Sometimes Mother Nature can put a kink into things especially when it comes to an outdoor track meet. Most of the members of the Red Devils track team did not compete due to the weather. It rained off and on all day up until the 5000m run when the sun poked its head out. "We have some guys that are a little banged up and to have them run in that weather the week before our conference meet would not have been smart." However, we did have a few athletes that competed, Daniel Colina threw a seasons and personal best in the javelin which placed him second and got him qualified for the National Meet. His throw of 179'4" placed him second. "For Daniel to qualify feels like a big weight off of my shoulders, because he is the type of athlete that every coach wants to have and for him to finally qualify feels really good." "He deserves every bit of this." Daniel's changed a few things up with his release and Saturday, we worked on his approach which had to be altered because of the terrain." Daniel was throwing in the high 160's his previous throws and everything finally clicked at the same time and he ripped off his personal best." Right now he is currently ranked 10th in the Nation. Andrew Schroter ran a personal best in the 400m Intermediate hurdles in a time of 56.77. "This was the strongest I've seen Andrew all year." "I truly thought he was going to hit the qualifying mark, he was on pace through 200m and he hit the last three hurdles and that really slowed him down." "I believe he can hit the mark of 54.95 this week at our conference meet." Michael Valenti ran his 2nd fastest time of the year in the 5000m, however he was on pace to qualify but fell off after 8 laps. Coach DeGrado entered himself in the 5000m as well to be the pacer for Michael. "We came through the 1st mile at 5flat, and the 2nd mile at 10:08, and we both just fell off after the lap 8." Michael ended up beating his coach by 3seconds. "I still think Michael is ready to hit the upper 15's, I just know it was tough because it rained all day, and by the time the race started there wasn't very many people out to watch and atmosphere was not like it was at the KU Relays." "It is tough when the only people out there to watch are the ones waiting for you to stop running so they can run the 4x400m relay." "But I feel good about Michael's time, 16:13.37 in that atmosphere is a quality time for a freshman." The Allen County Red Devils will be competing next week in Arkansas City, which is where Cowley County Community College is located. They are hosting the Region 6/Jayhawk East Conference Championships this year. We have a hand full of athletes that are really close to hitting the qualifying mark, and I believe they will do so at the conference meet.