Feb. 9, 2000
Tigers Ready for Iowa State Classic: The Missouri Tigers travel to Ames, Iowa, this weekend for the Iowa State Classic. Forty-one teams on the men's side and 29 teams on the women's side will compete in the two-day invitational. Fellow Big 12 Conference participants are Colorado, Iowa State and Texas A&M. Other Missouri schools participating are UMKC and Southwest Missouri.
A Look Back: The Tigers had a successful run at the Meyo Invitational in South Bend, Ind., last weekend. There were several outstanding performances by Missouri, including five NCAA provisional qualifying standards and a new school record. MU took home top honors in six events over the two-day competition, including two 1-2-3 sweeps in the men's throwing events.
Four individual runners ran to NCAA provisional qualifying standards, including two first-time qualifiers. Freshman Kerry Hils won the mile by less than one second over Michigan's Lisa Ouellet with a time of 4:49.16. Juniors Sunny Gilbert and Ashley Wysong placed second and third in the 800m, just behind Notre Dame's Hope Sanders. Gilbert qualified with a mark of 2:08.58 while Wysong qualified with a time of 2:08.72. The race was Gilbert's first qualifying mark of her career and Wysong's first race of the season. The other individual athlete to run a provisional standard was defending 800m champion Derrick Peterson. The junior won the event in 1:48.26. The fifth and final NCAA provisional qualifier was the women's distance medley relay. The team set a qualifying standard of 11:34.40, breaking the Meyo Invitational's previous record.
Throwers Provide 1-2-3 Punch: Junior Micah Shanks continued his domination in the weight throw, winning the event with a toss of 62' 3 1/2". With that throw, Shanks broke the MU school record for the third straight meet. Not to be overshadowed by their teammate, freshmen Russ Bell and Christian Cantwell took second and third place, respectively, in the weight throw. Both Tigers threw over 60 feet for the first time in their careers.
After sweeping the weight throw, the trio did the same thing the following day in the shot put. Cantwell took first with a throw of 56'10 1/4" while Bell and Shanks took second and third with hurls of 54'10 1/4" and 53' 5" respectively. The win was Cantwell's best performance and his second win of the season.