Feb. 2, 2005
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COLUMBIA, Mo. -
The Missouri Track and Field team will continue their indoor season with Notre Dame's Meyo Classic held this upcoming Friday and Saturday. Around 60 Tigers will be making the trip to South Bend, Ind., to start their serious attempts towards gaining NCAA qualification and superior Big 12 seeding marks at the Irish's oversized Loftus Center track.
Super Size Your Meal
For the first time this season and for the first week of two consecutive, the Tigers will be competing on an oversized track (one that's over 200 meters). Its significance lies in the races on the track, as with a longer course comes a wider turn radius and less effort to turn around those corners resulting in better times and a better chance to earn NCAA qualification marks. Notre Dame's Loftus Center track is 354 yards in length, or one-fifth of a mile, making it one of the largest indoor tracks in the country. The Loftus Center's track surrounds Meyo Field, the Irish indoor football practice faculty.
Last Week At The UNI Dome
Last week at the UNI Dome, coincidently Northern Iowa's football game facility, the Tigers claimed eight event championships including a men and women sweep of the 4x400-meter relay. The team also claimed 15 personal bests during the week, a good number for this time in the season. The individual champs included Kristin Hansen in the 1000-meter run (2:56.91), freshman Kasey Kimball in the Mile (4:59.07), freshman Trisa Nickoley in the 600-meter run (1:32.99), Bill Hobson in the men's shot (57-6, 17.50m), Neville Miller in the 1000-meter run (2:26.14), and Tipper O'Brien in the Mile (4:10.55). Kimball, Hansen, and Jimmie Jones have either claimed an individual championship or been on a winning relay team in each of the Tigers' three meets. Kimball and Jones have four titles apiece this season.
Last Time At The Meyo
You'll have to turn the clocks back to 2002 for the last time the Tigers went to the Meyo. Encountering a blizzard on the way to South Bend, the Tigers stayed in their hotel without electricity for a portion of the trip. That didn't seem to hurt Christian Cantwell, Russ Bell, and Timothy Dunne. Cantwell won the weight throw with a throw of 69-11½. Russ Bell earned NCAA provisional marks in the shot put and weight throw, winning the shot with a personal-best throw of 59-1¼ and taking second in the weight with 69-8¼. Dunne won the men's 800-meter in 1:49.84.
Tiger Freshmen Among Big 12's Best
Four Tiger freshmen enter the weekend in the top eight of their respective events on the Big 12 performance list. Distance runners Nickoley and Kimball (mentioned before) are among the four. Nickoley (Tecumseh, Kan.) is seventh in the conference in the 600-yard run (1:24.31) and would seemingly be in the top four in the 800-meter, but a timing problem at K-State keeps it from being official for now. Kimball (Eureka, Mo.) is sixth in the conference at 1000 meters (2:54.22). Teammate junior Ashley Patten leads the Big 12 in the event at 2:46.50, Patten is also second in the conference in the Mile. Kimball is also the sister of former Tiger Stewart Kimball, a five-time All-Big 12 performer.
Freshman Elizabeth Robe (Waukesha, Wisc.) is currently sixth in the women's shot put on the Big 12 list, with her toss last weekend of 46-9 (14.25m). Tyler Dailey (Joplin, Mo.) is fourth in the conference with the men's weight throw, and is the only Tiger to have an NCAA provisional qualifying mark in any event with his best of 62-11½ (19.19m).
Senior Ryan Hampton (Liberty, Mo.) still leads the conference in the 3000-meter run with his winning time of 8:17.17 from the Missouri Invitational.
Throwing Their Weight Around
While hurling a 35-pound ball of iron as far as possible may not be your idea of a good time, six Tigers this season are proving how fun it is to watch. Three freshmen, Dailey, Bobby Musil, and Nate Englin lead the team in the men's weight throw and currently rank fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-all time in the event at Mizzou and are in the top twelve in the conference for the year. Musil gained four feet on his personal best at last week's Northern Iowa Invite. The three resemble the deadly trio of Cantwell, Bell, and Micah Shanks who in 2002 made Missouri the only school in the country ever to have three throwers over 70 feet in the event in a year.
Along with freshman Chris Rohr (Lee's Summit, Mo.), who is likely going to redshirt this indoor season, the Tiger throwers look like the second coming of a throwing masterpiece at Missouri. Dailey and Musil stand at 62 and 61 feet with their current personal bests, ahead of schedule of where Shanks was his freshman year when he reset his own school record at the 1999 Big 12 Championships with a throw of 58-¼.
Results and Schedule
Since it is February and we are at Groundhog Day, Indiana is on Eastern Standard Time. The meet begins Friday at 5 p.m., eastern with the women's long jump. Friday's events also include the Distance Medley Relay, the 5000-meter runs and the rarely-ran 300-meter dash. Saturday's events begin at 10 a.m., Eastern. Results will be online at und.com following the conclusion of both days, with a wrap-up as soon as it's possible on mutigers.com.
98th Millrose Games Next Stop On VISA Championship Series Tour
New York, a bid city for the 2012 Summer Olympics, will be the center of the track and field universe this weekend as the 98th Annual Millrose Games will take place in Madison Square Garden on Friday night with former Tigers Christian Cantwell, Derrick Peterson, and Tim Dunne taking on the world-class field. The Games are also the second of four meets in the USATF's VISA Championship Series.
Cantwell is third in the series after taking runner-up at the Boston Indoor Games last weekend with a shot put toss of 69-1¼ (21.06m), earning 1177 points from the IAAF Scoring table. Cantwell trails shot putter Adam Nelson (71-¾, 21.66m, 1220 points) and 60-meter hurdler Jason Smoots (6.53 seconds, 1194 pts). The winner of the VISA Championship series is determined by an American's single-best performance at one of four indoor track meets, each performance is tied to a score from the IAAF's Scoring Tables that is used for such events as the heptathlon.
The Millrose Games can be seen on NBC, locally in Columbia on KOMU-TV 8, on a tape-delay basis, Saturday from 1-2:30 p.m., central. For live scoring of the event Friday night, visit flashresults.com, and for a wrap-up, visit usatf.org.
Dunne is also running in the 5th Annual New Balance Collegiate Invitational on Saturday in the New York Armory. Dunne will run in the 4x800-meter relay with his New York Athletic Club.