said upthread, obviously facilities are a huge hindrance but I haven't seen anything close to a holistic recruiting strategy for Webb wants this team to be.