#TeamMO set for USATF Indoors at new Ocean Breeze facility in NYC

#TeamMO set for USATF Indoors at new Ocean Breeze facility in NYC

Chris Auckley

February 22, 2019

This year’s USA Track and Field Indoor National Championships will be held in New York City, Friday-Sunday, February 22-24. When you think of indoor track and field you often think of The Armory Track Center or Madison Square Garden, the former long-time home of the Millrose games. However, New York City completed a 135,000 square-foot, IAAF-certified indoor track and field facility on Staten Island in 2015. The Ocean Breeze Track and Field Athletic Complex will host this year and next year’s USATF Indoor Championships.

This year’s meet doesn’t have any Team USA implications as there is no biennial IAAF World Indoor Championships this year, however prize money and pride is on the line. Keeping with recent tradition, USATF is going to some non-traditional distances in a non-World Championships year. The 300-meters, 600-meters, 1000-meters, 2-Mile, replace the 400, 800, and 3000-meters, and 5000-meters. And while the mile is traditionally run indoors in the U.S., the every-other year World Championships features a 1500-meters, not a mile.

An apparent new feature to a USATF Championship meet is “B” final races. With the limited space on indoor tracks, this years meet will feature two sections of some race finals. Some of the slower finals qualifiers from the 300-meter semifinal races, and the slower entries in the distance races will race in “B” finals. Their performances will be added with the “A” section finals to determine places.

Deanna Price (NYAC/Nike, Moscow Mills, MO., Troy High School, Southern Illinois Un) will try to win her second weight throw title, eight months after winning the USATF Outdoor hammer throw title and reclaiming the American Record in the event a month after earning it then losing eight days later to previous holder, fellow St. Louis area native and Southern Illinois grad Gwen Berry.

It was a great 2018 for Price. Price’s USATF best toss of 78.12m/256-3 was not only an American and Meet record, but it put her fourth on the All-Time World performance list. In August, Price beat the greatest hammer thrower ever in Poland’s Anita Slodarczyk in the IAAF Contiential Cup in Ostrava, Czech Republic, while representing USATF. Later in the fall, Price married her former teammate, boyfriend and coach J.C. Lambert, the fourth-year throws coach at Southern Illinois. Also, in 2018, Price earned a sponsorship contract with Nike. Price is the #2 seed with a 24.57m/80-7 toss.

Colleen Quigley, (Bowerman Track Club/Nike, St. Louis, Nerinx Hall HS, Florida State Univ) will race in the mile and could run the 2-mile as she is entered in the event without a qualifying mark. Quigley captured the Wannamaker Mile at the prestigious Millrose Games in New York City two weeks ago in an amazing 4:22.93. The clocking moved her to fourth on the all-time US list and 10^th on the all-time World performance list.

Olympics: Track and Field-Morning Session

Aug 15, 2016; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Colleen Quigley (USA) competes in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase athletics event at Estadio Olimpico Joao Havelange during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

The mile isn’t run as much world-wide indoors as it is in the U.S., as the 1500-meters is more frequently competed distance, but Quigley’s time is still quite impressive. It’s just 2.16 seconds off of Mary Tabb’s 1982 US record and seventh on the World All-Time List. Quigley’s time converts to a 4:03.26 1500-meters and having been done on a crowded 200-meter track equates even closer to a 4:00 outdoor 1500-meters.

Also in the mile, is Quigley’s Bowerman Track Club teammate and training partner Kate Grace. The California native and Yale grad’s father Stephen is a Webster Groves, MO. native, who went to St. Louis University High School and the University of Missouri. Both Quigley and Grace were 2016 Olympians, Quigley in the Steeplechase and Grace in the 800-meters. Grace was runner-up to Quigley at Millrose in 4:24.27 in the mile. Her personal best of 4:22.93 in 2017 puts her fifth on the All-time US list and 11^th on the All-time World performance list.

St. Louis native Jordan Mann will run the Men’s 2-Mile. Mann, the former MICDS Missouri Class 3 All-Stater who ran at Brown University and finished up at Providence College, now competes for New Balance and Ocean State Athletic Club in Rhode Island. Mann had a great end to his collegiate career at Providence, qualifying for the NCAA Division I Championships in the steeplechase in 2016, placing 15^th and earning 2^nd-Team All-American honors.

Last year, as a second-year post-collegian, Mann broke the 4-minute mile barrier with a 3:58.94 indoors. Then on May 31, Mann ran an outdoor sub-4 of 3:59.68 at the Festival of Miles in front of family and friends in St. Louis. Three weeks later, Mann shocked the field, taking fifth in the steeplechase at the USATF Championships in Des Moines, after a nearly 2-hour weather delay. Mann finished in 8:28.55, a nearly 5-second PR.

A month later Mann ran a 13:45.44 5k at a big meet in Belgium. Then in August, Mann made his first USA Track and Field team, taking third in 8:45.14 in the steeplechase at the North America, Central America, and Caribbean Championships in Toronto. Mann is the fourth seed in the 2-mile at the USATF Indoor meet according to 3000-meter qualifying times with a 7:50.93. Others have qualifying times from other distances.

Shawnee, Kansas, native, and former University of Kansas and Arizona State runner Zachary Zarda will run the 2-Mile for the Kansas City Smoke Track Club. Zarda is seeded 16^th with a 7:58.91 3k mark.

One of the all-time great Missouri prep 400/800-meter runners, Charles “CJ” Jones will race in the 600-meters. Jones just competed an excellent college career at Texas Tech, earning All-American honors in the 4×400 and 800-meters. Jones missed out on advancing in the 800-meters at last June’s USATF Outdoor Championships when he was tripped up and an appeal to be advanced was denied.

Jones recently moved to the Washington D.C. area to train with the District Track Club. Jones has the top seed of entries with 600-meter qualifying marks with a 1:15.93. Others have qualifying marks in the 400-meters and 800-meters, including Donovan Brazier who recently set the American record with a 1:44.41 indoor 800-meters. Jones’ indoor 800 PR puts him about fourth among entries posting 800-meter marks.

San Diego, California area native and Missouri Baptist University grad Nick Christie will look to add another USATF Race Walk national title to his resume. He’s the top seed in the 3k race walk with an 11:38.48. Christie won a handful of NAIA national race walk titles at after transferring from a junior college and spending his final two years at Missouri Baptist. Christie is the best American male race walker and was part of the first ever IAAF Diamond League meet to hold a race walk race last summer in Paris.

Two Missouri men are schedule to compete in the 60-meter hurdles. Aaron Mallet is a St. Louis area native and former standout in the 110 and 300-meter hurdles at McCluer North High School. He went on to become one of the top 60/110-meter hurdles in NCAA Division I while at the University of Iowa. Mallet is in his second post-collegiate season and appears to have picked up an adidas sponsorship since the end of the 2018 season. Mallet has the top seed in the event with a 7.56 clocking, .05 seconds ahead of Olympian Devon Allen, the #2 seed.

Matt Prescott is still at it. While most athletes retire if they can’t pick up sponsorship thru their mid-20’s, Prescott is still at it years after his high school and college success. The Jamesport, MO. native, who competed at Tri-County High School, and the University of Central Missouri, competes for coach Wayne Armbruster’s Computomarx Track Club in Columbia. Prescott has competed in at least one other USATF Indoor meet previously while he previously coached at Rock Bridge High School. Prescott is the 13^th seed with an 8.12 clocking.

Colorado native and former Mizzou All-American Tony Carodine will compete in the triple jump. In his third year of post-collegiate competition, Carodine is the third seed with a 15.98m/52-5 mark.

Two Missourians are entered in the Multi-events. Stockton, Missouri native Emilyn Dearman will compete in the Pentathlon. Dearman helped head coach TJ Sanderson and Stockton High School to a Class 1 State Championship before finding success in the hurdles, jumps, and multi-events at Pittsburg State in Kansas. Dearman she captured a heptathlon national title helped the Lady Gorillas to a team national title. In her first post-collegiate season last year, Dearman placed 4^th at the USATF Indoor Championships with a personal record score of 4260.

At the USATF Outdoor Championships last June, Dearman placed 10^thin the heptathlon with a 5759 score. Dearman is he 5^th seed this year with a 4260 pts qualifying score. She trains in Pittsburg with Joplin native, and former Missouri Southern All-American Kyle Rutledge, a Pitt-State assistant coach.

New York native Devin Cornelius will compete in his second straight USATF Indoor Championships. Cornelius competed at St. Fisher University in New York where he was a Division III All-American. He capped his college career with a fifth and final year at the University of Central Missouri where he earned All-American honors for Kip Janvrin and Kurtis Brondyke. Cornelius is the 11^th-seed with 5,370 points.

Former Mizzou Coach Joe Lynn followed his time in Columbia at NCAA DII’s Hillsdale college in his native Michigan where he helped build a women’s distance power. The 2016 Hillsdale’s indoor squad nearly captured the DII Indoor title, but Jefferson City’s Lincoln University pulled off another national team title with a 4×400 last event victory. Lynn’s superstar there was Emily Oren who won many DII national titles. Lynn still coaches Oren from afar while he’s now at Charlotte. Oren competes for Gazelle Elite and is the 18^th seed in the 2-Mile with a 9:16.73 3k time.