April 17, 2002
Columbia, Mo. -- The Tigers will travel west April 18-20 to Lawrence, Kan., for the Kansas Relays.
The meet features runners from over 200 schools and will include top runners like world record holder Maurice Greene. Events began today with the heptathlon and decathlon, but no Tigers are participating in those events.
While most of the team is in Kansas, a few athletes -- Ann Marie Brooks and Knut Sommerfeldt -- will be at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.
Results from both meets will be available at the end of each day at www.mutigers.com.
Big 12 Outdoor Championships Information Online
In conjunction with Missouri as host of the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the official website of University of Missouri athletics -- www.mutigers.com -- launched a frontpage link to information about the track meet April 4. Fans can find meet information, campus maps and Big 12 information as the meet gets closer and will be able to get real-time results during the Outdoor Championships.
In the past week, a few things have been added to the Big 12 link. Media credentials are now available in PDF form. Those interested in getting credentials for the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships can print out the form and fax it to the University of Missouri Media Relations office at (573) 882-4720.
Tigers in the rankings
Just like the indoor season, the Tigers are adding more names to the national list every week.
The newest member to the group is freshman Jesse Sims, who cleared a personal best height of 7-2.5 at the Tom Botts Invitational. His mark currently ranks Sims fifth in the country. Senior Adam MacDowell ranks 26th in the nation in the men's 10,000m run. MacDowell ran the 10K in 29:41.67 March 31 at the Stanford Invitational, his personal best in the event.
Junior Christian Cantwell currently is second in the nation in the shot put for his mark of 68-2.5 during the Missouri Relays. Russ Bell is ranked sixth in the event (62-8.5). Bell remains fourth in the discus with his mark of 197-9 from Houston's Tom Tellez Invitational and is eighth in the hammer (209-1).
Micah Shanks is ranked seventh in the hammer throw with his mark of 210-1 from March 23.
Janae Strickland represents the only current Tiger woman to be ranked. She is 42nd nationally in the shot put.
Around the world
Junior Christian Cantwell is not only second in the NCAA in the shot put, but he is also currently ranked fifth in the event globally. Cantwell follows leader Adam Nelson of the U.S. (22.15), Kevin Toth of the United States (70-3.5), Janus Robberts of Southern Methodist (21.08) and Manuel Martinez of Spain (68-7.75).
Pit-ture perfect
With much excitement, the track team got a new pole vault pit April 8 that now sits in the southeast corner of Walton Stadium.
The new pit cost $12,000 and surpasses the required dimensions for safety. Pits generally have to be replaced ever five years as weather will break them down over time. The old pit met safety requirements but the new one is four feet longer and nearly two feet wider than the previous pit.
Cantwell named Athlete of the Week
Missouri Track & Field's Christian Cantwell was selected as the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Athletes of the Week for the week of April 1-7, the conference announced Monday. It was the first award for Cantwell and the Tigers during the outdoor season thus far.
Cantwell, the Big 12's two-time defending outdoor men's shot put champion (2000, 2001), threw 68-2.5 April 6 at the Missouri Relays in Columbia. His mark is currently the best throw in the collegiate ranks and third-best in the world as of Monday.
The Eldon, Mo., junior also broke the MU, the Walton Stadium and Missouri Relays records en route to setting his personal-best toss. In addition to his success in the shot put, Cantwell has turned in discus (180-1) and hammer (174-7) performances which are among the top ten conference marks in those events. Cantwell now has registered two NCAA automatic-qualifying marks this season - he threw 64-8 at the College Station Relays March 16.
Tom Botts Invitational Review
Junior Russ Bell had a hat trick of sorts Saturday during the Sixth Annual Tom Botts Invitational at Audrey J. Walton Stadium. Bell had provisional qualifying marks in all three of his events Saturday. He won both the hammer with his career-best throw of 209-1 and the discus (182-10), and the Jefferson City, Mo., native was also second in the shot put (62-8.5).
Bell and Notre Dame's Ayesha Boyd were named the male and female athletes of the meet. Boyd won the women's 100m (11.73) and 200m (23.84) dashes for Notre Dame. Missouri won on the women's side with 201 points and came in second for the men with 190.50 points. Notre Dame won the men's meet with 213.50 points.
Another big highlight for the Missouri men was freshman Jesse Sims' provisional mark in the high jump. Sims had his personal-best jump, clearing a height of 7-2.5 to win the event.
Timothy Dunne won the men's 800m in a time of 1:49.49 and freshman Neville Miller took third in his personal-best time of 1:52.40.
In her outdoor season debut, senior Ann Marie Brooks won the women's 1500m run with her time of 4:25.55 in the event. The provisional qualifying time in the event is 4:24.00.
Freshmen Lesley Smith and Jill Petersen took the top two spots in the women's steeplechase - Smith ran in 11:07.45 with Petersen coming in at 11:14.16.
Other winners from Tom Botts were Christian Cantwell with his third automatic-qualifying mark in the shot put (64-4), Kimberly Moore in the women's 5000m (17:35.44), Holly Scherder in the women's hammer throw (166-10) and Knut Sommerfeldt in the men's javelin (204-2).