The Basics
            The Shocker track and field teams make the trip up I-335 to Topeka on Friday for the Division I Challenge at Washburn University.
            This is the final meet for Wichita State before they head to Colorado Springs for the Championships at the Peak, which is a championship-style meet substituting the AAC Indoor Championships, which were canceled.
            The Division I Challenge is a scored meet between Wichita State, Arkansas State, South Dakota, Tulsa and Oral Roberts.
 
Follow The Meet
            Fans can follow along with updates on Twitter @GoShockersTFXC. A full recap of each day will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and GoShockers.com.
            You can find a live results link here.
 
Meet Schedule
            The Division I Challenge is a one-day meet, taking place on Friday.
            The meet is slated to start at 10 a.m. with shot put kicking off the field-event slate. 
            Track events begin at 11 a.m. with the 60-meter hurdles.
 
Last Time Out
            The Shockers had a busy weekend with three straight days of competition on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
            Multi-events took to the Heskett Center on Thursday and the heptathlon competition wrapped up on Friday.
            On Friday at the Herm Wilson Invitational, the Shockers put up some of the nation's best performances.
            Joseph Holthusen ran a time of 7.79 in the 60-meter hurdles. Holthusen's performance sits at No. 6 in the country and leads the American Athletic Conference.
            Michael Bryan continued a great season, throwing the weight 20.44m/67-0.75. Bryan's mark in the weight throw puts him at No. 28 in the NCAA this season.
            Anna Zimmer had a breakout performance in the women's shot put. She threw a mark of 14.43m/47-4.25 for an event victory. Zimmer's mark also puts her at No. 7 in school history.
            On Saturday, the Shocker cross country squads ran at the American Athletic Conference Championships on their home course in Augusta, Kansas, the 4 Mile Creek Resort.
            Winny Koskei won the women's 6K and became the first person to win three individual conference titles. She also punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships.
            Yazmine Wright (5th) and McKenna Paintin (13th) earned all-conference honors in the women's race.
            Jed Helker was the lone male all-conference Shocker, taking 14th.
 
Assistant Director of Track and Field and Cross Country John Wise on the Meet
On how special Joseph Holthusen's 7.79 was
"It was a deal where we knew those kind of times could happen at any time this year. It was a lowkey meet where his only competition was his teammate. It wouldn't have surprised me if Antonio Norman had run 7.79. That's how those guys have been. Joseph is such a good competitor, he doesn't surprise you anymore because he competes so well. I've taken away expectations and thought he is going to surprise us and run fast all the time. The attitude from him the next day was to get better and never settle."
 
On what makes the Division I Challenge a different meet
"It's a banked track, which is certainly different. It's brand new, so we're one of the first teams to compete there. We haven't been there, but it looks like a world-class facility. We've been home for a couple weeks, so it'll be nice to compete on the road again. It'll be fun because it's a six-team scored meet that lasts four hours with Shockers in every event. That's the way we feel like track should be more like, not a long marathon meet."
 
On what he's looking for in this week's meet
"It's the first time we've been together as a team since the Triangular, so we get to see who we are as a team. Our men have been strong since the beginning. Winning the meet on the men's side will be challenging because we're not trying to enter everyone and tire them out, but we would like to win as well. On the women's side is different because we have so many significant athletes that will join us outdoors. There are a lot of women who get to show what they have. We feel like were significantly better outdoor, but we got to get the momentum going."
 
Got 99 Problems, but Hurdling Ain't One
            Going into the 2021 indoor track and field season, the Shocker men looked to have one of the best hurdling groups in the conference with all-conference performer Joseph Holthusen, nearly all-conference honoree Antonio Norman, a promising freshman in Jaleel Montgomery, transfer athlete Yuben Goncalves and young talent in Kieron Hunter.
            That feeling has gone from hype to belief after seeing the 2021 season.
            Sprints and hurdles coach John Wise said the group has big goals this year.
            "We've talked about having the best group in the country," Wise said. "Getting multiple people to the Olympic Trials this year. They want to accomplish some major things."
            Joseph Holthusen had one of the country's best performances in the hurdles this year, running a time of 7.79. Holthusen's time slots him at No. 6 in the country and is the conference's leading performance in 2021. Holthusen's race moved him to second in school history and set the facility record at the Heskett Center.
            Antonio Norman sits at No. 25 in the NCAA this season with a time of 7.89. Wise said he would not have been surprised if Norman had run 7.79.
            All-in-all the Shockers' hurdling group has four of the top six 60-meter hurdling performances in the conference this season.
            When this group is firing on all cylinders, it will be hard to stop them and it will be for quite some time. All five of them have at least three years of eligibility left. 
 
Koskei Kicks to History
            Winny Koskei made history on Saturday, winning the American Athletic Conference Cross Country individual title for the third consecutive year.
            Koskei became the first person in conference history, man or woman, to claim three cross country individual titles.
            Koskei's performance earned a spot at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on March 15 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. There will not be a regional meet to decide qualifiers, so qualification will be decided at the conference level.
            Koskei's performance also set the 4 Mile Creek Resort course record at 6K. She also owns the 5K course record.
            Koskei has a chance to become a two-time All-American in March.
 
Shockers in the National Ranks
            The Shockers have six top-50 performances in the country this year. All six are performances from the Shocker men.
                        6. Joseph Holthusen, 60-Meter Hurdles: 7.79
                        20. Tanner Brown, Heptathlon: 5,284 points
                        23. Nate Vann, Heptathlon: 5,251 points
                        25. Antonio Norman, 60-Meter Hurdles: 7.89
                        28. Michael Bryan, Weight Throw: 20.44m/67-0.75
                        46. Yuben Goncalves, Triple Jump: 15.08m/49-5.75