April 4, 2000
This Week
After hosting the first annual Missouri Relays, the University of Missouri hits the road again to compete in a meet that features over 75 colleges and hundreds of high schools. That is what awaits the Tigers in Austin, Texas this week for the Longhorns' version of a relay meet. Missouri is set to do battle with 11 of the 12 conference schools (Colorado the lone Big 12 school not competing) along with many other great track programs such as Arkansas, Arizona, Arizona State, Florida, Florida State, Illinois, Iowa, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, SMU and Tulsa.
The 73rd annual Texas Relays is one of the premier meets in the country during the outdoor season. With the other 11 league school competing at the meet, MU will get an early glimpse at what they can expect in May as they host the Big 12 Championships in Columbia, Mo. May 19-21.
A Few Names To Know
The Mizzou men have been unstoppable in the last two months while the women have not been too shabby themselves. Coming off their home opener, a few Tigers you might want to keep an eye on for the remainder of the season are:
Russ Bell has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the discus with the fifth best performance in school history. Heading into this weeks competition, Bell stands 12th overall in the country and has the second best throw by a freshman to date. The freshman has achieved a personal best in all three events in which he competes (hammer, shot put and discus) already during the 2000 outdoor season ...
Ann Marie Brooks just keeps getting stronger with every race. Brooks ran the final leg on the Tiger's DMR at nationals and has not missed a step since. She was also a provisional qualifier in the mile following her fourth place performance at the conference meet. The sophomore has already claimed her first victory of the outdoor season winning the 1500m at the Missouri Relays ...
Christian Cantwell continued his All-American year from the indoor season by provisionally qualifying for the NCAA outdoors in the shot put with a throw of 60-9 ?. That mark is good enough for the eighth-best performance to date and is the highest ranked freshman heading into competition this weekend. Cantwell currently holds the third best mark in Missouri history ...
Timothy Dunne spent his freshman campaign in Derrick Peterson's shadow. However, during his sophomore season, Dunne has been making a name for himself. Thus far into 2000, he qualified in the 800m for the indoor NCAA Championships where he finished 14th. He has not run an individual half mile during the outdoor season yet, but he was a member of Mizzou's Florida Relays record setting 4x800m relay team ...
Sunny Gilbert has had a break through year in 2000. She was the runner-up in the 1,000m at the indoor league meet and ran in her first national meet leading off Missouri's DMR. Gilbert provisionally qualified in the 800m indoors and also broke the 5:00 mark for the first time in her career in the mile ...
Anna Gullingsrud is a senior on MU's track team, but in her first year of competition with the Tigers and she is making the most of it. Gullingsrud set the school mark in the 5,000m run at the conference meet with a time of 16:45.25 which was also an NCAA provisional mark ...
Kerry Hils made an impact in her first track season wearing the Black and Gold. Hils provisionally qualified for NCAAs in the mile, however, her time just missed making the meet. At the Big 12 Championships, Hils placed 3rd in the 1,000m run in her first conference track meet. The freshman still ran at nationals on MU's DMR that finished 10th in the country ...
William Hopson is having an outstanding senior season. Hopson placed third at the league championships with a personal best leap of 24 feet, 9 ? inches. Not only was his jump fifth all time in school history, it was an NCAA provisional mark ...
Katie Meyer is on a roll this track season. She ran on Mizzou's DMR at the national championships and ran a great season opening 1500m run at the Florida Relays. Meyer, the reigning 1500m Drake Relays champion, then followed that performance up by winning the 3,000m run in MU's home opener ...
Jay Meystedt has suffered through several back injuries and is now getting back to form. Meystedt jumped over 7 feet for the first time in over a year at the Big 12 Championships and cleared the 7 foot barrier for the first time during the outdoor season last weekend. It marked the first time in quite awhile the senior was able to jump with the technique that has made him so successful in the past ...
Michelle Moran picked up right where she left off indoors in the pentathlon scoring 5,193 points in the heptathlon in Gainesville, Fla. Not only was her point total good enough for third at the Florida Relays, it was also a NCAA provisional standard. Moran stands seventh in the country at this point in the season ...
Derrick Peterson finished as the runner-up in the 800m at the 2000 indoor championships and was not satisfied. So all he does is follow that performance up by opening the outdoor campaign with the fastest time in the country. The senior already owns four of MU's all-time top-five times and is looking to become the first athlete in Big 12 history to remain undefeated at the league championships ...
Ryan Pirtle was also a 2000 national qualifier in the mile. Pirtle ran his qualifying time at the last chance meet in Ames, Iowa before going on the attaining All-America status one week later. The senior captain has been getting better with each season during his Tiger career. Look for Pirtle in the steeplechase during the outdoor campaign. In fact, Pirtle is an Olympic Trail qualifier in the steeplechase and is going to be competing for a chance to make the U.S. team in July ...
Micah Shanks raised the bar for the MU throwers in 2000. After breaking the weight throw record on four different occasions indoors, Shanks has not dropped off any outdoors. The senior has already broken the hammer throw record by over twelve feet. The indoor Big 12 weight throw champion is less than 11 feet away from the NCAA qualifying standard with only two meets under his belt in the 2000 outdoor campaign ...
Nick Smith is one Mizzou's top 5,000m and 10,000m runner of all time. He broke his own school mark in the 5,000m run at the Big 12 meet and is closing in on the 10,000m school record. Smith opened up the outdoor season with a fifth place finish at the Florida Relays in the 5,000m run and will get the chance to compete in his first 10,000m run in the next few weeks ...
Espen Stridenberg moved back into his comfort zone at the Florida Relays, posting a two day total in the decathlon of 7, 283 points. That mark was only 72 points off his personal best mark of 7,355. Stridenberg is sitting No. 5 overall in the country following his runner-up performance at the 2000 indoor Big 12 Championships. Stridenberg also posted two PR's in Florida in the javelin and pole vault ...
Ashley Wysong is one of the leaders in MU's deep middle crop. Wysong finished as the runner-up in the 800m at the conference meet and followed it up with her best race ever. At the 2000 indoor national meet, Wysong placed 4th in a school record time of 2:03.95. That time also qualified the junior captain for the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials.
2000 Missouri Relays Recap
The University of Missouri track and field team put on its biggest show to date for it home opener as 5 Tigers claimed victories at the Missouri Relays. It was a meet that saw many runners take the week off from competition in order to train, but allowed the MU throwers to showcase their talents.
The biggest parade of Black and Gold was displayed in the women's discus and men's shot put. Highlights were also seen on the track by two MU middle distance aces.
For the Tigers, Ann Marie Brooks, Christian Cantwell, Katie Meyer, Kent Shelton and Heather White turned in individual victories for Missouri. Brooks won the women's 1500m run with a time of 4:33.90 while Meyer claimed the 3,000m title in 10:01.09 outdistancing her competition by eight seconds.
In the women's 800m run, MU did not claim the title, but three athletes had great runs for this early in the season. Sophomore Becky Froelker led the 2-3-4 Tiger punch with a new personal best time of 2:11.98. Fellow sophomore Jennifer Leerssen came in third (2:12.74) while senior Becky Rigel placed fourth (2:13.78).
In the field events, Missouri's Kent Shelton won his second-ever pole vault title after clearing 15-1. Christina Cantwell threw the shot put 60 feet, ? inches to win his second title in the event in a many tries during the outdoor campaign. Freshman Russ Bell threw a personal best of 56-7 ? to finish second while junior Micah Shanks turned a fourth place performance with a toss of 52-3 ?.
MU's senior captain Heather White closed out the events on the women's side claiming the discus title leading a 1-2-3 Tiger sweep. Her throw of 136-6 was three feet further than runner-up Brooke Ennen who threw 133-1. Sophomore Carla Grewe placed third throwing the discus 132 feet, 6 inches.
Nearly 1500 competitors from roughly 60 teams in both the high school and collegiate ranks took part in the two-day meet.
Olympic Trial Qualifiers
Derrick Peterson, Ryan Pirtle and Ashley Wysong have met the U.S. Olympic Trial standards to compete in Sacramento, Calif. for a berth on the U.S. Olympic team. Peterson and Wysong qualified in the 800m run and Pirtle in the steeplechase.
Former Tiger All-Americans Rebecca Wilmes and Darin File will also be competing for a berth on the U.S. squad. Wilmes will be running the 1500m while File will be throwing the javelin.
All-Time Greats
MU put 35 new performances on the all-time top-5 during the indoor season. The Tigers will be looking to top that number during the outdoor campaign. After only two meets, 13 new marks have already been etched into the recordbooks.