May 9, 2007

COLUMBIA, Mo.--Missouri track and field's championship season begins this weekend with a trip to Lincoln, Neb., for the 11th version of the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, which will be held Friday through Sunday. The Tiger men are fresh off a third-place outdoor conference finish a year ago and a fourth-place indoor Big 12 finish in February. On the women's side, junior Trisa Nickoley will on of the favorites in the women's 800 in attempts to win her fourth overall Big 12 title and her first in the outdoor setting.

 

 

Weekend Review: Hunt Regionally Qualifies in Hammer Throw

Sophomore Elisha Hunt (Linn, Mo.) became the Tigers' third NCAA-regional qualifier in the women's hammer throw with a winning toss of 178 feet (54.26m) at the Butler Twilight in Indianapolis on Saturday. Hunt is also one of four Tigers to have already qualified for the regional in the shot.

 

Junior Tyler Dailey added to his regional-qualifying distance in the hammer throw at the same meet with a season's best throw of 202 feet, 11 inches (61.87m) to place third. Junior Nate Englin also gained a career best in the event to extend his qualifying mark, finishing fourth with a 192-9 (58.75m) toss.

 

At the Billy Hayes Invitational in Bloomington, Ind., senior Kristin Hansen ran a season's best and team-leading 4:29.06 clocking to win the 1500-meter run.

 

Sophomore JaNay Woolridge inched closer to a long jump NCAA-qualifying mark at the Central College Open in Pella, Iowa, on Friday, leaping to a winning mark and season's best of 19-6¾ (5.96m). The regional mark in the event is 19-8¾.

 

View Missouri's results from the weekend here ...

http://mutigers.cstv.com/sports/c-track/stats/2006-2007/07may4-5-res.html

 

The Big 12's Big Match-Ups

Here is where we'll take a look at some of the more interesting events in the Big 12 Championships upcoming that have Tigers right in the thick.

 

Men's 800m (prelims: Saturday 6:25, finals: Sunday 3:55): Senior Marcus Mayes is no stranger to the Big 12's 800-meter crazyness, having finished in the top three in four of seven conference championship meets spanning indoor and outdoor meets. For his last hurrah in a Tiger uniform at Big 12's, Mayes looks again to be one of the frontrunners. Having clocked 1:48.65 earlier this season, Mayes ranks second on the performer's list entering the meet, trailing only Texas' Jacob Hernandez (1:48.10), who won the Big 12 Indoor title by passing Mayes in the final 10 meters.

 

But, just as it is for any championship half-mile, the entry times are not a good indication of the final result. In 2005, Mayes ran his fastest 800-meter to date, clocking 1:47.78. He qualified automatically for the USA Championships, but it was only for sixth place. That was a crazy race. Last year, Mayes was runner-up in the outdoor meet , second only to Kansas State's Christian Smith who has an NCAA Indoor Mile crown to his credit.

 

Texas Tech's Zach Glavash and Baylor's Kevin Mutai are always in the mix and Mizzou senior Jimmie Jones will figure somewhere in the fold, having finished fifth in the event a year ago.

 

Men's 10k: (Friday 7:30) Senior Tim Ross enters his final Big 12 meet as a seven-time scorer in the meet and he's got a chance to score some serious points again for the Tigers in the 10k. Currently ranked fifth in the order with a season's best of 30:17.31, Ross with a 29:32.41 career-best is also eying the school record of 29:20.27. But, fast times may not be the order of the day as the event is scheduled for late afternoon (Nebraska doesn't have lights) in what is likely going to be warmer-than-normal conditions for such a race on Friday. So, a racers' race may be the key needed for Ross' best shot.

 

Ross' experience will likely be key as well, having qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships on two occasions.

 

Men's Pole Vault: (Sunday 12:00) This again will be one of the more "toss-up" events in the meet. Fourteen from the conference has qualified for the NCAA regionals in the men's pole vault and are all within two-bar raises of each other. Smack-dab in the middle of the madness is Tiger frosh Brian Hancock (Monroe City, Mo.). Hancock is also among a very young conference vaulting core as one of five freshmen among the 14 qualifiers.

 

The Oklahoma duo of Chip Heuser and Scott Martin are again the favorites, as they where for the indoor meet, having jumped over 17-6½. But, Kansas frosh Jordan Scott was the only over 17-5½ at the indoor meet in Ames to be crowned the champion - Hancock scored for the Tigers in eighth. Let's see if another freshman wins this thing.

 

Men's Shot: (Sunday 12:00) Holy shot put! The Tigers are again strong in this event, ranking four Tigers in the current Big 12's top ten. Junior Nate Englin, the Big 12 indoor runner-up, is the current Tiger leader having thrown a season's best of a shade under 58 feet. Senior Bill Hobson, frosh Andy Oaker, and junior Tyler Dailey are sixth, seventh, and ninth, respectively in the Big 12 rankings. Hobson also has earned an NCAA-regional qualifier in the event, hitting the 55-foot mark a few times.

 

Oklahoma's Kevin Bookout, the former basketballer, had a 64-foot put a few weeks back, ranking fifth in the nation, and is coming off a Big 12 indoor title in the event. Englin's personal best set last year is over 62 feet.

 

Men's Hammer: (Saturday 12:00) The Tigers hope to again rack points in the men's hammer. In 2006, the Tigers scored 22 points via the hammer with placings at second, third, fourth, and sixth, all of which factored huge into the team's third-place team finish. Again Mizzou is positioned to score four times in the event with seedings at second, fourth, sixth, and eighth.

 

Junior Jason Morris, the school-record holder, again comes into the meet seeded second, having thrown over 214 feet this season. The conference's runner-up a year ago, Morris ranks 17th in the nation and fourth in the Mideast, but again has to chase the Kansas Russian - Egor Agafonov - who hit the 228-foot mark at the Drake Relays and ranks in the NCAA's top five.

 

Senior Bobby Musil ranks fourth after a 206-foot toss at the Drake Relays garnered a career best. Junior Tyler Dailey and Englin are also in the Big 12's top eight and have also qualified for the NCAA regional. Mizzou is one of four schools in the nation to have qualified four the regional in the event (Colorado State, Georgia, Monmouth).

 

Men's Decathlon: (Friday-Saturday) In 2006, the top three seeds heading into the NCAA Championships decathlon came from the Big 12 Conference, and those three guys are NOT back for this year's meet. Texas' Trey Hardee who set the collegiate record in the event a year ago: graduated. Texas' Donovan Kilmartin who has won the NCAA Indoor Heptathlon Championship a couple times: redshirting. Mizzou's Hans Uldal who scored over 8,000 points last year and was a 2004 Olympian: graduated. So, that makes the "dec" this year pretty interesting.

 

Looking strictly at the seeds, Iowa State's Neil Hines has the high-score on the machine, 7,314. But, Mizzou senior Bjorn Sommerfeldt has scored near the 7,400-point barrier in his career a few times and his fifth-seeded score of 7,027 is not real indicative of his talent as his score came from the rainy and cold Audrey Walton Combined Events.

 

Sommerfeldt has been no slouch, having qualified for three NCAA Championships, two during the outdoor season. The past two years Sommerfeldt has also scored third in the conference despite the big names up top. Sommerfeldt is a "Day Two" guy, so Saturday is the day to do some scoreboard watching.

 

Tiger freshman Nick Adcock has brought a smile to the faces of the Tiger staff. Having never came close to competing in a decathlon short of two months ago, Adcock has shown lots of promise despite the lack of experience. A hurdler and high-jumper in high school, Adcock had never pole vaulted, long jumped, thrown the shot, thrown the disc, thrown the javelin, or ran that super-fun 1500 meters before. Hey, four out of 10 ain't bad.

 

Adcock has the Big 12's sixth-best score so far this year, scoring 6,694 at the rainy and cold Walton meet. Impressively, Adcock holds the Mizzou all-time best for the decathlon 400-meter dash (49.38), and he called that "slow".

 

Women's 800: (prelims: Saturday 6:10, finals: Sunday 3:45) The women's 800-meter field again has its eyes set on Mizzou's Trisa Nickoley. The Tiger junior is coming off her second indoor Big 12 crown in the event and again leads the league with a 2:05.37 clocking, a time that puts her in the nation's top 12 and again qualifies her for the USA Championships.

 

To win her first outdoor crown, Nickoley will have to fight through some pretty good competition as two from Baylor rank in the NCAA's top 25. Junior Lauren Hagans is second on the list with a 2:06.60 clocking and Baylor frosh Nichole Jones is third at 2:06.96. Throw in K-State's Morgan Bonds and Oklahoma's Jessica Eldridge, who won the event indoors in 2005, but also holds the Big 12-leading 1500-meter time (so, she may not even run the 800), and the event really has some intrigue.

 

Women's 10k (Friday 6:45) Tiger senior Valerie Moll holds the second seed in the women's 10,000-meter. The school-record holder in the event, Moll, has scored nine times as a Tiger at a Big 12 meet.

 

Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego is kind of the favorite, having ran a nation's-leading (by 30 seconds) 31:56.72 clocking a few weeks ago. That's about three minutes faster than the Big 12 field.

 

Women's Shot: (Sunday 3:00) The Big 12 has four in the NCAA's top 12 in the women's shot put. This amazing field includes Tiger junior transfer Shernelle Nicholls who is No. 6 in the NCAA after breaking-through with a 55-foot mark at the Kansas Relays that also broke her own Barbados-national record. Nicholls is the only Tiger to have qualified for the regionals in three events (shot, hammer, discus).

 

Missouri leads the nation with four qualified for the regionals in the women's shot with sophomore Elisha Hunt, who was fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships with the weight throw, Krishna Lee, and Elizabeth Robe joining Nicholls in having qualified. Hunt ranks sixth in the Big 12, having marked a fingernail short of the 50-foot line, improving her best in the event by over four-and-a-half feet in a year. Lee is seeded ninth and is one of the 13 in the conference that has qualified for the regionals.

 

Texas' Michelle Carter who has a NCAA title to her credit, leads the league having thrown 56-9 to also rank third in the nation. Texas A&M's Kacey Onwuchekwa is ninth in the NCAA at 54-5 and Nebraska's Jeni Steiner is 11th in the NCAA and fourth in the Big 12 with a 53-8 toss.

 

Women's Hammer (Saturday 3:00) The women's and men's hammer throw fields are eerily similar. Again, Mizzou has a bunch of potential scorers in the event, headed by Lee and Nicholls, both that have marked over 190 feet this year and are eyeing the Holly Scherder's school record of 199-6. Hunt ranks seventh in the conference, having thrown over 178 feet and Robe is seeded ninth at a 173 feet.

 

Another Kansas Russian, Zlata Tarasova is the favorite as one of only two in the Big 12, K-State's Laci Heller is the other, to have thrown over 200 feet this season. Tarasova ranks 10th in the NCAA.

 

Women's Heptathlon (Friday-Saturday) Tiger freshmen Lindsey Boldt and Lauren Begany have the potential to make an immediate impact on Tiger scoring the women's heptathlon. While junior Kaela Rorvig, originally from Columbia, has scored 4,914 points this year to rank fifth in the conference, Boldt has already scored 4,767 points as a freshman and comes in ranked eighth in the conference. Begany ranks ninth with a season's best of 4,646. All three big scores for the ladies came at the Drake Relays in non-ideal conditions.

 

Boldt also has potential to score for the Tigers in the open javelin, ranking 10th in the conference in the event with a mark of over 130 feet.

 

Home Cookin'

Each week we'll look at which Tigers qualified for the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships, being hosted this year by Mizzou at Audrey J. Walton Stadium, May 25 and 26.

 

Through two weeks, 16 Tigers have qualified with 20 marks for the regional.

 

Rankings can be checked here ...

http://www.trackshark.com/rankings/collegiate_lists.php

 

Outdoor NCAA Qualifying List						Official NCAA Lists - CLICK HERE
updated May 9, 2007						rankings include all qualified
REGIONAL Qualifiers		Mark		NCAA rank	Date	Meet
MEN
800m	Marcus Mayes (Sr.)	1:48.65		13th	Apr 21	Arkansas Invitational
1500m	Tim Cornell (So.)	3:47.30		---	Mar 24	Arizona State Invite
PV	Brian Hancock (Fr.)	5.05m	16-7	---	Apr 20	Kansas Relays
SP	Nate Englin (Jr.)	17.67m	57-11¾	---	Apr 14	Tom Botts Invitational
SP	Bill Hobson (Sr.)	16.84m	55-3	---	Apr 14	Tom Botts Invitational
DISC	Jason Morris (Jr.)	52.23m	171-4	---	Apr 21	Kansas Relays
HT	Jason Morris (Jr.)	65.39m	214-6	17th	Mar 30	Missouri Relays
HT	Bobby Musil (Sr.)	63.00m	206-8	---	Apr 28	Drake Relays
HT	Tyler Dailey (Jr.)	61.78m	202-7	---	May 5	Butler Twilight
HT	Nate Englin (Jr.)	58.75m	192-9	---	May 5	Butler Twilight
WOMEN
800m	Trisa Nickoley (Jr.)	2:05.37		12th	Mar 24	Arizona State Invite
Steeple	Angela Potrykus (So.)	10:46.91		---	Apr 21	Arkansas Invitational
TJ	Hedvig Glomsroed (Jr.)	12.52mw		---	Apr 14	Tom Botts Invitational
SP	Shernelle Nicholls (Jr.)	16.77m	55-¼	6th	Apr 20	Kansas Relays
SP	Elisha Hunt (So.)	15.23m	49-11¾	---	Mar 24	Arizona State Invite
SP	Krishna Lee (So.)	15.14m	49-8¼	---	Mar 24	Arizona State Invite
SP	Elizabeth Robe (So.)	14.64m	48-½	---	Apr 28	Drake Relays
DISC	Shernelle Nicholls (Jr.)	49.95m	163-10	---	Apr 21	Kansas Relays
DISC	Jamie Wynn (Sr.)	49.20m	161-5	---	Apr 14	Tom Botts Invitational
HT	Krishna Lee (So.)	58.50m	191-11	---	Apr 28	Drake Relays
HT	Shernelle Nicholls (Jr.)	58.21m	191-0	---	Apr 19	Kansas Relays
HT	Elisha Hunt (So.)	54.26m	178-0	---	May 5	Butler Twilight
NCAA Provisional		Mark			Date	Meet
WOMEN
10k	Valerie Moll (Sr.)	34:47.12		--	Apr 14	Mt. SAC Relays
MEN
DEC	Bjorn Sommerfeldt (Sr.)	7,027		23rd	Apr 13	Audrey Walton Combined Events

 

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