May 16, 2002

Columbia, Mo. -- The highly-anticipated weekend is finally upon the Missouri Tigers. The Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships will take place at the University of Missouri's Audrey J. Walton Track Stadium May 17-19.

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.

Meet results will be updated following each event and will be available, along with daily photos at www.mutigers.com.

Tigers in the rankings

A number of Tigers have provisional and automatic qualifying marks which place them on the NCAA's outdoor performance list.

After the weekend, two more athletes picked up automatic or provisional marks. Sophomore Christi Myers automatically qualified in the high jump with her mark of 6-0 at Emporia State May 11. Myers is tied for third nationally in the event. Sophomore Gary File provisionally qualified in the men's javelin after throwing for a mark of 226-7 May 11 at Emporia State University. His mark ranks 21st in the nation. Sophomore Jennifer Bennett provisionally qualified for the NCAA outdoor meet when she cleared 12-feet, 8 inches in the pole vault May 4 at the Iowa Musco Twilight Invitational in Iowa City. Her mark is the Missouri outdoor record, her personal best mark, and currently ranks 32nd in the nation.

Ann Marie 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 on April 19. She is currently ranked fourth in the nation in the event. Brooks also provisionally qualified in the 1500m run May 4 when she won the event in a time of 4:22.43, ranking her 27th among collegiate women.

Knut Sommerfeldt provisionally qualified at the Mt. SAC Relays as well when he scored 7,300 points in the decathlon. His point total ranks him 17th in the nation. Freshman Jesse Sims, who cleared a personal best height of 7-2.5 at the Tom Botts Invitational, is tied for ninth in the country. Senior Adam MacDowell ranks 40th in the nation in the men's 10,000m run. He 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 with his mark of 70-4.5 at the Iowa Musco Twilight Invitational on May 4. Russ Bell is ranked sixth in the event with his most recent throw of 64-1.25. Bell remains eighth in the discus with his mark of 197-9 from Houston's Tom Tellez Invitational and is 13th in the hammer (209-1). Micah Shanks is ranked 12th in the hammer throw with his mark of 210-1 from March 23.

Janae Strickland is now in 31st place in the shot put. Strickland's throw at Drake Relays -- a second-place finish -- was 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 (70-7.25).

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.

Academic All-Big 12 Team Named

DALLAS -- The Academic All-Big 12 Team was named earlier this week in Dallas, and 15 Missouri athletes made the team. Better yet, those athletes were a part of the 208 first-team selections.

Nominated by each institution's director of student-athlete support services and the media relations offices, the track and field academic all-league squads consisted of 208 first-team members with 38 on the second-team. First-team members consist of those who have maintained a 3.2 or better grade-point average, while the second-team are those who have a 3.0 to 3.19 GPA.

To qualify student-athletes must maintain a 3.0 grade point average or higher either cumulative or the two previous semesters and must have participated in 60 percent of her/his team's scheduled contests. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence. Senior student-athletes who have participated for a minimum of two years and meet all the criteria except percent of participation are eligible.

Missouri athletes to make the list are: senior Ann Marie Brooks (4.01 GPA), senior Lisa Buffington, senior Rebecca Froelker, senior Carla Grewe, senior Jennifer Leerssen, junior Amy Semith, sophomore Ann Snider (4.0 GPA) and sophomore Lyndsey Tait. For the men, senior Micah Shanks, senior Jason Franken, junior Knut Sommerfeldt, junior Chris McCurley, sophomore Jason Edmonds, sophomore Gary File and sophomore Ben Vrbicek were selected to the team.

Correction

Jenny Bybee's jump of 5-10 May 11 was not a provisional mark. Bybee cleared 1.78 meters; the provisional mark is 1.79m.