April 16, 2000

The University of Missouri men's and women's track and field team concluded its competition at the 42nd annual Mt. SAC Relays by making a statement in the last 24 hours. The three MU half mile specialist, Timothy Dunne, Derrick Peterson and Ashley Wysong, that ran in Walnut Calif. at the nationally renowned Mt. SAC Relays finished no lower than second in any of their fields.

Timothy Dunne got things rolling for the Tigers last night as he claimed the university/open division of 800m run. His time of 1:52.43 was the sophomores personal best during outdoor competition. Dunne won the event by two tenths of a second.

Ashley Wysong had a career day this afternoon. The junior won the invitational section of the 800m run with a time of 2:05.49. Not only was her time a personal best, it was a new Missouri record. Wysong broke her own record from last season by three tenths of a second. With that time, Wysong is currently ranked second in the conference and fifth in the country.

Derrick Peterson did not come away with a win the men's invitational 800m, however, he did get some revenge for his NCAA runner-up finish. Peterson nearly won the event finishing one one hundredth of a second short to the most dominant American half-miler in recent memory, Johnny Gray of the Santa Monica Track Club. Gray has dominated the 800m run in the United States since 1980. He is a three-time Olympian winning the bronze at the 1992 Summer Games. For Peterson, it may be a sign of things to come. The MU senior did out-run UCLA's Jess Strutzel who claimed the 2000 indoor NCAA title over Peterson just six weeks ago.

Missouri will stay on the road for the next two weekends as they travel to Lawrence, Kan. next weekend to take part in the Kansas Relays. The meet will be again highlighted by world-class competition as Kansas City native and world record holder Maurice Greene is just one of the headliners in an impressive group of athletes that will be competing at the 73rd running of the Kansas Relays.