Quick Recap of Today's Action

In another words, how I did in my picks. Here is a link to the results.

Sprints - As I mentioned in my last post. I would not be commenting on this, and thus keep my 100% pick record.

Men's DEC - I called Clay being an big "?" in this meet and he pulled out before it even started. As of right now it is Hardee (4337) and Eaton (4333) with in 4 points of each other and well clear of 3rd place Desi Burt (4046). Sixth place is Burt's VS teammate Randolph (4032), so you can see its a tight race for that coveted third position. I can't really make a call for 3rd, but given the consistency of his performances I am going to say Jake Arnold, currently in 5th, takes it, but by narrow margins. Excited to see the outcome tomorrow.

Men's Jav - I said it would go Hill, White and Hosteler and they finished Hill, Hazle, Furey with Hostetler in the 4 spot. White fouled his final 3 throws after making the final, shame shame. The surprise is Hazle's monster 1st throw of 82.96 then his 4 fouls and his other clean throw barely misses 4th place. Furey also gets his place due to his 1st throw. Man, I know little about jav, but hey I did get the winner right. He passed on his final 3 throws, nice.

Women's Disc - I called Trafton, Thurmond, Breisch ... and its not done yet...and wait no it is done, and that's how they finish.

Men's TJ - Finishing order goes Roulhac, Davis and then Balumbu. Bell finishes in 4th with Sharif taking 5th. Looks like an off day for the big performers and a great day for Davis and Balumbu.

Women's HJ - The finish is Howard - Acuff - Day all at 195 decided on misses. I picked Hooker to take 2 and Patterson for 3, they finished 4th and 7th respectively. Oh well. I am just glad my sleeper pick slips in, well done Acuff.

Men's 800m -  My picks H1 (Lagat, KD, Solomon), H2 (Smith, Shaw, Tetlo), H3 (Wheating, Hicks, Asafo-agyei), H4 (Symmonds, Brown, Tully). My little "q's" were Scherer, Johnson, McClary, and random runner from heat 1. Since the results are not kept in heat format by USATF this is a bit harder to analyze, but my picks were pretty off for the most part.  H1(2/3) H2(1/3) H3(0/3 Wheating DNS) H4(3/3) and time wise only 2/4 of my picks made it in.  Without Wheating this 800m showdown became a bit of a disappointment. Its still a loaded field, but Wheating out may detract from the crazy finish we saw last year. Also, Lagat says he is done, sad from  spectator's view.

Women's 800m - Alysia Johnson looks to be in great form as she takes the top time of the day. H1 (3/4) H2(3/4) H3(4/4) with 3 time q's from heat 3 and 1 from heat 1. My pick Vaughn had a great race!

Women's 1500m - No big names failed to advance. Wurth, Rowbury and Bowman take the top 3 time slots. Willard got a Q without much effort at all as did Centrowitz. As I suspected Hasay is out classed at this level. Though I agree getting experience is good for her, you have to wonder if she really wanted to end her season with a heat race? Why not do the JR race and get a free trip out of it. PAC 10 runners Follett and Kosinski fail to advance, but Kosinski is still really cute. Vaughn DNS probably signifying she was seeing if she would qualify in the 800m or not. Other than that I was only really wrong on Metivier, but I should have known that one.

Men's 1500m - These races were just nuts. My predictions were really off, but I believe that's due to scratches in heat 3 by German and Wheating. Thus, it went from being the stacked heat to just average and the final heat (4) ended up producing all the time Q's. Thanks a lot college stars for scratching. Well this is the reason I didn't want to make full predictions. Main side note is the huge effort by Torrence, mint Nike athlete, which gave Webb and Leer a strong push, however the move was late and Leer and Webb kicked past leaving Torrance to watch the final on his TV. It looks like Lukezic might be back as he moved with Lomong, but was still dropped in the final 150m. Check the results for full recap.  Right now Manzano, Lomong, Leer and Ulrey are looking really good going into the final.

Men 3k SC - So I mentioned Sallberg and Watson not making it, but I was only 1/2 right, as Watson takes the last time q. I pretty much called this race, with the time's coming from the second heat in the 830's. My only mistake, sigh, was Slattery who ran within seconds of my PR in this event clocking 9:34, a good 30s behind the next time, good for dead last. Other than that, pretty much went as planned.

10k Woman - Under a mile in a pack of 5 already separated (~80m) from the rest of the group. As suspected its Amy and Flanagan taking 1-2, but not in the order I thought. However given that it looked like the two were trading pace the whole time placing isn't as big of a deal as is time. McGregor takes the 3rd spot as I thought she might. Lewy the dark horse takes 4th in a strong showing, with Huddle also looking good in 5th.

10k Men - Abdi takes it out hard and just pushes the pace in true Black Cactus Fashion, with Meb shaking up things a bit. To quote flotrack "all we need is Culpepper and we have 1999". And there probably hasn't been a race of this caliber since then. Rupp, Ritz, Nelson. Go watch the video. My only flaw was over estimating Abdi (8th).