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NCAA Championships Women's Preview and Final Rankings
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The change of format at NCAA regionals makes it harder to analyze than last year's competition. It's difficult to tell much about an athlete's performance where the only thing that matters is whether or not they placed in the top 12. As was on display on the men's side, several of the top throwers trained through the meet and passed on their remaining attempts once it was clear they qualified. The one thing that you can learn from it is who will not be competing at this year's NCAA Championships. The inconsistency of some of the top women had dire consequences and, as a result, Kristin Smith (Kentucky) and Amanda Bingson (UNLV) have both been dropped from the rankings since they did not qualify to compete this week. A fresh field of competitors will appear at this year's NCAA Championships. Only Dorotea Habazin (Virginia Tech) compete at the meet last year. And while most people are picking Nikola Lomnicka (Georgia) to win this year's championship, I am picking Habazin to win a close competition for a variety of reasons. First, she has experience at the big meet and has performed well there previously. Habazin also has the top mark in the nation this year and has been throwing very well in May. She set a new personal best early in the month and beat Lomnicka by nearly three meters at regionals (although, as I said above, that really doesn't matter this year since Lomnicka only just one legal throw, three fouls, and two passed attempts). Combined, Habazin makes a strong case to be the favorite. Jeneva McCall (Southern Illinois) may be the dark horse that upsets the Habazin/Lomnicka battle. Like the others, she has thrown well lately and was one of the few athletes to throw a personal best at regionals despite hot conditions, huge flights of athletes, and a slow competition. Another athlete to watch is Alena Krechyk (Kansas), who has the best PR in the field but has not been able to match it so far this season. The field is also deep: Southern Illinois also has three more entrants seeded in the top 8, indoor champion Jere' Summers could pose a threat, and Pac-10 Champion Jaynie Goodbody has been very consistent lately. Below is my final ranking/prediction of the season and the list of official entrants in the NCAA Championships.
Dropped from rankings: Kristin Smith (Kentucky) (3); Amanda Bingson (UTEP) (7). Women Hammer Throw Offical Entries ============================================================= Name Year School Seed SB ============================================================= 1 Dorotea Habazin JR VA Tech 64.61m 66.74m 2 Jeneva McCall SO S. Illinois 64.12m 64.12m 3 Alena Krechyk SO Kansas 62.93m 64.57m 4 Gwen Berry JR S. Illinois 62.05m 62.26m 5 Nikola Lomnicka SO Georgia 61.93m 66.07m 6 Jere' Summers SR Louisville 61.38m 63.20m 7 Olga Ciura JR S. Illinois 60.26m 60.26m 8 Sasha Leeth SR S. Illinois 60.21m 62.99m 9 Jaynie Goodbody SR Stanford 59.77m 61.08m 10 Valerie Wert JR Akron 59.54m 59.54m 11 Lindsey Cook SR Louisville 58.79m 59.68m 12 Ozioma Okolie SR Texas Tech 58.63m 60.86m 13 Kristi Koplin SR S. Utah 58.17m 59.91m 14 Mallory Barnes JR Dayton 57.63m 58.44m 15 Gabby Midles SO Idaho 57.46m 58.92m 16 Beth Rohl FR Michigan St. 57.44m 57.44m 17 Marissa Minderler SO USC 57.39m 58.85m 18 Suesanna Williams SR S. Mississippi 57.27m 59.43m 19 Kim Williams SR LSU 57.11m 59.66m 20 Terran Alexander JR UTEP 57.06m 58.34m 21 Jade Hodson SO Nebraska 57.00m 59.07m 22 D'Ana McCarty JR Louisville 56.87m 62.24m 23 Ashlee Lathrop SR New Hampshire 56.45m 56.53m 24 Brynn Smith JR Brown 56.43m 60.85m The CollegeHammer.com rankings are subjective and take into account the following factors: head-to-head record versus top rivals, season's best, previous big meet performances (i.e. peaking ability), recent performances, consistency, personal best, as well as other factors. CollegeHammer.com is a published by the non-profit Evergreen Athletic Fund and edited by Martin Bingisser. Please consider donating to help support the site. |