Feb. 27, 2008
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COLUMBIA, Mo.--The University of Missouri track and field squads travel back to Lincoln, Neb., this weekend for the Big 12 Indoor Championships to be held in the Bob Devaney Sports Complex. The Tiger men are back in the nation's top 25 according to the latest USTFCCCA Rankings and are among several teams poised to have a strong run towards a possible conference title. Two Mizzou men, Chris Rohr and Nick Adcock, and two Mizzou women, Trisa Nickoley and Shernelle Nicholls, carry conference-leading marks into the weekend.
Tigers in the Conference Ranks
Rohr (Lee's Summit, Mo.) is leading the conference and the NCAA-world via a career-best and school-record weight throw of 73 feet, ½ inches (22.26m) which he set last weekend at the Central Missouri Classic. Rohr, a two-time All-American in the event, was named Big 12 Athlete of the Week for his efforts, and, according to Track & Field News, is now the fifth-best American collegian performer all-time in the discipline.
Rohr finished second last year at the conference meet to NCAA Champion Egor Agafonov of Kansas. Agafonov's all-time best of 77-5¼ (23.60m), which was set at last year's NCAA Indoor meeting, places him 11th all-time in the World in the event. So far in 2008, the Jayhawk's season best is 72-7¼ (22.13m).
Offering more challenges to Rohr is his own senior teammates - Nate Englin, Jason Morris, and Tyler Dailey - who are 3-4-5 in the conference and hold marks in the nation's top 20.
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Sophomore Nick Adcock (Kansas City, Mo.) will be against a talented field in the men's heptathlon. Adcock leads the conference and is third in the NCAA with a school-record score of 5,644, set at the Iowa State Classic on February 15. Adcock climbed the ladder, so to speak, with huge-seasonal improvements in the long jump and pole vault. However, Adcock's bread-and-butter is the hurdles and high jump.
While Oklahoma's Mitch Henry is the only other Big 12 athlete with an NCAA-qualifying mark (5,329, 14th place), Texas' Andrew Webb has yet to go the full seven rounds this year. Webb was an NCAA-qualifier, placing 15th, in the decathlon outdoors last season. Nebraska's Skyler Reising, an excellent long jumper, high jumper, and pole vaulter, could also take the spoils in this event.
Lars Rise (Trondheim, Norway) will make his Mizzou-heptathlon debut this weekend. With a newly-founded personal best of 53-7 (16.35m) in the shot put, Rise will be one to keep an eye on for sure. Rise is a two-time Nordic decathlon champ and was an IAAF World Youth Championship qualifier in the octathlon (eight events).
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Don't forget about senior Trisa Nickoley (Tecumseh, Kan.) in the women's middle-distance events. Nickoley has quietly, but confidently, taken the conference lead in the 800 and 1000 meters by comfortable margins in the recent weeks. The Tiger has won two Big 12 Indoor titles at 800 meters, including last season's run of 2:08.46 in which she led from gun-to-tape. Nickoley won her first 800-meter title in 2005, pairing a winning leg of the DMR with it to be crowned as the league's Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
Should Nickoley be entered in the 800 and win her third title, she would become the first Tiger woman to win the same event in three conference indoor meets.
This season, Nickoley clocked a 2:05.27 PR in Ames on February 16 which leads K-State's Morgan Bonds by over two seconds on the leaderboard.
Bonds is No. 15 on the NCAA 800-meter list while Texas' Temeka Kincy and Baylor's Lauren Hagans are also in the nation's top 25 in the event.
Nickoley has ran three seconds faster than any other in the league at 1000 meters (2:46.34). Liliana Mendez of K-State is the next challenger at (2:49.94).
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Senior Shernelle Nicholls (St. Andrew's Parrish, Barbados) has the best mark in the women's shot put field so far, carrying a 53-8¼ (16.36m) season best which ranks 11th in the NCAA. Nicholls won All-America honors outdoors last season in the event and is Barbados' national record holder with her overall PR of 56-2¾ (17.14m).
In what will seemingly be a hotly-contested competition, Nicholls' Big 12 counterparts account for three more spots in the nation's top 20. Texas sophomore Jordyn Brown has season best of 52-11 (16.13m) while Texas Tech duo D'Andra Carter and Patience Knight are at 52-8 and 52-7, respectively on the season.
Tiger junior Krishna Lee is fifth in the league at 50-11 (15.52m) and is 29th in the nation.
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The women's weight throw could shape up to be one heckuva competition as well as three of the nation's top 10 and six of the top 25 are housed in the Big 12. Senior Tiger Elisha Hunt (Linn, Mo.) leads the Tiger charge, having a season's best of 66-4 (20.23m). But, with a career-best, school-record of 68-2½ (20.79m), set last year in her fourth-place, All-America showing at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Hunt is most definitely a threat to knock two Wildcats, No. 3 Loren Groves and No. 8 Laci Heller, off the conference perch.
Aforementioned Lee is No. 20 in the nation and No. 5 in the Big 12 with her career-best of 63-10 (19.46m). Lee has showed to be quite the gamer at championship time. At last year's NCAA Mideast Regional, Lee stole the headlines by recording top-five finishes in both the shot and hammer while retyping Mizzou's record with the hammer as well.
Senior Elizabeth Robe, a seven-time Big 12 scorer, is ranked ninth in both the shot and weight.
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Senior Jason Miller (Fairfax, Va.) sits eighth in the league in the men's high jump, while school-record holder Brian Hancock (Monroe City, Mo.) is fourth in the men's pole vault. Hancock is also tied for 17th in the nation with his indoor career-best of 17-1 (5.21m).
Sophomore Andy Oaker is among another heavy Tiger contingent in the men's shot. Oaker is second in the league with a career best 57-4 (17.50m), trailing conference favorite Javier Olivas of Texas A&M by only six inches. Mizzou's Rohr, Englin, and Dailey enter the event 3-5-9 in the league.
Freshmen middle-distance runners Chris Davis, Ryan Blackwell, Rick Scheff and Layne Moore have shown much promise with their gutsy racing style so far this indoor season. Davis ranks fifth in the 800 and ninth in the 600-yard runs coming into the weekend, while Moore is listed third in the women's 600. Scheff is listed 10th in the men's 800. A combination of these runners will also likely have vital roles on the Tiger distance medley relay team.
Senior Brian Graybill is listed 10th in the men's 1000. Sophomore Blossom Nwaneri has the league's seventh-best time in the women's 600 while junior Ellen Ries is listed fourth in the women's 1000. Senior Kate Greer has a top-eight time in the 5000 entering the weekend.
Sophomore Meaghan Brougher is tied for ninth in the league with a 5-6 season best in the women's high jump while sophomore JaNay Woolridge is also sitting ninth in the women's long jump.
Junior Kaela Rorvig has recorded the third-best score among the field in the pentathlon, posting a national-top 25 score of 3,761 in Ames back on Valentine's Day.
Tiger Men at No. 25
The Mizzou men reentered the USTFCCCA's Top 25 Rankings this week on the heels of Chris Rohr's stirring, national-leading weight throw performance last weekend.
As a combination of six NCAA-provisional or automatic marks, the Tigers have received a total of 46.32 points, 41.21 of which are from Rohr and Nick Adcock's third-place NCAA rank. Mizzou was ranked No. 23 in the preseason, based on the anticipated, returning best marks from the 2007 season.
On the men's side Arizona State is the overall leader with 117.38 points. The Big 12 has the most representatives (7) in the men's top 25 than any other league. Oklahoma stands sixth with 74.95 points, followed by Texas at 7th with 74.60. Texas A&M is rated 11th with 62.52 while Texas Tech is 16th, Baylor is 18th and Nebraska is 21st.
It should be noted that national rankings are not necessarily a good predictor or reflection of the conference meet as scoring in the league meet depends on a much deeper pool of the teams' resources versus the impact of a few elite individuals or relays that are assigned to represent schools on the national level.
LSU is the leader on the women's side with 191.25 points. Texas A&M is the top Big 12 representative with 93.34 points, followed by Texas at 12th and Baylor at 24th. Missouri has held tight to the just-below-the-top-25 ceiling all season, listed this week for the second-straight week at 30th.
Small disclaimer: the guy writing this is the guy who ranks the teams. More info on the formula here ...
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/ustca/sports/division1/auto_pdf/08-rationale.pdf
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