March 6, 2009

Fayetteville, Ark. - Junior Brian Hancock will be making a return trip to College Station for the NCAA Indoor National Championships after jumping 17 feet, 7.25 inches (5.37 meters), winning the pole vault in the Arkansas Last Chance Qualifier on Friday. The men's distance medley relay team ran the second fastest indoor time in school history with a time of 9:37.17 in South Bend, Indiana, even after Brian Graybill was tripped on the first leg.

Hancock, who already held the indoor school record in the pole vault with a jump of 5.22 meters, bested Brigham Young's Whitney Neves who couldn't top the 5.37-meter mark, giving Hancock the win, and putting him in the top ten nationally in the event, an automatic entry in to next week's national championships.

In the Alex Wilson Invitational, the men's DMR team of Graybill, Chris Davis, Aaron Dixon and Tim Cornell, would face some adversity early after the senior Graybill would get tripped heading into the first handoff. But the Tigers would make up ground and finish with a provisional mark in a race that saw 15 automatic qualifying times.

"It was probably the greatest distance medley relay I've ever seen," head coach Dr. Rick McGuire said. "Our guys ran great, and having to deal with the adversity of getting tripped, then getting up and still running a great race is a testament to how much heart this team has."

The Cyclone National Qualifier and the continuation of the Alex Wilson Invitational will have many Tigers competing, including Big 12 champion in the 800-meters Shannon Leinert, the women's 4x400-meter relay team and the individual efforts of the members of the men's DMR squad at Notre Dame, while Krishna Lee, Andy Oaker and Rick Scheff will be competing in Ames Saturday morning.