March 11, 2008
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COLUMBIA, Mo.--One of the most thrilling weekends of the year's calendar is upcoming. Sure, most think immediately of conference basketball tournaments and "selection Sunday" as big events this weekend. But, don't forget about the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships that will begin Friday in Fayetteville, Ark. The best-of-the-best of collegiate sport, the future Olympians, will be assembled for a hectic, chaotic, and thrilling two days to determine the best in the country. Among those are seven from the University of Missouri that will take part and try for national glory.
Tigers In the National Field
Considering a max of 17 to 18 athletes are accepted into the NCAA Indoor Championship field per event to represent the over 330 Division I schools, Mizzou's grabbing of seven spots in the national meet is impressive, ranking in the top 20 of all schools when combining men's and women's programs.
Mizzou also has five entries, combined, men and women, in the throwing events which rank second best in the nation, behind only Arizona State (7).
Event-By-Event Qualifiers
Nick Adcock (So., Kansas City, Mo., Oak Park HS), men's heptathlon, Day One: Friday 9:45 a.m., Day Two: Saturday, 11:00 a.m.
Talk about an up-and-comer. Adcock, making his first NCAA-Championship appearance, was awarded with this first Big 12 crown two weeks ago in firing-off another school record performance in the heptathlon. With a score of 5,795 points, Adcock enters the meet as the No. 4 seed of 16 in the championship. Adcock has been fairly consistent in his first two years as a Tiger: consistently improving with each event, each day. He first broke Mizzou's school record with a score of 5,644 at the Iowa State Classic on February 15 to once again grab the nation's attention, using what was an 18-inch improvement in the pole vault to catapult him into the stratosphere.
Then, he moved on to the Big 12 Indoor Championships. His freshman year, Adcock placed 10th with a score of 5,129. This year his score of 5,795 was brought on largely due to a huge clearance of 6-11¼ (2.12m) in the high jump and another foot addition to his PR in the pole vault.
This indoor season can only scratch the surface to explain how much improvement and learning Adcock has been able to cram into the last 18 months. Not to mention, Adcock won the USATF Junior decathlon title in 2007 and earned Silver at the Pan-Am Junior Games in Brazil, just a few months after learning the discus and javelin events, among others.
Northern Iowa Raven Cepeda is the favorite, having scored over 5,900 points this season. Cepeda finished third last year. Oregon sophomore Ashton Eaton has the NCAA's second-best score at 5,859 and finished second to Adcock at the US Junior meet last year. Tennessee's Jangy Addy is listed third at 5,836 points. At the SEC Championships, Addy clocked an all-time World's best in the heptathlon 60-meter hurdles (6.88).
Tyler Dailey (Sr., Joplin, Mo., Joplin HS), men's weight throw,Saturday 2:00 p.m. (Walker Pavilion)
Dailey will be making his second appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, gaining his first All-America honor last season with a ninth-place finish at the same meet with his personal best of 68-5½ (20.87m). For this go-round, Dailey marked a season's best 68-1½ (20.77m) last weekend at the Cyclone National Qualifier in Ames to jump in the meet as the 13th seed of 17. A couple weeks ago, Dailey, now a six-time All-Big 12 performer, took third at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in the event for the second year in a row and claimed fifth in the shot put.
Dailey also received good news a few weeks back as he was admitted into Missouri's medical school.
More on the weight throw in Chris Rohr's profile.
Elisha Hunt (Sr., Linn, Mo., Linn HS), women's weight throw, finals: Friday, 2:00 p.m. (Walker Pavilion)
Hunt is Mizzou's school record holder in the weight throw, claiming a career best of 68-2½ (20.79m) which she set at these very championships a year ago to claim her first All-America honor in the event in stunning the field with a fourth-place finish. Hunt became Mizzou's first female to win an All-America title in the event.
Hunt has placed runner-up with the weight in the Big 12 the last three years and was fourth a year ago at the outdoor league meet with the hammer.
Hunt is seeded 11th in the 16 person field. Brittany Riley of Southern Illinois has a season's best that is nearly nine feet ahead of the field, last year she set an all-time World's best at this meet in winning the title.
Krishna Lee (Jr., Kansas City, Mo., O'Hara HS), women's shot put, finals: Saturday, 4:45 p.m.
Krishna Lee is gamer. And, once again she stunned at a championship meet, most recently at the Big 12 Indoor meet where she tossed a Mizzou school record of 54-9¼ (16.70m) in placing third, in a heated conference battle. In the past three years, Lee has finished no worse than fourth in the Big 12 in the shot put event.
Lee will be making her second appearance in an NCAA Championship. Last year Lee was the scene-stealer at the NCAA Mideast Regional, automatically qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships with stunning top-five finishes in both the shot and hammer. Lee is also Mizzou's school record holder in the hammer throw, a mark she made at last year's regional meet.
Lee is tied as the meet's 10th seed. Arizona State, who is ranked second in the latest USTFCCCA Rankings, will have to lean on, among others, Sarah Stevens who is the No. 1 seed with a NCAA-leading 58-3¾ (17.78m) mark. Florida's Mariam Kevkhishvilli, a sophomore, is the second seed at 57-2½ (17.44m). Tennessee's Annie Alexander is No. 3 at 57-1¾ (17.42m).
Shernelle Nicholls (Sr., St. Andrew's Parrish, Barbados, Missouri Baptist), women's shot put, finals: Saturday, 4:45 p.m.
Nicholls is making her second-straight appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, finishing 13th last season. During the 2007 outdoor season, Nicholls won All-America honors with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Nicholls did topple Mizzou's school record in the event earlier in the season with her indoor best of 53-8 (16.36m) which set in winning the Big 12-Mountain West Challenge, one of her five wins on the season. But, Lee took over the reins as Mizzou's top hat at the Big 12 meet. Nicholls also has an overall PR of 56-2¾ (17.14m), which, if she can replicate that performance, she could become potentially dangerous in the competition.
Nicholls is the Barbadian National Record Holder in the shot put, discus, and hammer throw. She took Bronze with both the discus and hammer throw at the NACAC (North American) Championships in San Salvador last July and represented her island country in the 2007 Pan-American Games with the shot and discus.
Trisa Nickoley (Sr., Tecumseh, Kan., Shawnee Heights HS), women's 800m run, prelims: Friday, 4:45 p.m.; finals: Saturday, 6:45 p.m.
Nickoley will make her first appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships as an individual and enters as the field's seven-seed of 18 competitors. Nickoley won her third Big 12 800-meter crown two weeks ago, becoming the league's first three-time winner in the event and the first Tiger female to win a single event three times at a conference indoor meet.
Nickoley ran an indoor career best of 2:05.27 on the oversized track in Ames at the Iowa State Classic earlier this season as part of her four event wins this season. Nickoley ran her overall PR at the USATF Championship in the semifinal round in running 2:04.07, coming one step from the U.S. final.
Michigan's Geena Gall has the NCAA's leading time of 2:03.37, followed closely by 2007 NCAA Outdoor Champ Alysia Johnson of Cal who has a season-best clocking of 2:03.39.
Chris Rohr (Jr., Lee's Summit, Mo., Lee's Summit North), men's weight throw,Saturday 2:00 p.m. (Walker Pavilion)
Rohr is Missouri's most-decorated weight thrower in school history, having earned two All-America honors in the event in the previous two seasons, and he's only a junior. Last season, Rohr threw a then-career best of 69-3¾ (21.13m) for seventh. Rohr was 11th in his freshman campaign at the national meet.
Entering the meet, Rohr has the nation's second-best mark with his school-record toss of 73-6½ (22.42m) earned while placing second at the Big 12 Indoor meet.
In what is being billed as a classic Missouri-Kansas rematch, the guy who took the conference title from Rohr, winning his third-straight league title and comes in with the NCAA lead as the defending NCAA Champion is Jayhawk Egor Agafonov. At the Big 12 meet, Rohr had the lead until the final round when Agafonov threw his best of the year of 74-4½ (22.67m). Rohr responded with his career best on his final throw, but it fell eight inches short.
The Big 12 duo has season's bests that are nearly two feet from the rest of the field which is led by Wyoming's Jake Shanklin (71-10, 21.90m). Rohr just passed Auburn's Jake Dunkleberger for fourth on the all-time American collegians list. Dunkleberger comes in as the four-seed with a 71-9 (21.87m) season's best.
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