April 23, 2000
The University of Missouri men's and women's track and field team concluded its competition at the 73rd running of the Kansas Relays on Saturday, April 22 after three successful days both on the track and in the field. At final tally, MU came away with six relay titles, two invitational wins and two collegiate victories.
The women's shuttle hurdle relay team started the string of wins for the Tigers on Friday afternoon. In the first event for Mizzou on the day, Daarina Al-Uqdah, Eli Sommerfeldt, Fiona Asigbee and Michelle Moran teamed up to win with a time of 59.73.
Later Friday afternoon, MU dominated Kansas claiming the 4xmile relay. Damien Smith, Stewart Kimball, Phil Councilor and Joel McCune defeated the Jaywhawks byfour seconds with a winning time of 16:59.31.
Both the men's and women's 4x800m and Distance Medley Relay teams handled the competition with ease on Saturday. The women's 4x800m relay team was comprised of Kerry Hils, Jennifer Leerssen, Becky Froelker and Ashley Wysong while the men's team that won was Timothy Dunne, Damian Smith, Phil Councilor an d Derrick Peterson.
The two DMR team's that claimed victory handling defeated the field winning by a combined total of 1 minute, 8 seconds. Sunny Gilbert, Ashley Wysong, Becky Rigel and Katie Meyer teamed up on the women's side while Stewart Kimball, Derrick Peterson, Blair Hansard and Joel McCune comprised the men's squad.
Sunny Gilbert claimed the women's 800m title as she out-kicked Mashere Harrison to win with a time of 2:10.84. Katie Meyer ran to victory in her first steeplechase race of the season. She easily ran to victory winning by almost 40 seconds.
For the men, Jay Meystedt turned in his best performance of the season in the high jump with a leap of seven feet even. He finished as the top collegiate in the meet and second overall. Christian Cantwell threw 9 feet, 9 ? inches to place second overall in the shot put and win the collegiate portion.
Both of MU's 4x100m relays also had its best performances of the season.. The women's team comprised of Avis Evans, Christina Page, Fiona Asigbee and Jill Aholt qualified for the invitational final where they placed fourth. The team's prelim time of 47.35 was a season-best time by nearly a second. For the men, Shomari Benton, Cameron Ankele, Chris McCurley and Damien Dean teamed up to qualify for finals with a season-best time of 41.70.
MU will again be on the road next weekend as they travel to the home of assistant coach and former MU standout Natasha Brown. The Tigers are headed to Des Moines, Iowa to compete in the Drake Relays. Head coach Rick McGuire will also be inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame on Thursday evening prior to competition starting.