March 29, 2008
COLUMBIA, Mo. - For the second consecutive day, high school and college track and field athletes competed against each other in cold, blustery weather in the finale of the Missouri Relays, concluding the two-day event that featured over 1,600 athletes from across the Midwest. Highlights for the home team included Missouri senior Shernelle Nicholls who posted a record-breaking performance, shattering her old school record in the women's discus event. Meanwhile, several other Tigers qualified for NCAA Regional competition, which will be held from May 30-31.
The Tigers had three of the top four finishers in the elite women's shot put competition, as Nicholls took second with a throw of 52-4¾ (15.97m), junior Krishna Lee finished in third, throwing 51-10½ (15.81m), and senior Elizabeth Robe coming in fourth-place after her throw of 48-7½ (14.82). All three competitors qualified for the NCAA Regional competition with their throws, beating the toss of 46-11 (14.30m) needed to qualify for the event. The throws from Nicholls and Lee topped the highest Division I throw on the season of 51-8¼ (15.78m), but were still not good enough to beat out Northern Iowa's Rachel Jansen, who broke the Missouri Relays meet record set in 2006 of 54-0 (16.46) with her heave of 54-2½ (16.52m).
Later in the day, Nicholls competed in the elite women's discus competition, and finished first after she threw for a new school record in the event. Her throw of 170-7 (52.00m) easily qualified her for the NCAA Regionals, and beat her old personal best, the previous school record and Barbados national record, of 167-9 (51.15m). Coming into this weekend, Nicholls' throw registers as the fourth highest nationally on the season.
Lee also claimed a new personal best in the discus, using a toss of 144-9 (44.11m) to take first-place honors in the university portion of the event. The throw was more than six feet better than the second-place finisher, and nearly eight feet better than her previous career best of 136-10 (41.73m), which she recorded at the Tom Botts Invitational in 2007.
Junior Chris Rohr and sophomore Andy Oaker were able to grab the second and third place positions in the men's portion of the elite shot put competition. Rohr's throw of 54-10¾ (16.73m) fell just seven centimeters short of the 16.80m throw needed to qualify for the NCAA Regionals. Oaker's third-place throw traveled 54-1¾ feet (16.50m).
Former Tiger runner Neville Miller, now running for the New York Athletic Club, took first-place in the 1500-meter run, finishing with a time of 3:51.68. Four other Tigers rounded out the top ten, as junior Garett Jeffries took second, freshman Kyle Rood claimed fifth, and juniors Brian Graybill and Tim Cornell finished in seventh and ninth, respectively. Jeffries finished just over a second off Miller's pace with a time of 3:52.90, while Rood had a time of 3:54.92. Graybill finished at 3:55.70, and Cornell's time of 3:56.28 just slightly beat out the tenth-place finisher. In the women's portion of the event, junior Ellen Ries finished with a time of 4:37.29, which was good for second-place.
Another former Tiger, Serena Burla (Ramsey) won the women's 5000-meter run on Friday night with a meet-record and stadium-record clocking of 15:47.03. Burla won by more that 55 seconds on the way to a U.S. Olympic Trials "B"-qualifying standard. Mizzou freshman Kinsey Farren finished fourth in the same race with a 17:35.18 time.
In the university section of the women's 800-meter run, Tiger sophomore Jesi Battistini took first-place honors with a time of 2:26.25, nearly a full second better than the second-place finisher. In the men's portion of the event, two freshmen Tigers finished in the top eight of a closely contested race, as Robert Bollinger finished in third and Matt Harris came in eighth. Bollinger finished with a time of 1:59.38, while Harris was the last runner to finish under two minutes at 1:59.96.
Brian Hancock, sophomore, came in second-place in the men's pole vault elite event, clearing 16-¾ (4.90m), but fell victim to judge's decision. Hancock finished behind Kansas' Kirk Cooper, who completed the same height, but did so in less tries.
Competing in just his first race since returning from an injury-plagued junior season, senior Tipper O'Brien came in third-place in the men's elite 800-meter run, finishing with a time of 1:53.69.
Jason Miller, senior high jumper for the Tigers, finished in first-place in the Open portion of the event with a jump of 6-8¾, clearing on his first attempt to take first.
Sophomore Nick Adcock followed up his Day One second-place finishes in the long jump and the javelin throw with another second-place finish, this time in the men's 110-meter hurdles event. His wind-aided time of 14.54 just edged out the third-place runner.
Two Tigers finished in the top-three of the men's elite 400-meter dash competition. Sophomore Jerron Forte came in second with a final time of 48.33, just edging out fellow Tiger freshman Ryan Blackwell, who finished with a time of 48.39 for third place.
After qualifying for the finals of the women's 100-meter dash with a time of 12.46 in the preliminaries earlier in the day, sophomore Keyonna Smith placed in third in the finals of the event, finishing with an improved time of 12.32.
Freshman James Haynes came in second-place in the finals of the men's 400-meter hurdles with a time of 56.97, edging out the third-place finisher by just five-hundredths of a second. Fellow freshman Layne Moore, running in the women's elite 800-meter run, won the event with a time of 2:13.34, beating out the second-place runner by nearly two seconds.
Mizzou will travel next weekend to Charlottesville, Va., for the inaugural Jefferson Cup, a dual-meet scored versus the University of Virginia.
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