Head track and field director Steve Rainbolt, student-athletes Taran Taylor and Aaron True fielded questions, Tuesday, on the recent USA Junior Championships and upcoming USA Championships.

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Steve RainBolt on...
...winning the Webb Cup:
"Really exciting for our decathlon group. Bill Webb was a great head coach at the University of Tennessee and he was guy who was really into the decathlon. The DECA newsletter came up with the idea of awarding a championship trophy to the best overall decathlon group in college track and field. The points are awarded on balance and depth, it is based on who has strength at the top end and who has a grou of guys that compete at a high level in the decathlon. We've got a big group of decathlon men, we also had a really fine group of men. The combination of depth and top end strengh, Hunter Veith scored over 8,000 points, Ben Johnson and Jake Horsch were over 7,000 points. We scored 31 points, equaling the most points a team has ever scored. It's really gratifying for me and I felt like our guys had tremendous leadership from Hunter Veith and Ben Johnson. They worked hard everyday and battled through injuries. This Webb Cup was something that we talked about all year long because I knew we had a good group, we've been as high as third and those guys caught a sense of "hey we want to win this thing". Obviously everyone wants to compete at the highest level that they can, the ultimate goal is scoring a lot of points at the conference championship and qualifying for nationals. This Webb Cup thing is kind of a group tabulation, it gives those guys a sense of common mission and a sense of trying to be the best group in the country."

...NCAA Meet:
"The NCAA meet was super exciting, I really enjoyed watching Aaron compete and I know he wanted just a few more feet to battle up near the top. Every throw we were hoping and believing that he would punch one out there and be in a position to be high as fourth. I thought he competed great, that is a tough stage and it's a heck of a process to get qualified for the first round. Then to battle at the first rounds to finish in the top-12 to get to the NCAA meet and go through the first three throws and to make the final. I thought he did a great job and it was a really exciting competition to watch."
 
...Overview of how the first year in the conference went:
"I was proud of our program in the first year of the American Athletic Conference, obviously we redshirted half of our women's team and are building for the future. I'm confident that was a good strategy, I'm confident we will be competing for high finishes in the conference going forward. On the men's side, two third place finishes. Third place is below our standard, we've gotten accustomed to battling for championships. Houston is one of the best teams in the country, certainly recognized that is a great team and I'm really proud of those guys and their accomplishments at the NCAA Championships. We are now strategizing on how we are going to win that championship going forward. I felt out of sync the entire year, trying to figure out how this league is different and what we need to do to build a team that can compete effectively for that championship. It just felt different, like a new league and that's what it was and we brought a whole different dynamic to that conference."

...Hunter Veith at the NCAA Championship:
"I felt terrible for Hunter at the NCAA Championship, I told him at the end when he had to drop out, I said that I'm going to choose to remember your terrific performances. I'm going to choose you were sixth at the NCAA Championships last year, that you were second at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships and I'm going to choose to remember all your memorable conference championship performances. You got to have Hunter Veith in the conversation if you're going to talk about the greatest Shockers in history in any sport. That is a wonderful athlete and a great competitor."

...Last week's USA Junior Championships:
"It's easy to go to that meet and look like you don't belong because you got qualified but it's easy to get there and get dominated by some of the top competition. Thankfully for our program that's not how it went. Grant Downes was there in the decathlon and I thought he performed admirably, he had one bad event in the pole vault but otherwise, he had good solid performances. Ben Flowers was fifth in the 5000m, he didn't just look like he belonged but he was racing to get up there to track down the top-2 guys. It was really exciting and I was really proud of the way he raced that 5000m. The long jump, attempt by attempt was super exciting and there were about five guys bunched in there right around 24-9 or 24-10. Rayvon competed at a high level, got a big jump out there and got second place to make the USA Junior World Championships team. Taran opens up the competition with a gigantic throw and puts the issue to rest on throw No. 1 and wins the junior championship on his first throw. It felt like it intimidated all those other guys, those guys are throwing 58m or 62m, those guys can't throw with Taran and they couldn't keep up. It's really gratifying to go to that meet, we've had terrific success at that meet in the past."

...Kellyn Johnson's Grandma Marathon performance:
"I'm so happy for Kellyn, what a fabulous athlete and what an impressive professional. I'm so impressed with her as a pro, I told a reporter yesterday that Kellyn was a normal college kid here. She had some fun, sometimes too much fun and she was a goofball. To see her mature and grow up to become such a professional, it strikes me what a pro she has become. She competes like a professional and she prepares like a professional. I'm so proud of her and happy for her, what a great accomplishment at the Grandma Marathon."

...Upcoming USA Championships:
"The US Championships is a big meet, it's a major target for any track and field athlete to get qualified for that meet every year, to go there and compete successfully. I'm excited for our two javelin throwers to go out there and mix it up with the best javelin throwers in the country. Rebekah Topham is going there to compete in the steeplechase, she ran a 10 flat just recently in the 3000m steeplechase. Our strategy to redshirt half of our women's team began with Rebekah, her objective was to develop for the future and prepare herself for upper-level success. She's always been really good but I was really proud of her to take a year to develop and prepare herself for All-American performances, I feel like she heading in that direction and I'm excited to see how it goes for her at this meet."

...Assesment of the redshirt progress:
"The answer to that question from my perspective is that you really got to wait a year. A year from now we should have this same conversation, that's when we will be able to assess. It's a strategy of building for the future, so far I'm happy with how it has looked. We have seen evidence that it has been mission accomplished of athletes developing and seeing athletes getting better. It was a painful process to finish 12th indoors and 10th outdoors, that's not what we do at Wichita State. There was a method to our madness and we knew what we were doing, it was good and smart to take a year to develop. I believe we'll be in the top-3 next year, we'll be talking about how to win the thing and right now as a coaching staff, we can visualize how that would happen."

...Taran's improvement:
"Taran is an extremely athletic guy, he's wired for speed and explosiveness. More significantly than what people might be aware, he ran under 11 seconds at the K.T. Woodman Pre-State. That's a fast run for a javelin thrower, go find the other javelin throwers that can run under 11 seconds in the 100m. There just is not many of them around, it's an indicator of explosiveness and speed. Some of that same speed that is in his legs and hips exists in his strike in the throw, then it is just a matter of taking that and transferring it into the javelin release and big things will happen. He is a talented guy and now he has really learned how to throw the javelin, it's been fabulous."

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Aaron True on...
...Mindset going into the NCAA meet:
"Going into nationals, I knew it was going to be a highly competitive meet. Being my first time there, I had some nerves going into it. There were some really good athletes there, some guys throwing 80 meters. I knew if I wanted a chance to get top-3 or top-5 then I was going to have to bring it. My second attempt was when I threw over 70m, when I hit that my stress level went down because I knew I was going to make finals. When I got into finals, I was hoping to get a big throw but I just couldn't put it together to have another throw over 75m. Overall it was a great experience and I'm looking forward to being back there next year."

...The unique experience of Hayward Field:
"It was cool just being there for the first time and experiencing Hayward Field, knowing all the history that is involved with it. Having the huge crowd there on hand, it definitely gets you excited and pumped for the meet. It was definitely something that I've never experienced before."

...Competing at the USA Championships:
"The main thing for me is just getting ready, staying healthy and remaining fit all at the same time. The competition will be high going into that meet, there are some great throwers from America. I'm just hoping to hit a big throw, 75m or better and I'll have a good shot at finishing in the top-2."

...Finishing top-2 and advancing:
"There is a meet called the Athletics Cup in London, they take the first place finisher in each event and they qualify for the Athletics Cup to compete against different world teams. There is also one called the NACAC Senior Championships in Toronto, Canada, that is in late August and the top-2 finishers in the USA Championships advance to that meet."

...Training in post-season:
"During the beginning of the season we are working down the ladder as far as weight lifting goes. In the off-season we go pretty heavy, then once the season gets started we go lighter reps and work on our explosion. We are kind of doing the same thing now, just doing enough to stay in shape and to stay healthy at the same time.

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Taran Taylor on...
...Junior Nationals:
"I knew that I needed to do something in the first three throws before finals, just to put pressure on everyone else but also because it was extremely hot out there. I was already getting tired before we event started, there wasn't any wind, the sun and humidity just was dragging me down. When I hit that first throw, I knew it was a good one and to see it pop up on the scoreboard, it was a big sigh of relief. I could see everyone else squirming around and it really put the pressure on everyone else."

...Redeeming himself after not qualifying for NCAA Finals:
"I was glad that I could get back over 70m again after throwing 74m at the conference meet, then going to Sacramento and not being able to do much over there. To have another competition and to keep that confidence high felt really good, it gives me a lot of confidence going into the World Championships."

...Competition at the Junior World Championships:
"I haven't looked much at lists or the other national meets, but after conference, I was ranked No. 3. With my 74m throw I will be placed pretty high, but I'm going to need to throw 74,75 or something big to get to the finals."

 ...Decision to throw at the USA Championships:
"I'm hoping this meet will prepare me for the level of competition I will see at the Junior World Championships, it is also another meet for me to get a little bit more practice in before I head to Finland. It will be great for practice and great experience to be able to throw with some of the best in America."

...How far he has progressed in his freshman season:
"Our first meet I think I threw 63m, I had been doing that practice so to do that in a meet was a big confidence booster. Then going forward, my goal was to be consistent around 210 feet and to completely blow all my goals out of the water every meet, it was kind of hard to keep track of things. Every time I threw, it seemed like I kind of surprised myself but with Coach Hetzendorf and all the other guys I get to throw with this year I can see why I improved so much."

...When it became a realization that you could do this in college:
"I had an injury my junior year, I still made it to state but wasn't able to do much. My senior year I was pretty consistent with 180-190 feet, at that point once I started getting more letters from different colleges I realized that I could go somewhere and do this for awhile."

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Rayvon Allen on…
…What it will be like to compete in a USA uniform:
"This has been my dream since I was eight years old, to wear USA across my chest is a dream come true. I can't even describe how it feels, it still hasn't sunk in yet that I am actually on the USA team."
 
…His second best jump breaking the tie breaker:
"Ever since my freshman year of high school I've been told that every jump counts. I approach every attempt with that mindset and always finish it strong, I'm happy it went in my favor.
 
…The experience at the USA Junior Championships:
"In my opinion, the meet felt just like any other experience. There weren't many people there and the mood just felt mellow. I went in with very little pressure, wasn't nervous, just did what I do best and came away finishing second."
 
…Being able to represent St. Louis and Wichita State on a big stage:
"I'm excited to represent USA, as well as being able to represent my school and St. Louis. It is a great thing, hopefully me doing this will bring more exposure to St. Louis and Wichita State.
 
…Mindset when competing against other high caliber athletes:
"Going in I am just focusing on myself. I'm not too worried about the other competitors. I know what I am capable of doing, so I just want to go and compete well to make everybody proud."