University of Missouri
Big 12-SEC Challenge, Day 1/2
Rorvig Earns Provisional Mark On First Day Of Challenge
1/30/2009 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Jan. 30, 2009
College Station, Texas - On day one of the Big 12-SEC Challenge, Mizzou's Kaela Rorvig and Lauren Begany had the daunting task of getting the Tigers off on the right foot among the nations best, but in the end, both would send the Tigers, and the Big 12, off on the right foot as Rorvig went on to win the Women's Pentathlon on the first day of the event with Begany finishing third.
Winning three of the five events, along with finishing no worse than third in two, secured not only a Pentathlon victory, but also set an NCAA-provisional qualifying mark of 3,757 points, giving the Big 12 Women ten of the 36 points the conference earned on the day. "It feels good to set a provisional mark early, but there are still things I need to work on that will continue to help me get better," Rorvig said.
Begany had a strong showing in the event, posting 3,344 points, only 120 behind second place finisher Sarah Pierson of Texas A&M. "Both Kaela and Lauren did very well today, and hopefully we will have another solid day tomorrow," head coach Dr. Rick McGuire said.
With only four of the seven events completed on Friday, Tigers Nick Adcock and Lars Rise sit two and three in the Men's Heptathlon, with Adcock just 18 points behind current leader Trinity Otto of Texas A&M. Ben Licklider of Missouri is also in the mix sitting sixth in the seven man field. "They both have pretty good scores right now," McGuire said. "I believe they will both finish strong tomorrow."
Rorvig began the meet storming out of the gate winning the 60-meter hurdles in the first event of the Pentathlon with a time of 8.81, while Begany just missed out on second with a third place finish time of 9.19. The two would finish three, and four in the high jump with jumps of 1.57 meters and 1.54 meters respectively. Rorvig rebounded in the shot put, finishing second with a throw of 10.84 meters, as Begany finished fifth with a toss of 9.42 meters. To finish out the session, Rorvig finished at the top of both the long jump and 800-meter run, with Begany finishing third and sixth in the same events.
Adcock and Rise are going tit-for-tat with A&M's Otto, as the three have finished in the top four of every event except for one, the 60-meter dash. Otto got the win in that event with Adcock finishing second and Rise finishing fifth. Rise stormed back in the long jump and finished just .2 meters from the top spot winner which was Otto again. The two Tigers would finish one, and two in the shot put with throws of 15.14 and 13.74 meters respectively. Adcock would go down to the wire with Florida's Gray Horn in the high jump, clearing the mark of 2.02 on his final try of the night.
Day two of the meet will begin with the final events of the Heptathlon at 11 a.m. starting with the Men's 60-meter Hurdles, and by the afternoon the running events and individual field events.
