March 28, 2000
Up Next
After opening the outdoor season in Gainesville, Fla. At the 57th annual Coca-Cola Florida Relays, the University of Missouri men's and women's track and field team brings their talents to Columbia, Mo. The Tigers will be hosting the first annual Missouri Relays on Friday and Saturday, March 31 to April 1. The meet begins at 9:00 a.m. on both days as the high school portion will be held Friday and the collegiate events, along with a few high school finals, will take place on Saturday.
Last Time Out
Missouri picked up right where it left off during the indoor season by opening the outdoor season in grand fashion at the Florida Relays. Both teams turned in outstanding performances during the early portion of spring break in Gainesville, Fla. There were six first place finishes, five NCAA provisional standards, two new school records established, a 1-2 finish and a new meet record.
The Tigers opened the eyes of people from all over the country as the squads competed against 67 other school. Some of the teams MU did battle with were Georgia Tech, Clemson, Tennessee, Michigan State, Florida State, Connecticut and host Florida.
Brooks Excels in Classroom
On Thursday, March 23, the 1999-2000 District VII First-team Women's Fall/Winter At-Large academic squad was released. Missouri sophomore Ann Marie Brooks was selected to the 10-person team following her performance in the classroom this past fall as well as her outstanding running on the cross country course. The first team members will now move onto the national ballot.
Espen Extreme
On the first two days of the Florida Relays, Espen Stridenberg put on a shoe for the MU contingent. In his first decathlon of 2000, the senior captain scored an NCAA provisional standard with his 7,283 points.
His two best performances of the weekend came in the pole vault and javelin. His jump of 15 feet, 11 inches in the vault was a personal best by five inches. He beat his PR of 15-6 twice during the competition. Stridenberg also established a personal best in the javelin with a throw of 192 feet, 1 inch, breaking his previous best by nearly seven feet.
Meet Moran
Michelle Moran turned in the best individual performance on the women's side placing third in the heptathlon. Her point total of 5,193 was not only good enough for third overall, it was also an NCAA provisional standard. This is only the second time in the junior's career she has achieve the NCAA standard.
The other three Tiger women to compete in the heptathlon were junior Eli Sommerfeldt, Jill Aholt and Abbe Ohneck. Sommerfeldt also broke the 5,000 point barrier on her way to a fourth place finish with 5,020 points while senior Jill Aholt finished 6th with 4,829 points. Freshman Abbe Ohneck turned in an 11th place performance with 4,474 points in her first-ever heptathlon.
White Returns
After missing a full year of competition due to injury, Heather White threw for the first time this weekend at the Florida Relays. The senior captain suffered a back injury last year and underwent surgery in January. Missouri thought they had lost one of their best throwers forever. However, White had other plans.
After several month of hard work and only two weeks of training under her belt, White threw both the hammer and discus this past weekend. Not only did she compete, she turned in two top-20 performances against some rather stiff competition. She is currently ranked 6th in the discus and 4th in the hammer throws within the conference following her debut performance of 2000.
Half Mile Dominance Continues
Missouri is know around the country for its 800m runners. In Gainesville, Fla. over the weekend, sophomore Timothy Dunne, freshman Stewart Kimball, junior Phil Councilor and senior Derrick Peterson claimed the 4x800m-relay title. Their time of 7:22.49 not only crushed the rest of the field, it established a new meet record as well.
In the individual 800m event, Peterson did his usual thing - dominated. Coming from behind in the last 200m, the senior captain claimed the event crown. His time of 1:47.74 is currently the fastest time in the country.
Mile High
In the women's 4x1500m event, the Black and Gold runners came out of the gate on fire. Senior Jessica Patton, junior Katie Meyer, senior Anna Gullingsrud and sophomore Ann Marie Brooks with a time of 18:41.98. How dominant were the Tigers, they won the event by 28 seconds.
Cantwell Claims Crown
Freshman Christian Cantwell picked up right where he left off during the indoor season. After earning All-American honors in the shot put at the 2000 indoor NCAA track and field championships, Cantwell won two events at the Florida Relays.
After scratching his first two attempts in the invitational shot put, Cantwell threw 57-11 to make the finals. He then went on to scratch his first two attempts in the finals before throwing 60 feet, 9 ? inches. That mark was good enough for the win as well as achieving an NCAA provisional standard and recording the furthest throw to open a season in MU history in the event. With that mark, Cantwell currently stands first in the Big 12 Conference.
The previous evening, Cantwell won the collegiate discus event with a toss of 180 feet, 1 inch on a still and cool evening. MU claimed 3 of the top five finishes as freshman Russ Bell placed second (175-0) and junior Darrell Meinke turned in a fifth place performance (165-3). Cantwell's 180-foot mark ranks him fourth in the conference to date.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Freshman Russ Bell was not going to be out done by Cantwell twice in one weekend. The Jefferson City native won the Invitational discus on Saturday, March 25 to bring Mizzou's successful season opener to a close with a toss of 189 feet, 10 inches.
Not only was that mark fifth all-time in school history, it was also a NCAA provisional standard, the first of the young Tiger's career. Within the competition, Bell threw over 184 feet on three separate occasions. It was an improvement of 14 feet from the previous evening in the collegiate discus event. His toss of 189-10 currently places him second overall within the conference.
Twice As Nice
Missouri's hammer throw record was broken twice on Saturday by a total of 12 feet by Russ Bell and Micah Shanks. Shanks held the record heading into the 2000 outdoor campaign at 177 feet, 9 inches.
In the first flight of the competition, Bell broke the record on his second attempt throwing the hammer 184 feet, 5 inches. His mark was almost seven feet further than Shanks previous mark.
After watching his record fall, thirty minutes later, Shanks stepped into the circle and threw 189 feet, 10 inches to reclaim the record. For Shanks, throwing 189 feet once was not good enough. In the finals, he threw 189 feet, 3 inches marking twice in the same evening he broke his own record by 12 feet.
With those two marks, Bell and Shanks are both in the top-five in the conference rankings. Shanks has the second best heave to date while Bell has the fifth best throw. Not bad for the first meet of the season.
Another Record for the Books
In one of the unique relay events during the weekend, Mizzou set a new school mark. The sprint hurdle relay team of Daarina Al-Uqdah, Eli Sommerfeldt, Fiona Asigbee and Michelle Moran ran the race in 58.14 seconds. The new mark eclipsed the previous mark by nearly a second.
MacDowell Cruises to Win
It was the first 3000m steeplechase of the season for Adam MacDowell, the junior looked as though he had already done ten. He cruised to a victory in the event by seven seconds on his way to a ten-second personal best. It was MacDowell's first time under the nine-minute barrier during his career.