I am travelling today and won't have a chance to post results from this weekend until tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime there were some notable performances outside of the college ranks this weekend.
Walter Henning threw a national junior record of 76.76m with the 6-kilogram hammer at the Taylor Cattle Farm Classic in North Carolina. His series was also impressive: 76.76m 73.88m, 75.84m, 76.73m, Foul, 76.15m. Henning currently leads the world with the junior implement.
A.G. Kruger became the first American male to surpass the Olympic 'A' standard this season. Kruger threw 78.68m (258-02) at the Oregon Twilight meet. Former NCAA All-American Britney Henry threw a personal best of 68.46m (224-07) to win the women's competition.
At the Modesto Relays, Stanford coach and former Olympian Kevin McMahon competed for the first time since 2004. He won the competition with an impressive throw of 75.08m (246-04), which surpasses the Olympic 'B' standard. Canadian Sultana Frizell set a new national record with her winning throw of 69.39m (227-08).
Internationally, a few of the first big grand prix meets took place over the weekend in Qatar and Japan.
LSU issued a press release on Thursday about Walter Henning's transfer. Among other tidbits, throws coach Derek Yush has nothing but praise for Walter, saying "Walter is going to be a tremendous fit to our program. I truly believe that he not only has the ability to be one of our nations greatest hammer throwers, but he has the character to match. Hes a confident young man and hes a student of the event. In my mind, that is a recipe for a champion. To read the complete press release, click here. For pervious coverage from CollegeHammer.com, click here.
Update: Henning also has a detailed post about his reasons for transferring in the TrackShark Forums.
Walter Henning (North Carolina) has announced his decision to transfer to LSU next season. Henning has impressed followers of the sport by a spectacular freshman campaign. In March, Henning placed third at the NCAA Indoor Championships. This past weekend he won the ACC Outdoor Championships and has the fourth best mark in the nation at 68.71 meters. Shortly after the NCAA Indoor Championships we announced that Henning was looking at transferring from North Carolina. He made his decision final this weekend and has received a relasefrom North Carolina, thereby allowing him to compete next season without needing to sit out a year.
At LSU, Henning will be coached by first-year coach Derek Yush. Yush previously coached at the University of Rhode Island and has found quick success at LSU. Junior Rabun Fox has returned from an injury plagued 2007 season to improve his personal best by more than five meters to 65.81 meters. Coach Yush's wife, Kristal Yush, is also having a great season and placed second at the USATF indoor championships in the weight throw. Also, Henning said he will have a great chance to compete for a NCAA team championship while at LSU.
On a related note, Henning will not be competing at the NCAA Outdoor Championships this season. Last weekend's ACC Championships was his last meet of the year with the 16-pound hammer and he will now focus on training with the 6-kilogram hammer in preparation for this summer's IAAF World Junior Championships in Poland. He will debut with the 6-kilogram hammer next month.
In a lead up to this month's Drake Relays, the Des Moines Register published an article about Egor Agafonov yesterday and recruiting foreign athletes. On how he ended up at Kansas, he responded "One guy told me the phone number, and I called him ... [Coach Kokhanovsky] was a really good athlete when he was in the USSR and the Ukraine. People know about him."
At least that's the word from the TrackShark forum. Apparently, he has a letter of release and is looking at transferring, with an official visit to another school next weekend. When I spoke to him earlier this week, he had stated that he will plan on competing this outdoor season and it seems like that has not changed.
UPDATE: In Henning's first meet of the season on Friday at Wake Forest, he tossed a new personal best of 68.75m (225-07).
While TrackWire is no longer doing rankings this year, Runnerspace has started a new ranking. They just released a preseason ranking and they will be doing weekly rankings once the season gets underway.
After producing a NCAA leading mark, weight thrower Chris Rohr (Missouri) was named the Big 12 Men's Athlete of the Week today. Another weight thrower, Loren Groves (Kansas State), was named the Big 12 Women's Athlete of the Week. Groves also won the award earlier the in season. This is the first time I can remeber that hammer/weight throwers have swept a major conference's athlete of the week honors.
For those of you unaware, former discus world record holder Mac Wilkens is currently coaching at Concordia University in Portland. He's also been working for a while on developing a world class throwing facility there. The Oregonian recently wrote about the project. You can also follow its progress at their blog. The school is quickly becoming a force in NAIA with sophomore Greg Schultz earning second place in the hammer at the NAIA Championships last May.
