May 18, 2002
Columbia, Mo. - The second day of the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships proved to be another good one for the Missouri men, as they lead the meet with a two-day score of 49 points.
The Nebraska men are in second with 43 points. The Missouri women are currently fifth with 20 points, and Nebraska leads the women's team scores with 61.5 points. The Texas women have no points yet, but have 17 qualifiers for event final heats Sunday.
Junior Fiona Asigbee had her personal-best point total in the heptathlon and finished third with 5,091 points. Abbe Ohneck was fifth in the event with 4,813 points. The winner, Kathryn Livesey of Nebraska, won the heptathlon with an automatic-qualifying point total of 5,577 points.
Nebraska's Melissa Price was a foot away from setting the collegiate record as she won the women's hammer with her toss of 219-2 Tuesday. The mark is an automatic qualifying mark, a Big 12 meet record and a Walton Stadium record.
Missouri junior Christian Cantwell finished second in the men's shot put with an NCAA automatic qualifying throw of 66-8. Nebraska's Carl Myerscough won the event with a throw of 67-6.75. Myerscough's throw set a record for the Big 12 meet passing Cantwell's mark of 64-6.5 in 2000. Tiger junior Russ Bell finished third with a NCAA provisional qualifying throw of 62-10.
"I think I threw well," Cantwell said. "I'm not disappointed in how I did."
Junior Knut Sommerfeldt won the men's decathlon scoring 7,318 points, good for a NCAA provisional qualifying mark. Sommerfeldt was also the decathlon champion at the 2001 Big 12 Championships.
"This feels just as good as last year, maybe even a little better," Sommerfeldt said. "I had to dig deep this time to pull if off. I'm always wanting to improve myself. This season I am far from what I can do, and I am still progressing. I was one place shy of being an All-American last year and this year that is going to be my big goal."
Sophomore Christi Myers took third place in the women's high jump with a NCAA provisional-qualifying jump of 5-10.75. Gina Curtis of Iowa State won the women's high jump, setting a new Walton Stadium record with a jump of 6-1.25.
Junior Timothy Dunne will run in the men's 800m final tomorrow, as he ran his fastest time of the 2002 outdoor season (1:49.14). In the women's 800m, Amanda Bales and Jennifer Leerssen will also be in the finals. Both had personal bests in the preliminaries as Bales and Leerssen had times of 2:10.28 and 2:10.81, respectively. In the women's discus, Carla Grewe placed fifth with her personal-best mark of 157-10.
One other note -- following a protest in the 400-meter hurdles prelims, a second section has been added to Sunday's final.