The change of format at NCAA regionals makes it harder to analyze than last year's competition. It's difficult to tell much about an athlete's performance where the only thing that matters is whether or not they placed in the top 12. As was on display on the men's side, several of the top throwers trained through the meet and passed on their remaining attempts once it was clear they qualified.

The one thing that you can learn from it is who will not be competing at this year's NCAA Championships. The inconsistency of some of the top women had dire consequences and, as a result, Kristin Smith (Kentucky) and Amanda Bingson (UNLV) have both been dropped from the rankings since they did not qualify to compete this week.

A fresh field of competitors will appear at this year's NCAA Championships. Only Dorotea Habazin (Virginia Tech) compete at the meet last year. And while most people are picking Nikola Lomnicka (Georgia) to win this year's championship, I am picking Habazin to win a close competition for a variety of reasons. First, she has experience at the big meet and has performed well there previously. Habazin also has the top mark in the nation this year and has been throwing very well in May. She set a new personal best early in the month and beat Lomnicka by nearly three meters at regionals (although, as I said above, that really doesn't matter this year since Lomnicka only just one legal throw, three fouls, and two passed attempts). Combined, Habazin makes a strong case to be the favorite.

Jeneva McCall (Southern Illinois) may be the dark horse that upsets the Habazin/Lomnicka battle. Like the others, she has thrown well lately and was one of the few athletes to throw a personal best at regionals despite hot conditions, huge flights of athletes, and a slow competition. Another athlete to watch is Alena Krechyk (Kansas), who has the best PR in the field but has not been able to match it so far this season. The field is also deep: Southern Illinois also has three more entrants seeded in the top 8, indoor champion Jere' Summers could pose a threat, and Pac-10 Champion Jaynie Goodbody has been very consistent lately. Below is my final ranking/prediction of the season and the list of official entrants in the NCAA Championships.

Dropped from rankings: Kristin Smith (Kentucky) (3); Amanda Bingson (UTEP) (7). 

Women Hammer Throw Offical Entries
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     Name                 Year School           Seed   SB    
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  1  Dorotea Habazin        JR VA Tech          64.61m 66.74m
  2  Jeneva McCall          SO S. Illinois      64.12m 64.12m
  3  Alena Krechyk          SO Kansas           62.93m 64.57m
  4  Gwen Berry             JR S. Illinois      62.05m 62.26m
  5  Nikola Lomnicka        SO Georgia          61.93m 66.07m
  6  Jere' Summers          SR Louisville       61.38m 63.20m
  7  Olga Ciura             JR S. Illinois      60.26m 60.26m
  8  Sasha Leeth            SR S. Illinois      60.21m 62.99m
  9  Jaynie Goodbody        SR Stanford         59.77m 61.08m
 10  Valerie Wert           JR Akron            59.54m 59.54m
 11  Lindsey Cook           SR Louisville       58.79m 59.68m
 12  Ozioma Okolie          SR Texas Tech       58.63m 60.86m
 13  Kristi Koplin          SR S. Utah          58.17m 59.91m
 14  Mallory Barnes         JR Dayton           57.63m 58.44m
 15  Gabby Midles           SO Idaho            57.46m 58.92m
 16  Beth Rohl              FR Michigan St.     57.44m 57.44m
 17  Marissa Minderler      SO USC              57.39m 58.85m
 18  Suesanna Williams      SR S. Mississippi   57.27m 59.43m
 19  Kim Williams           SR LSU              57.11m 59.66m
 20  Terran Alexander       JR UTEP             57.06m 58.34m
 21  Jade Hodson            SO Nebraska         57.00m 59.07m
 22  D'Ana McCarty          JR Louisville       56.87m 62.24m
 23  Ashlee Lathrop         SR New Hampshire    56.45m 56.53m
 24  Brynn Smith            JR Brown            56.43m 60.85m

The CollegeHammer.com rankings are subjective and take into account the following factors: head-to-head record versus top rivals, season's best, previous big meet performances (i.e. peaking ability), recent performances, consistency, personal best, as well as other factors.

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