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Meet Report: 2023 Bobcat Performance

February 12th, 2023
Meet Report: 2023 Bobcat Performance

I was back in Bozeman last Friday for the Bobcat Performance meet, the third of four indoor meets hosted by MSU this year. This meet was exciting for me because there were two rounds of the 60, which is usually a great way to set a good mark.

I had an abbreviated but strong training week leading up to the meet, continuing to build on my newfound power out of the blocks. My coach had me especially focused on being aggressive from 10-30m to maximize my time spent sprinting upright in the 60.

Inspired by Noah Lyles, I’ve been experimenting with some self-activation drills before maximal efforts. For now, I’ve focused on my glutes, calves, and lats. It actually makes a tangible difference in how prepared I feel.

The meet was pretty late for me—the 200m wasn’t until 7:15pm, which is usually about an hour before I go to bed. Although I tried to shift my circadian rhythm slightly back, I was still up at 5:30am the day of the meet.

As usual, I raced the 60 and 200 at this meet. This time, I was the fastest seed time in both races.

60m prelims: 6.85

  • 6.85 is a all-conditions lifetime PR for me—besting the indoor 6.89 I set earlier this year and the wind-aided 6.88 I ran last Februrary outdoors! It also won me my heat and put me in pole position for the finals.
  • I had a very good block start, probably my best effort in a race so far. This could partially be subjective, as I was flanked by two slower runners, but I felt smoother and stronger than I ever have.
  • I successfully came upright somewhere between 20-30m.
  • Because I led wire to wire and didn’t really feel any athletes the whole race, I was really relaxed at max speed and was able to easily carry that through the line.

60m finals: 6.85

  • Finals were about 75 minutes after the prelims. After about a half hour of relaxation, I jumped into an abbreviated warmup. I felt really good going into the finals.
  • My start was blazing and I had a huge gap… but the timer malfunctioned, and they called us back.
  • The second attempt was worse in every way—although I still got out well and in the lead, I didn’t have nearly as much of a margin. In particular, my reaction time was slow, and my steps weren’t very powerful after the first two.
  • I was able to recover, however, and have a really strong max-velocity phase. I’ve had a lot of races in the past where I got walked down after starting in the lead; this is one of the few times where I was able to maintain and even extend my lead at top speed (against similar competitors).
  • All in all, I hit 6.85 again, which was enough to win the finals. While I’m happy to have shown the prelims weren’t a fluke, I wish the timer hadn’t malfunctioned—I think I had something special there.

200m: 22.21

  • This race was only a half hour after the 60. I just stayed in the oval and did a few drills and strides to stay warm. I was tired, both from the two previous races and from the time of day.
  • My start wasn’t particularly strong. I’ve had very little practice on curve starts this year, and it showed here.
  • In fact, I almost got DQ’d for flinching—the officials were very kind to not hit me with a false start as they “determined that I hadn’t gotten a significant advantage” from it.
  • I almost got DQ’d a second time on the first curve when I stepped on the line once. Under NCAA rules, stepping on the line twice is a disqualification, and, apparently, my second step was just clear of the line.
  • Once again, I struggled with the second curve. As a short sprinter, I have very little experience going from a straight to a curve.
  • Despite all that, my speed endurance held well—I won my heat and the race with a new flat 200m PR of 22.21 (which converts to a banked/oversized 21.81)!

This was a great bounce-back set of 60s after a couple disappointing races in Boulder. I’m happy to have finally come over the top of my all-conditions PR from last year, and to continue to drop my 200 down every race.

Next up is the final race of my indoor season this year, the Big Sky Preview in Bozeman next Friday.

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