May 20, 2000 --
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Day number two of the 2000 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships produced two Missouri Big 12 Champions and found the Missouri men on top of the standings. The Tiger men will enter Sunday's final day in first place with 46 points, just four points in front of second-place Nebraska.
The Missouri women are in third place after two days with 29 points. Nebraska is the leader with 64 points and the nation's No. 1 ranked team, Texas, finds themselves with just one point after two days of competition.
Junior MICHELLE MORAN put together a third place finish in the 800m run, the final event of the heptathlon, to claim the overall heptathlon title with a total of 5,590 points. Moran's point total broke a Missouri school record and makes her an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships in Durham, N.C. in two weeks. The point total also qualifies Moran for U.S. Olympic Trials. Moran had placed seventh in each of the last two Big 12 Championships in the heptathlon.
The Mizzou heptathletes tallied a total of 17 points for the Tigers. Senior JILL AHOLT, competing in her final event as a Tiger, placed fifth with 5,339 points. Junior ELI SOMMERFELDT finished in seventh place with 5,118 points and freshman ABBE OHNECK, a Columbia product, placed eighth in her first Big 12 Championships competition with 4,778 points.
Freshman CHRISTIAN CANTWELL of Eldon, Mo. also claimed his first Big 12 title in the shot put on Saturday. Cantwell hurled the shot 64-6.1/2, setting a new Big 12 record. The mark currently ranks Cantwell No. 3 in country.
Fellow Missouri freshman RUSS BELL garnered All-Big 12 honors in his second event of the weekend with a sixth place finish in the shot put. Bell's top mark was 56-4 1/2.
Missouri's ESPEN STRINDEBERG won the 1,500m run, the final event of the decathlon to vault his way to a third place overall finish. Strindeberg ended up with 7,074 points. Kansas junior ANDY MORRIS scored 7,315 points to win the decathlon. Freshman KNUT SOMMERFELDT placed fifth for Mizzou with 6,918 points.
The Tigers JAY MEYSTEDT pulled off his best jump in over two years by leaping 7'0 ? in the high jump to garner second place honors.
Junior SHOMARI BENTON placed sixth for Mizzou in the long jump competition. Benton's best jump was 23-0 ?. Texas junior CHRIS HERCULES held off Texas A&M's BASHIR RAMZY for his third consecutive Big 12 title.
In the women's discus, Missouri sophomore CARLA GREWE used a final toss of 146-09 to jump from an eighth place finish to a sixth place finish.
In preliminary running events on Saturday, three-time 800m champion DERRICK PETERSON turned in the top time in that event, 1 minute, 48.99 seconds. Teammate TIMOTHY DUNNE recorded the second fastest time in the event, 1 minute, 49.92 seconds.
In the women's 800m preliminary races, three Tigers advanced to Sunday's finals led by sophomore All-American ASHLEY WYSONG. Wysong will be seeded third after turning in a time of 2:10.96. Junior SUNNY GILBERT (2:11.11) and senior BECKY RIGEL (2:11.99) also advanced and will be seeded sixth and eighth respectively.
The Lady Tigers also qualified two runners in the 1,500m run for Sunday's finals. Junior KATIE MEYER turned in a personal best time of 4:23.65 and will be seeded second in Sunday's championship. Freshman KERRY HILS qualified in the eighth spot with a time of 4:24.17.
Junior JOEL MCCUNE will represent the Missouri men in Sunday's finals in the 1,500m race. McCune will be seeded fourth after turning in a time of 3:48.28.