May 3, 2002
Columbia, Mo. -- The men's and women's track & field teams will go north again this week to Iowa for the Musco Twilight Invitational, hosted by University of Iowa. The meet begins at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon with the women's 100m hurdles women's discus, men's long jump and men's hammer throw. The last scheduled event are the men's and women's 4x400m relays, slated for 8:50 p.m.
Two Missouri men, Adam MacDowell and Timothy Dunne, will run at the Cardinal Invitational held at Stanford tonight.
Results from the meet will be available 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 weeks, 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.
Weather woes
The less-than-desirable weather conditions at last week's Drake Relays was something that is rare to the annual meet.
The last time the Drake Relays had a significant amount of rain on a Saturday was back in 1969 when close to two inches of rain fell. On April 27, Des Moines had 2.15 inches of precipitation, the highest one-day amount of rain to fall in the Drake Relays' 93-year history.
Tigers in the rankings
A number of Tigers have provisional and automatic qualifying marks which place them on the NCAA's outdoor performance list.
The newest members to the group are senior Ann Marie Brooks and junior Knut Sommerfeldt. Brooks automatically qualified for the NCAA meet as well as qualified for the USATF meet with her time of 15:52.54 in the women's 5000m run at the Mt. SAC Relays April 19. She is currently ranked third in the nation in the event. Sommerfeldt provisionally qualified at the Mt. SAC Relays as well when he scored 7300 points in the decathlon. His point total ranks him 15th in the nation. Freshman Jesse Sims, who cleared a personal best height of 7-2.5 at the Tom Botts Invitational, currently ranks seventh in the country. Senior Adam MacDowell ranks 37th 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 tops in the nation in the shot put for his mark of 70-1.5 during the Kansas Relays. Russ Bell is ranked 10th in the event (62-8.5). Bell remains eighth in the discus with his mark of 197-9 from Houston's Tom Tellez Invitational and is 11th in the hammer (209-1).
Micah Shanks is ranked 10th in the hammer throw with his mark of 210-1 from March 23.
Janae Strickland moved up in the ranks for Tigers in the throws with her 29th national position in the shot put. Strickland moved up with her latest throw at Drake Relays -- a second-place finish with a mark of 50-5.25.
Around the world
Junior Christian Cantwell not only leads the national collegiate list in the shot put, but he is also currently ranked third in the event globally. Cantwell follows leader Adam Nelson (72-8) and Kevin Toth, both of the United States (70-3.5).
Pit-ture perfect
With much excitement, the track team got a new pole vault pit April 8 that now sits in Walton Stadium.
The new pit cost $12,000 and surpasses the required dimensions for safety. Pits generally have to be replaced every 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 Athlete of the Week for April 1-7 and was again named the Male Athlete of the Week for April 15-21. It was the second 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 for his first honor and his mark of 70-1.5 gave Cantwell the second honor of the month. His mark is currently the best throw in the collegiate ranks and third-best in the world.
The Eldon, Mo., junior holds the Walton Stadium and Missouri Relays records from his 68-2.5 throw and holds the MU outdoor record and the Kansas Relays meet record. 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 has now registered four NCAA automatic-qualifying marks this season.
Drake Relays Review
The Tigers had a great showing at the 93rd annual Drake Relays April 24-27, as Missouri Track & Field had four champions during the weekend.
Russ Bell picked up two championships, winning the shot put and discus in the University-College Division. Bell had a provisional mark of 62-5.25 in the shot put and threw 181-5 in the discus.
The women's 4x1600m relay team of Amanda Bales, Jennifer Leerssen, Becky Froelker and Ann Marie Brooks won Thursday, setting the meet record by approximately 35 seconds (19:36.27). It is the fifth consecutive year Missouri has had a Drake Relays relay champion.
Finally, Christian Cantwell picked up the Maury White Award for being named the outstanding male athlete of the meet. Cantwell was the Drake Relays champion in the men's invitational shot put with his throw of 69-1.25.