Tigers Open Indoor Track Season At Home
1/11/2001 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Jan. 11, 2001
Columbia, Mo. - Missouri kicks off its 2001 season at the Hearnes Center Fieldhouse in the Tiger Invitational Jan. 12. The Tigers will face in-state foe Missouri-Kansas City and Wichita State. The University of Arkansas women's team will also run at this meet.
The Mizzou women are ranked 24th in the lastest Trackwire indoor top-25 preseason poll. The Tigers received eight votes to place them in a six-way tie.
Trackwire.com lists Ashley Wysong and Sunny Gilbert in its Dandy Dozen (D12) in the 800m. Wysong is second and Gilbert is 12th. Christian Cantwell is ranked eighth on the D12 shot put list and is one of five underclassmen on the list.The MU distance medley relay team, which returns all four members from last year's 10th-place finishers, is ranked no. 10 in the Trackwire rankings.
Trackwire also ranks Wysong second and Gilbert 10th among returning 800m runners. Michelle Moran is ranked third in the hepathlon. In the steeplechase, Kerry Hils is fifth, Katie Meyer is sixth and Gilbert is ninth. Among returning shot putters, Cantwell is fifth and Russ Bell is 15th in the discus. Espen Strindeberg is seventh in the decathlon.
Also among the big names in the Missouri lineup are senior Nick Smith and junior Adam MacDowell in the distance events and enior Jay Meystedt, who was second outdoor and third indoor in the high jump at the conference championships last season.
Head Coach Rick McGuire (St. Lawrence University, 1969) is in his 18th year coaching the Tigers. The 2000 Big 12 Conference Indoor Coach of the Year, McGuire has guided 25 Missouri tracksters to 66 All-American honors. He has been inducted into the Missouri Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Drake Relays Hall of Fame and has been a member of the 1992 and 1996 Olympic staffs.
