What a positive group with so much support! Enjoyed reading and interacting with you all. Come on over to the women's basketball forum. We'd love to have you. Gig'em! Oh, and I agree. T&F deserves their own forum!!!

Thanks for Taylor and Trini and everyone who contributed. You really enhanced a remarkable year for Aggie track and field.

DowntownDallas99 said:

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Why is everyone talking about Mu finishing her career when she is only a freshman?

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She has no competition to run against in college and is about to get paid to turn pro.

I won't dispute that there is a good likelihood Mu will turn pro, but there is at least chance she'll come back. She is just barely 19 - by four days, I think. The next outdoor Olympics will be in three, not four years, because of the Covid delay. She could have the opportunity to get a free ride in school and train under the best set of college coaches available. She could even turn pro after a junior year and still have a full season to prepare for the next Olympics. Unlike Gittens, at the national meets she will likely only compete in two events, so she wouldn't be exhausted or open to hurting herself.

She is a fantastic college athlete, but she wouldn't necessarily be the best right now nationally or worldwide.

The money is a lure for sure, but there is a case for her to stay at A&M as well.

Thank you so much Taylorswift for your insights, information and passion for the sport of T&F!!!

coloradoag69 said:

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She is a fantastic college athlete, but she wouldn't necessarily be the best right now nationally or worldwide.

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I mean, according to what I can find online, her 49.68 yesterday would have been good enough for bronze at the last Olympics, she's currently ranked as the #23 400m in the world, and that's not even her best race right now...

I really hope Lamara Distin and Deborah Acquah come back, and I think they should!! Lamara can establish herself as a 6'3/6'4 jumper and establish a base for the 2024 Olympics! Acquah can become even more dominant in both jumps and have a Bowerman nominated season. Sometimes recruiting the athletes you have is the most important thing! Gonna be an interesting summer...

Awesome meet and I love the attention the sport is garnering here. I've been a pro track fan since I was a kid, as a HS runner watching Michael Johnson at his peak it just bonded me to the sport.

Athing Mu by the time her pro career is over will Be the most decorated A&M athlete ever. Track can sometimes be a wonky sport (see Noah Lyles this season) but she seems to have that same trait that Grant Holloway has.

I hope some of you keep posting and tune into Diamond League and other pro events. Should we start a new ongoing thread for pro/Olympic meets?

The best team

taylorswift13 said:

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That means a lot! Triniaggie deserves all the credit, she's been doing these forever and has great insight into roster breakdown and athletes. I just like to add excitement over the meets! The back and forths with everyone have been amazing and I love how this sport is growing... it's gonna be fun watching the Trials and Olympics and watching over summer transfers and signees with you all! Gig'em!

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Thanks for doing such a great job! I love track and your insight made it all the more enjoyable. I'm curious.....what's your track background? Are you an athlete, work for the athletic department, whatever???
Give us a little insight into the now-famous taylorswift.

mullokmotx said:

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The story in the Bryan Eagle today had the following:

"Mu came back to anchor the 4x400 relay team to victory in 3:22.34, edging USC by 0.20 seconds."

I think Mu losing the indoor 400 to the USC runner made her mad and she has been a bit more than "edging" the competition. Try a 2.2 second margin.

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Pretty pathetic reporting by the Eagle ...

Overall the men did pretty well.
Yes they could have scored a couple of more points but from having Deadmon qualifying on time and Brandon Miler being the last time qualifier, the Aggies did show up on the final day. Maybe a couple of extra points in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay could have help us to place a little higher. Once Mpoke work on his start he will do very well because he has a good finish.

At the start of the season I thought we had a descent team that could have competed very well but things did not work out well for many of our top athletes including Devon Dixon, Carlton Orange, Allon Clay, Jace Comick James Smith, Dewitt Thomas, Connor Schulman and Emmanuel Yeboah. All these at their best would have been a huge scoring treat for the Aggies.
We also had to deal with some early season transfers out of the program.
What we lacked this year was long jump, triple jump and Javelin scorers. We have always done well in these events which would have brought many points to us in previous years.

Next year the future seems bright in the sprints. We seems to getting back to having some descent sprinters who can score and we just signed a 10.23 100m guy.
A couple more short hurdlers wouldn't be bad but we need some triple jump and long jump potential scorers. The high jumpers seems to be getting better and we wait to see what they can do next year.
It seems that this was Bryce last season at A&M and we have seen any top 400m recruit for next season as yet.
The 800m group should be really good with those who are here (Clay, Miller) and the incoming recruit.
We really need a couple of potential scorers in the distance areas. Can't we get just once transfer who can give some scoring in the steeplechase, 5000 m and 10,000 m.
We should be better next year in the shot and discuss with Bryce Foster but it would be nice to get another good thrower in these events or the weight throw.
Javelin should be good with Nick Mirabelli returning.
The Pole Vaulters have been slowing improving but we need vaulter over 5.50m to have a chance of contributing.
The more options we have always give us a better chance. Just look at LSU with potential scorers in a wide range of events.
Let see who the Aggies will be recruiting over the next couple of months. I suspect someone to replace Deadmon and a couple of long and triple jumpers will be on the radar.

Kudos to Taylorswift13. Excellent job this year and very hard work. You are more passionate than me so I appreciate what you've done this year. Truthfully, with that kind of drive, pssion, and committment the market is wide open because A&M needs coverage and Flotrack is ridiculous on their prices. We need a recruiting service with the ins and out of recruiting. FERPA prevents alot of knowledge gap we seek but the need to fill in what is legal is here and someone like you could kill it.

Anyway - not to seem ungrateful less than 24 hours removed from the greatest relay in history of women's NCAA but I couldnt wait peruse over the possibilities of next year. Many will say our relay was because of Mu and that is true but not true also. Obviously we don't run a CR without her 48.85 leg. With a normal 51.0 leg instead we would have probably fought for a top 4 all time mark and fought for the win. Here, however, are my post Mu-Go-Pro projections for next year assuming these girls do return.
athlete; PB; 2022 project PB; '22 NCAA split
Tierra 51.5 51.2 51.2
Charookee 50.85 50.5 49.9
Jania 52.5i 51.8 51.3
Sierra 51.17 50.7 50.0
3:22.4 on paper(if everyone is at their best)
Relistically though 3:23 low, mid, or high without Mu is a great time and would make us contenders again
for another Gold. This is the "way too early 2022 tankings" but until next year.

Thanks for the kind words! I'm currently in law school trying to earn a law degree with a specialized focus on sports law and contracts to hopefully become a sports agent for football athletes or track and field athletes! I would love to stay near the track world! I agree sites like FloTrack and a Milesplit have such good connections but throw it all away requiring people to pay... many kids and teens are turned away from the sport when they can't even read articles or watch races without paying... it's very upsetting. We need some reform or outreach to grow the sport!

I should email Pat Henry and make him hire me as a recruiting coordinator

These are some of the reasons posted on Letsrun forum for Carol Smith Gilbert leaving for Georgia

Higher salary (200-300k more)
Lower cost of living
Lower academic standards
Plus the former USC track sport Administrator is the deputy at Georgia now, which probably helps.