April 18, 2009
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.-- Although a two-hour rain stoppage kept many athletes in limbo on Saturday, the Missouri Track team was able to finish the John McDonnell Invitational with seven first place finishes and completed one of the busier track weeks with more regional qualifying marks, continuing the growing number of Tiger athletes headed to Louisville.
Shannon Leinert had one of the best races of her career as a Tiger, running a blistering 2:06.05, a good ways under the regional qualifying mark of 2:09.80. Leinert was running in the top heat of the 800-meter run and the win puts her in the top ten nationally in the event.
Chris Rohr blew away the field in the men's hammer, as his throw of 221 feet, 6 inches (67.51m) was 40 feet better than the second place finisher, Brett Suckstorf of Nebraska.
Krishna Lee and Elisha Hunt took the top two spots in the women's hammer throw on Friday, with Lee's two tosses of 188 feet, 3 inches good enough for first place while Hunt's last throw of 182 feet, 11 inches was three inches better than Stephen F. Austin's Frednisha Marshall.
Emily Baker and Ellen Ries began strong and kept a steady pace in the invite of the women's 1500-meter run, and in the last lap Baker made a late charge and finished first in 4:27.44, with Ries finishing fifth in 4:31.39.
Leslie Farmer took her heat in the women's 400-meter hurdles and set a regional qualifying mark, finishing in a time of 1:00.44, a time that would not be bested in the second heat giving Farmer the first place spot.
Blake Irwin stayed toward the middle of the pack in the men's 800-meter run after the first lap, but busted out of that grouping and finished the race in first, clocking in at 1:51.08, while teammate Rick Scheff came in second in a time of 1:52.32.
The women's 4x400-meter relay team took first place again, as Lana Mims came from behind on the last lap overtaking second place finisher Arkansas with a time of 3:41.19.
At the MtSAC Multi-Event meet at Azusa Pacific, the Tigers would have two athletes make provisional-qualifying regional marks, with Kaela Rorvig finishing sixth in the heptathlon with 5156 total points and Lars Rise finishing fifth in the decathlon with 7371 points. Rorvig also qualified individually in the long jump after leaping 19 feet, 7 inches (6.01 meters).
Mizzou will be in action again next week, participating in the 100th annual Drake Relays in Des Moines.