Feb. 22, 2002
LINCOLN, Neb. -- The first day of the Big 12 Indoor Meet has come to a close, and the Missouri men are near the top.
Missouri has 23 points and is in second place behind Colorado who has 26 points. The women are in seventh place with 11 points.
Nineteen of those 23 points came from the men in the 35-pound weight throw, which turned out to be a thrilling event for the Tigers. Junior Russ Bell's personal-best toss of 70-1.5 in the weight throw was an automatic qualifying mark in the event. Bell will join teammmates senior Micah Shanks and junior Christian Cantwell at the NCAA Indoor meet for his performance. The three-man representation at the NCAA Indoor meet will mark the first time the Missouri Track & Field team will have three athletes in the same event at the indoor championships. It is also the first time in collegiate history that three weight throwers from the same school have thrown over 70 feet in the same season.
Bell's throw at the Big 12 Indoor Championships was good for second place behind collegiate record holder Scott Russell of Kansas, who threw 77-10.75 at the meet. Cantwell placed third (66-10) and Shanks placed fourth (64-7.25) for the Tigers.
After three events in the men's heptathlon, Knut Sommerfeldt leads the Tigers in ninth place with 2,814 points.
Timothy Dunne and Stewart Kimball advance to the men's 800m final, and freshman Rem Moll qualified for the finals in the 1000m run. Chris McCurley will represent the Tigers in the 200m dash final, after he qualified in Friday's preliminaries.
Career Day for Many
The first day of events at the Big 12 Indoor Championships was one filled with personal bests for Missouri Track & Field athletes.
Junior Abbe Ohneck tied her personal best in the high jump with her height of 5-7 during pentathlon events.
Senior Shomari Benton had his fastest performance in the 60-meter dash, finishing in a time of 7.10 in the preliminaries.
Sophomore Jemma Archibald had her personal best time in the 60m hurdles (8.83), beating her previous best time of 9.00.
Sophomores Ann Snider and Holly Scherder had personal best performances in the women's weight throw Friday evening. Scherder made the finals with her toss of 53-0.75 and Snider had a 51-4.5 mark.
Pentathletes Fiona Asigbee and Abbe Ohneck both had their best performances in the event. Asigbee placed fifth with 3,709 and Ohneck placed seventh with 3,610.
Becky Froelker and Jennifer Leerssen both advance to Saturday's 1000m finals, and Leerssen's time of 2:55.14 in the prelims was a personal best for the Waco, Neb. native. Froelker finished in third with a time of 2:54.33.
Josiah James also ran his best Friday in the 600yd run, finishing in 1:12.84. David Mertens also ran his best in the mile, finishing in 4:14.69.
No Such Thing as a Free Lunch?
When weighing their options, many Tigers decided the old "Apply for a credit card and get something free" gimmick was worth the hassle. Athletes who applied for the ALUMNI MasterCard credit card could choose between a winter hat and a t-shirt with the Big 12 logo on it.
"You can never have too many hats," said assistant coach Chad Froelker, who decided against getting another t-shirt.
Saturday's events begin at 10 a.m. with the men's heptathlon 60m hurdles. Results will be posted following the meet at www.mutigers.com and www.big12sports.com.
Women's Team Scores Place School Points 1 Nebraska NU 44 2 Kansas State KSU 39 3 Colorado CU 23 4 Iowa State ISU 22 5 Texas A&M ATM 18 5 Oklahoma OU 18 7 Baylor BU 16 7 Missouri MU 16 9 Kansas KU 11 10 Texas Tech TTU 10 11 Texas UT 9 12 Oklahoma State OSU 8
Men's Team Scores Place School Points 1 Colorado CU 26 2 Missouri MU 23 3 Texas UT 15 3 Kansas KU 15 3 Kansas State KSU 15 3 Nebraska NU 15 7 Iowa State ISU 14 8 Texas A&M ATM 11 9 Oklahoma State OSU 8 10 Baylor BU 7 11 Oklahoma OU 4 12 Texas Tech TTU 3