REIGNING NATIONAL 200 champ Jenna Prandini served notice at the National Relay Championships that she is primed for a great season, winning the sprints in world-leading times of 11.10 and 22.53. “I felt good,” the Oregon alum said. “My training has been going really well, so I know I can run a lot faster than that. It’s a good start to the season, and you know it’s a long season, so we’ve got a long way to go until the U.S. Trials and Doha.”
Prandini’s 100 tied the early-season world lead; with a mild 0.7 breeze behind her, she handily beat Texas frosh Kynnedy Flannel (11.38). The 200 was aided by a 1.4 wind. Her 22.53 put her two strides ahead of surging Arkansas soph Janeek Brown (22.67). The performances left Prandini much happier than her Mt. SAC outing the week before (11.33/22.93). “It was just a bad meet,” she said. “I guess with track you just have to have short-term memory. I know where my training’s at and I knew that was just a really bad meet for me.”
Now 26, Prandini moved to Austin last October to work with Texas coach Edrick Floréal. Though she won the USATF 200 last year and hit 10.96 and a PR 22.16, she felt it was time to move things up a notch going into two consecutive championship seasons. “I’m really lucky to get to train here and I’ve been liking it a lot so far,” she said. “I’m excited to be working with coach Flo. Obviously I have some big goals for myself to accomplish. There are a lot of things that he sees that I need to improve on. I’m still trying to get everything down that he’s saying, but luckily he’s patient and we’re just working every day trying to get a little bit better.”
Prandini has found herself training alongside hurdles World Record holder Keni Harrison: “She was kicking my butt pretty bad in the beginning in some of those harder workouts, but I’ve loved every second of it and I’m just enjoying being out here now.” With an eye toward making the Doha squad in both sprints—she made the ’15 team in the 200 but missed in ’17—Prandini sees the job ahead of her as fairly simple: “I just show up to practice and work really hard and try to execute the things that Flo’s telling me. I have 100% trust that he’ll get me to where I need to be if I can do what he says.”
Brown previewed her 200 runner-up finish with an impressive hurdle run, the Jamaican hitting a world-leading 12.57. Notable performances on the men’s side went to Baylor’s Wil London in the 400 (45.25) and NCAA Indoor 800 champ Bryce Hoppel of Kansas, whose 1:45.87 is an outdoor American leader.
The top relay performance came from the Texas men’s sprint medley, a 3:15.00. The Arkansas women won four stick crowns, in the 4×1, 4×8, 4×15 and 4 x 100H.
NATIONAL RELAYS MEN’S RESULTS
Fayetteville, Arkansas, April 26-27—
(4/26—100, 200, 400, 800, St, 110H, 400H, 4×15, SM, PV, LJ, DT, JT)
100(0.5): 1. **Micaiah Harris (Tx) 10.29 PR.
200(1.0): 1. *Maxwell Willis (Bay) 20.89.
400: 1. Wil London (Bay) 45.25; 2. ***Ashton Hicks (OkSt) 45.68 PR; 3. ***Jonathan Jones’ (Tx) 45.76 PR; 4. ***Matthew Moorer (Bay) 45.97 =PR.
800: 1. *Bryce Hoppel (Ks) 1:45.87 (out AL, AmCL).
St: 1. Alex Rogers (Tx) 8:48.83; 2. John Rice (Tx) 8:48.83.
110H(1.4): 1. John Burt (Tx) 13.70; 2. ***Cordell Tinch (Ks) 13.89 PR.
400H: 1. **Jayson Baldridge (Bay) 50.48; 2. *Cody Johnson (Ks) 50.73 PR.
4 x 100: 1. Oklahoma 40.31 (Webb, Sheffield, Brown, Ellis).
4 x 400: 1. Baylor 3:07.81 (Platt, Fields, Moorer, London); 2. Arkansas 3:08.66.
4 x 800: 1. Arkansas 7:39.47 (Moehn, Taylor, Pareti, Griffith).
4 x 1500: 1. Texas 15:53.59 (Johnson, Bielaczyc, Rice, Mills).
4 x 110H: 1. Arkansas 57.81.
SpMed: 1. Texas 3:15.00 (Brown, Harris, Jones, Worley 1:49.14); 2. Arkansas 3:16.54 (Taylor 1:49.12).
Field Events
PV: 1. ***KC Lightfoot (Bay) 18-5¼ (5.62); 2. ***Zach Bradford (Ks) 18-5¼; 3. *Chase Smith (Wa) 17-8½ (5.40) PR; 4. Nick Maestretti (unat) 17-8½ =PR.
LJ: 1. Jacob Fincham-Dukes’ (OkSt) 26-1½ (7.96) =PR; 2. *Steffin McCarter (Tx) 25-5¼ (7.75).
TJ: 1. **Chengetayi Mapaya’ (TCU) 55-3¾w (16.86) (54-1¼/16.49); 2. **Papay Glaywulu (Ok) 53-3¾w (16.25); 3. Kaiwan Culmer’ (Bah) 52-10¾w (16.12).
SP: 1. **Tripp Piperi (Tx) 67-6¼ (20.58); 2. **Jonah Wilson (Wa) 62-3¼ (18.98).
DT: 1. ***Elijah Mason (Wa) 184-10 (56.35).
HT(4/25): 1. Erich Sullins (Ar) 215-8 (65.74); 2. ***Bayley Campbell’ (Ok) 215-7 (65.71).
JT: 1. **Anderson Peters’ (MsSt) 265-1 (80.81) (250-9, 252-8, 265-1, f, 251-1, 254-2) (76.43, 77.03, 80.81, f, 76.53, 77.48);
2. Curtis Thompson (MsSt) 258-2 (78.68) (AmCL);
3. Trevor Danielson (Tx) 240-9 (73.38) PR; 4. ***Tyriq Horsford’ (MsSt) 237-3 (72.31) PR; 5. Denham Patricelli (Wa) 236-6 (72.08) PR; 6. ***Liam Christensen (Stan) 232-6 (70.87).
NATIONAL RELAYS WOMEN’S RESULTS
(4/26—100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 100H, 400H, 4×15, SM, LJ, DT, JT)
100(0.7): 1. Jenna Prandini (Pum) 11.10 (=WL, =AL);
2. ***Kynnedy Flannel (Tx) 11.38; 3. ***Julien Alfred’ (Tx-StL) 11.39 NR, NJR.
200: III(1.3)–1. Alfred’ 23.27 NR, NJR. IV(0.5)–1. Ranae McKenzie’ (KsSt) 23.14 PR.
V(1.4)–1. Prandini 22.53 (WL, AL);
2. **Janeek Brown’ (Ar) 22.67 PR; 3. Flannel 22.79 PR; 4. **Kethlin Campbell (Ar) 22.90 PR; 5. Shamier Little (adi) 23.07 PR; 6. Payton Chadwick (Ar) 23.27; 7. Kiara Parker (Ar) 23.45.
400: III–1. **Morgan Burks Magee (Ar) 53.24; 2. ***Paris Peoples (Ar) 53.30; 3. ***Kennedy Simon (Tx) 53.40; 4. Sydney Hammit (Ar) 53.61.
IV–1. Little 52.21; 2. *Aaliyah Birmingham (OkSt) 52.41 PR; 3. Zola Golden (Tx) 52.88; 4. Dominique Blake’ (Jam) 53.26; 5. *Mariah Kuykendoll (Ks) 53.70 PR; 6. **Honour Finley (Ks) 53.89.
800: 1. Alena Brooks’ (Tri) 2:04.82; 2. Marleena Eubanks’ (Ks) 2:05.12; 3. Leticia De Souza’ (Bay) 2:05.50 PR; 4. **Morgan Stewart (Bay) 2:06.41 PR.
1500: 1. **Destiny Collins (Tx) 4:19.16 PR.
100H(1.6): 1. Brown’ 12.57 PR (WL, CL) (=5, =9 C);
2. **Camri Austin (Ok) 12.94 PR; 3. *Rushelle Burton’ (Tx) 13.08; 4. Mariam Abdul-Rashid’ (Tx) 13.27 PR.
400H: I–1. ***Lavaun Stephenson (KsSt) 58.91. II–1. *Darhian Mills (Wa) 58.33 PR; 2. Carly Lester (Wa) 58.84 PR; 3. **Riley White (MsSt) 58.96 =PR.
Relay Events
4 x 100: 1. Arkansas 44.35 (Parker, Chadwick, Brown’, Campbell); 2. Texas 44.61.
4 x 400: 1. Baylor 3:35.71 (Stewart, Washington, De Souza’, Miller); 2. Arkansas 3:36.03; 3. Texas 3:36.57; 4. TCU 3:37.78; 5. Kansas State 3:38.79; 6. Kansas 3:38.96.
4 x 800: 1. Arkansas 8:55.14 (Werner, Gregory, Owen, Viljoen’).
4 x 1500: 1. Arkansas 17:56.89 (Underwood, Owen, Brown, Reed); 2. Texas 18:02.28.
SpMed: 1. Texas 3:46.22 (Daniels, Simon, Golden, Crank); 2. Kansas State 3:46.76; 3. Arkansas 3:55.61.
4 x 100H: 1. Arkansas 56.03 (Edwards, Brown’, Smith, Chadwick); 2. Kansas State 56.89; 3. Oklahoma 57.93.
Field Events
HJ: 1. ***Rylee Anderson (Ks) 5-11½ (1.82) PR; 2. Rachel Reichenbach (Stan) 5-10½ (1.79) PR.
PV: 1. Tori Hoggard (Ar) 14-1¼ (4.30); 2. *Kaitlyn Merritt (Stan) 14-1¼ PR; 3. Meagan Gray (Ok) 14-1¼.
LJ: 1. **Tara Davis (unat) 21-3¼ (6.48); 2. *Taishia Pryce’ (KsSt) 21-½ (6.41); 3. **G’Auna Edwards (Ar) 20-10 (6.35); 4. *Destiny Longmire (TCU) 20-6¼ (6.25); 5. **Essence Thomas (Ok) 20-6¼ PR.
TJ: 1. Shardia Lawrence’ (KsSt) 44-9½w (13.65) (44-6¾/13.58); 2. **Alex Madlock (Bay) 44-8w (13.61) (42-0/12.80); 3. **Essence Thomas (Ok) 44-2½w (13.47);
4. **Aria Small (Stan) 43-4¼w (13.21) (42-9¾/13.05); 5. *Konstantina Romaiou’ (KsSt) 43-2¼ (13.16); 6. Georgia Wahl (Tx) 42-4w (12.90).
SP: 1. *Meia Gordon (Ok) 52-8 (16.05).
DT: 1. *Ashley Petr (KsSt) 176-7 (53.83).
JT: 1. Mackenzie Little’ (Stan) 187-3 (57.07); 2. *Sarah Blake (MsSt) 173-0 (52.73).
