Jan. 25, 2009

Lincoln, Neb. – The Missouri Track and Field squad had another solid outing yesterday in the 2009 Big 12-Mountain West Conference Challenge at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, accounting for 62 of the 249 points the Big 12 earned on the day, in the league's 249-118 win in Lincoln, Neb.  The Tigers, competing on the same side as fellow Big 12 schools Nebraska and Kansas, took on Air Force, Colorado State and Wyoming.

 

Leading the way for the Tigers were the usual suspects, senior throwers Krishna Lee, who won two events on the afternoon, along with Chris Rohr, who took home top honors in the Men's weight throw. The Tigers got strong performances on both sides, placing in numerous running and weight events.

 

Lee won the first of her two events in the Women's Shot Put, setting an NCAA provisional mark of 15.52 meters, besting Nebraska's Kacie Sharp's 15.26 meters. Lee would come close to another provisional mark in the Women's Weight Throw, taking first with a throw of 18.44 meters, which was .82 meters, nearly three-feet better than Wyoming's Amanda Aimone who came in second.

 

Rounding out those that placed in the Women's field events for the Tigers were Abbie Garlich, who placed fifth in the Women's Pole Vault with a jump 3.53 meters, while Meaghan Brougher finished seventh in the Women's High Jump with a jump of 1.65 meters.

 

Mizzou's Rohr also had an NCAA provisional-qualifying throw of 21.28 meters in the Men's Weight Throw, good enough for first place over Wyoming's Jake Shanklin. Patrick Fitzgerald placed second in the Men's Shot Put for the Tigers with a throw of 16.53 meters, while Brian Hancock finished third in the Men's Pole Vault with jump of 5.03 meters.

 

Nick Adcock placed fifth in the Men's High Jump for the Tigers, while Matt Willingham finished eighth in the Men's Pole Vault to finish out the Men's field events.

 

The women shined in the running events, as Tiger runners would place in the top five in six of the 11 events in the Conference Challenge. Missouri's Lana Mims (24.91 seconds) and Sierra Gant (25.22) took home first and second place honors in the Women's 200-meter dash, while Leslie Farmer took home the gold in the Women's 600-yard run (1:23.20).  Farmer nipped a pair of competitors at the wire, with her winning margin coming by less than a second.  

 

Mizzou's Layne Moore also set the pace in the Women's 800-meter run, winning in a time of 2:09.67.  Moore won a gutty duel with Kansas State's Boglarka Bozzay, as she edged her competitior by 13-hundredths of a second (2:09.80).  Continuing Mizzou's dominance on the oval, the group of Farmer, Kaela Rorvig, Moore and Shannon Leinert took first place in the Women's 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:47.63.

 

On the Men's side, Mizzou's Chris Davis (1:11.09) held off Nebraska's Nick Makukutu by nearly six-tenths of a second for first place in the 600-yard run, while Brian Graybill also brought home a Tiger win, claiming the 1-Mile run with a time of 4:08.00.  Rick Scheff would also have a good run, finishing second in the 800-meter run (1:54.92).

 

Overall, Missouri won nine of the 34 events contested on the day (six women, three men), while the host Huskers claimed 19 of the 34 events, totaling 146 of the 249 points in the competition, 28 more points than the entire Mountain West had in the entire meet.

 

The Tigers will prepare this week for another conference-versus-conference clash, this time against the Southeastern Conference in the Big 12-SEC Challenge in College Station, Texas, next Friday and Saturday against Mississippi, Florida and LSU.