Feb. 22, 2003
The University of Missouri track and field team had an excellent day at the 19th Annual Missouri All-Comers Meet today at the Hearnes Center Fieldhouse. Tiger junior Jennifer Bennett set her second fieldhouse record of the year and also set a personal best with a pole vault of 13 feet, 7 inches.
The meet featured athletes from all over the country in four divisions; pre-high school, high school, college/open, and master's. Over 400 athletes registered for the meet. Missouri head coach Rick McGuire said the meet serves many purposes, "This was a wonderful meet. We do this meet as a public service. The high schools in Missouri don't have indoor facilities and this is an opportunity to run track. It's great to see people from ages 4 to 80 to come out and compete. We also use this meet as a venue to serve us .The meet is a week before the Big 12 Championships and we do what's best for our athletes. It also gives our young athletes a chance to show us what they have."
In addition to Bennet's provisional qualifying vault, high jumper Jesse Sims set a provisional qualifying mark and a season best jump of 7 feet, 1.5 inches. Senior All-American Russ Bell won both the shot put and weight throw, setting a provisional mark in the weight throw. Coach McGuire was also excited about the performance of two of his sprinters, "I was very pleased with Whittney Stuart and Comfort Ibe. They get overlooked but they are ready to go for next week."
The Tigers head to Lincoln, Nebraska next week for the Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships.