Jamison Has Learned to Clear Hurdles of All Sorts

Instead of tears, there was a mature response. The ability to shrug off the set back and take it for what it was.

A normal occurrence.

"Even though I've ran it a million times and I've been doing track since I was like 7-years old, I still can't stay on my feet for a whole season, but that's OK. Now I've gotten it out of my system," Neya Jamison said Saturday at the Jack Christiansen Invitational on the track named after him. "This just gives me even more motivation for the next races because I was feeling so good. I knew I was about to shatter my PR and I'm really excited for the rest of this season."

So is her coach, J.J. Riese, who guides the sprinters and hurdlers on Colorado State's track and field team. His expectations are high for both the men and women, the newcomers and the sage veterans such as Jamison.

Being a vet helps her take in what Riese says, how he says it and how to translate it. What used to bother her – such as him describing her 100-meter hurdles race and the 110 hurdles of freshman Owen Langdon for what it means.

He said both were rough, but good. Translation: Not perfect, but both displayed their potential in the race. When she was new to the team and Riese, she would have read the comment as passive-aggressive.

Not anymore.

"It means that he knows that I can do so much better than I did. J.J., he likes to … He's a tough love," she said. "He used to bother me, but now I know that it's just, it's really just him trying to motivate me. J.J. is a great coach, and I'm so excited for this season."

The coach translation: Jamieson was too active with her upper body, creating torque and stripping momentum. As for Langdon, spacing; just being too close to the hurdle at takeoff, leading to him smashing a line of hurdles.

They've learned to read each other over the years, which helps with the coaching aspect. She knows more about herself and how she's feeling and can express those details more clearly, which in turns helps Riese make assessments.

His main one is she is smart enough to read the room and find the right path.
"It's a little tough because she doesn't necessarily run into the same level of competition she would normally run into. Some of the local schools' emphasis have changed a little bit, which is kind of a bummer," he said. "Grace Lanfear is out right now and hopefully she comes back in a week or two. I think when Grace comes back, that'll be really good for her.

"She has to go out because she's so much better than she was last year. She's going to have to kind of just play with her rhythm a little bit to figure out, hey, what's too fast? What's too slow? What am I capable of? And kind of just fine tune from there. It's just going to be a little bit trial and error because she's so much better than she was last year."

Jamison won the 100 hurdles with a personal record of 13.69, which ranks fifth at CSU. Langdon, running his first collegiate outdoor event, posted the third-best time at CSU with a 13.77 to claim victory in the 110 hurdles.

Not a bad starting point. Nor was the 51.89 in the 400 hurdles, placing him second.

Colorado State posted a number of solid results in the early season competition, getting victories from Nic Spencer in the 3,000 steeplechase, Adam Hellborn in the discus (leading a 1-2-3 finish for the Rams), Tyler Colwell in the 100 and Kenny Carpenter in the 400 and in javelin from Cameron Kalaf from the men; Makayla Long in the shot put (her 55-11.5 ranking fifth at CSU), Annastasia Murphy in the high jump, Kajsa Borrman in the discus (her 179-3 sits 12^th at the school) and Mackenzii Phillips in the javelin.

Since Hall of Famer Trevor Brown set the school record at 49.64 in 2014, only three Rams have entered the top 20 in the event in the following 12 years. One was Jack Wetterling, who as third in 52.37 to bump himself from 17^th to 15^th. Langdon's time sits 12^th, and Carson Bruns fell .10 shy of adding his name with his PR of 52.73.

No wonder Riese has set lofty goals for the hurdles group. He expects the three men who ran Saturday to be in the final at the Mountain West Championships and for Jamison to compete for a title once again.

He also knows they are making their adjustments. From indoor to outdoors, or in the case of Langdon, high school to college.

He didn't set any time expectations, nor did he write down winning the indoor conference title. Everything so far has been a plus.

"I just came in not really expecting to run certain times but just trying to push myself as much as I can to run good times, and I feel like I've done that pretty well," Langdon said. "I feel like that's the best thing about running good times at the beginning because, I mean, for me, I didn't have the best race, but my time showed, and that shows that I have a lot more potential coming up for me."

As for Riese's assessment, he wasn't really sure. He's not even a year into working with Riese, so his ability to translate is not at the same level as that of Jamison.

It seems like he is catching on, however.

"I mean, I don't really know. I think it's pretty good advice," Langdon said. "I know for myself I didn't have the cleanest race, but I had a time that I like and I'm happy with. It's pretty close to my high school PR for the 110s, so I know I didn't run the cleanest race. I could have had a better start, cleaner over the hurdles towards the end. Those are just things I know I can work towards this season and lower my time that much more."

Prior to the race, he didn't find himself a quiet place to reflect on his first collegiate 400 hurdles because there was too much taunting taking place. No, the CSU men's open 400 crew had come over to challenge the hurdlers, as they have a side bet going on as to which group can be ranked the highest.

Led by Carpenter's 45.79 – ranking second at CSU – and followed by Ashton Whisler (46.85, seventh) and Sean Donelson (46.93, eight) in a 1-2-3 finish, they had already laid down their challenge and came to remind the hurdlers. Loudly. And often.

"It makes it so much more fun," Langdon said, adding Wetterling and Travis Turner are the biggest instigators from each side. "We're trying to prove to each other that we can do certain things."

Langdon was happy with his 400 event, especially considering he hasn't run the distance since he was a sophomore at James Bowie High School in Austin, Texas. Again, a great starting point when it comes to room for improvement.

As for Jamison, she has a love-hate relationship with the event, which is not for the feint of heart. It requires a plan more than the all-out sprint of the 100 hurdles, and in this instance, she just overthought a race which had started out perfectly.

"This just gives me even more motivation for the next races because I was feeling so good. I knew I was about to shatter my PR (her 58.18 ranks third at CSU) and I'm really excited for the rest of this season," she said. "For some reason in my mind, I was like, 'oh my gosh, I'm not going to get the fifth hurdle in stride -- which I was perfectly on stride to get the fifth hurdle -- so I threw in an extra step. So I hit it and then I was literally right in front of the hurdle, so when I tried to go up, I hooked it with my lead leg and then just …"

She said it all with a knowing smile. One that said it happens once every year, and now she's put that behind her. It foretold of a season of hope from a mature competitor, one who has reached the podium and still has the drive to climb those steps.

Most of all, it said she fully believes the best is yet to come, which is a great place to start an outdoor campaign.

"I've come a long way from freshman year. The person I was freshman year is not the person I am standing here today. It's night and day. It's actually crazy," Jamison said. "I used to just be a wreck before races and just thinking about all the negative things that could happen. And now I try to envision the outcome that I want to have and envision the outcome that I want for my season and the times that I want to run. And they came for indoor.

"So that's what I'm going to start doing for outdoor. I haven't started it yet."

Maturity and experience have taught her the best path.

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