Feb. 17, 2010
• Complete Release in PDF Format 
• All-Comers Meet Information
• Collegiate Challenge Schedule
• Big 12 Performance Lists
Meet Info: The Collegiate Challenge/All-Comers
Date: Feb. 19-20
Time: Friday: 2 p.m., Saturday: 8:30 a.m.
Location: Columbia, Mo.
Arena: Hearnes Center Field House
Live Stats: MUTigers.com
Live Blog: MUTigers.com
Busy Weekend for Tigers
After competing at one of the largest meets in the nation last weekend, the Mizzou track and field program returns home for the Collegiate Challenge, its final tune-up before the Big 12 Championships. The meet will mark the Tigers' first home competition since defeating Kansas in the annual Border Dual on Jan. 15. In addition to the Collegiate Challenge, the program will also host the All-Comers meet on Saturday. For more information on the All-Comers meet, be sure to visit MUTigers.com and click on the `Home Meet Information' link.
About the Meets
The Collegiate Challenge is one of the Tigers' newest annual meets as it is in just its second season of existence. In its first year during the 2009 season, Mizzou claimed 13 event titles. The meet was created to give the Tigers a chance to compete against some local collegiate competition, serving as the final tune-up before the Big 12 Championships. The meet beings at 2 p.m. on Friday. MUTigers.com will feature a live blog and live results from the meet.
The All-Comers meet has been a staple at Mizzou during current head coach Rick McGuire's tenure at the helm of the program. This will be the 26th-straight year that Mizzou will host the meet. Hundreds of athletes from around the state and the community will compete at the Hearnes Center on Saturday. Almost all age groups are permitted. The meet begins at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Last Time Out
Mizzou posted two NCAA provisional marks and brought home a pair of event titles at the ISU Classic last weekend. The two provisional qualifiers were Blake Irwin (800m) and Kaitie Vanatta (5,000m run). Irwin ran 1:49.31 while Vanatta clocked in at 16:40.70 in the 5,000m. Chris Davis (600y run) and the women's distance medley relay were the Tigers' event winners.
What to Watch For This Weekend
This weekend will be the Tigers' last chance to improve their seeding for the Big 12 Championships, which will be held next weekend in Ames, Iowa. Currently, a pair of Tigers - Shannon Leinert (800m) and Nick Adock (heptathlon) - rank first in the league in their respective events and will likely enter the Big 12 Championships as the favorites in those events. But this weekend will be a test to see if any additional Tigers can move into the conference elite before the championships.
Starting in the men's 800m run, Blake Irwin and Aaron Dixon sit second and third, respectively, in the Big 12 at 800m, trailing only Chris Gowell of Baylor. Both will look to improve their times this weekend and occupy that top spot heading into the Big 12 Championships. Gowell owns just more than a second advantage over Irwin and about a second-and-a-half lead over Dixon. If both run well this weekend, they could be sitting atop that list.
Leslie Farmer will be an athlete to watch this weekend as she looks to establish herself as one of the favorites to take home the 600-yard run crown at the Championships. She currently ranks fourth in the league in the event but trails second-place Kianna Elahi of Iowa State by just 0.84 seconds. With a good race on Friday, Farmer could potentially sit atop that list heading into Big 12s.
Lana Mims and Brian Hancock will also be athletes to watch this weekend. Mims currently owns the league's fifth-best time in the 400m dash, but was on her way to topping that mark before cramping in the final 50 meters at the ISU Classic last weekend. If she can go this weekend, look for her to improve her seeding heading into the Championships. Hancock is in a similar situation as the two-time All-American in the pole vault has not competed since the MU-KU dual. Hancock will look to get a tune-up this weekend before looking to defend his All-Big 12 honors in two weeks.
Automatic for Adcock and Leinert
Both Nick Adcock and Shannon Leinert sit atop the Big 12 Conference in their respective events and have already booked a trip to Fayetteville, Ark., for the 2010 NCAA Championships with automatic marks in their respective events. In fact, both rank second in the nation in their respective events. Adcock trails only Oregon's Ashton Eaton in the heptathlon while Leinert comes in behind only Tennessee's Phoebe Wright. Missouri joins Nebraska as the only two school's in the Big 12 North to automatically qualify at least one women and one man for the NCAA Championships so far this season.
Provisional for Six Others
Additionally, six other Tigers have met the NCAA provisional qualifying standards in their respective events this season, four on the men's side and two for the women. Both Aaron Dixon and Rick Scheff qualified in the men's 800m run last week while shot putter Andy Oaker has also provisionally qualified.
On the women's side, sprinter Lana Mims also posted an NCAA provisional time in the 400m dash last weekend at the Meyo Invitational. She clocked a personal-best time of 54.62 in the event to earn sixth overall.
Two more student-athletes added their names to the list of NCAA provisional qualifiers at last weekend's ISU Classic as both Blake Irwin and Kaitie Vanatta qualified with fine performances. Irwin clocked in at 1:49.31 in the 800m dash while Vanatta was paced at 16:40.70 in the 5,000m run.
1-2 in the 600-yard Run
The Tiger men had a fine performance in the 600-yard run at last week's ISU Classic as Chris Davis and Ryan Blackwell finished 1-2 in the event. Davis clocked in at 1:11.05 while Blackwell was just behind him at 1:11.25. The pair now rank 10th and 11th, respectively, in the Big 12 this season. Combine that with Shannon Leinert's Big 12-leading time of 1:21.91 on the women's side and Leslie Farmer's fourth-place time of 1:22.84, the Tigers own some of the best 600-yard runners in the Big 12 this season.
DMR Shines for Tiger Women
Adding both Shannon Leinert and Leslie Farmer to the women's DMR team paid huge dividends for the Tigers at last weekend's ISU Classic as the team took the event title with a time of 11:27.30, almost 30 seconds better than Mizzou's next-best time on the season. That time just missed an NCAA provisional mark and earned them a victory by more than 14 seconds. In fact, the time is currently the third-best in the Big 12 this season and ranks the foursome No. 16 nationally.
Tigers Dominate the Middle Distance
Mizzou has certainly made its mark in the middle distance events so far this season. Aside from all of the success in the 800m run, Mizzou has seen plenty of fine performances from 600-yards all the way to the mile run. Aaron Dixon holds the Big 12's top 1,000m run mark this season while both Layne Moore (fouth) and Laura Roxberg (sixth) rank in the top 10 in the event on the women's side.
In the 600-yard run, both Shannon Lienert and Leslie Farmer rank in the Big 12's top four, highlighted by Leinert who owns the league's best time in the event. Ryan Blackwell and Chris Davis both rank in the league's top 11 in the event as well.
Seniors Michael Barrows and Angela Potrykus each rank in the top 12 in the Big 12 in the mile this season as well and both set season-best times at last week's Meyo Invitational. Potrykus shaved nearly nine seconds off of her career-best time at the Meyo Invitational as she clocked in at 4:51.92 while Barrows was paced at 4:08.03 at the meet, also a season-best.
Add Blake Irwin, Rick Scheff and Aaron Dixon's NCAA provisional qualifying marks in the 800m run this season, the Tiger middle distance runners may represent one of the strongest groups in the Big 12 this season.
McGuire's Swan Song
After 27 years as the Head Track and Field Coach at the University of Missouri, Dr. Rick McGuire announced his intention to retire from that position following the completion of the 2010 outdoor season, with his final day in the role scheduled for July 30th.
To date, Coach McGuire has led Missouri athletes to 137 All-American honors, 106 individual conference championships, seven NCAA individual or relay titles and eight NCAA Regional Championships. Beyond the NCAA season, McGuire has coached 46 Olympic Trials qualifiers and 27 USA National Team berths, even coaching four athletes to the pinnacle of athletic competition: the Olympic Games. Both Natasha Kaiser-Brown and Christian Cantwell went on to win Olympic silver medals. Cantwell has also won three world championships.
A hallmark of McGuire's program has been an emphasis on academic achievement, as evidenced by his team's long-standing presence on the USTFCCCA All-Academic list. The women's team has earned this status for 44 consecutive seasons, starting at the inception of the award in 1994. The men are now at 22 consecutive seasons. Individually, hundreds of his athletes have earned All-Academic honors. Under McGuire, Missouri track and field student-athletes have been awarded 22 NCAA Post Graduate scholarships at the conclusion of their undergraduate studies.
McGuire is recognized as a significant leader in the world of track and field, both at the collegiate level and beyond. He recently finished serving a three-year term as president of the NCAA Division I Track and Field Coaches Association, and prior to that served for four years on the NCAA Track and Field Committee. He was chosen as a member of the United States Olympic Team staff for both the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games. He founded and for 28 years has served as the chair of the USATF Sport Psychology program. He has been honored by his peers with his induction into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame and the Missouri Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Dr. McGuire has also served for 25 years as a Graduate Professor of Sport Psychology in the University's nationally prominent Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology. He began both the Master's and Doctoral programs in Sport Psychology. Today Missouri's graduate program in Applied Sport Psychology is considered one of the leading programs in the nation. It is McGuire's intention to continue in his academic and teaching role, as well as contributing sport psychology support for the athletes, teams, coaches and staff in Missouri's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Longtime assistant and current associate head coach Brett Halter has been named interim head coach and will work closely with Coach McGuire in this transition. Coach Halter has earned the distinction as one of the world's finest coaches of throws. His athletes are consistently among the NCAA and Big 12 Conference leaders. He is the coach of former Tiger Christian Cantwell, the reigning World Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist in the shot put.
Tiger Academic Success
The Mizzou track and field/cross country program was honored by the US Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for its academic success over the past calendar year. Both the men's and women's cross country teams were honored as All-Academic teams as fall grades have been announced. The women's cross country team earned a term grade-point-average of 3.467, earning the 44th-straight All-Academic honor for the Mizzou track and field/cross country program, doing so in every semester since the inception of the award 16 seasons ago. Mizzou is the only program in the nation to have accomplished that feat. The Tiger men's cross country team finished the fall semester with a term GPA of 3.06, earning the All-Academic award as well.
Two members of the women's cross country team - Shannon Leinert and Kaitie Vanatta - earned a perfect 4.00 GPA during the fall 2009 semester, while Phillip King brought home a perfect GPA for the men's team.
The success during the fall semester for the program did not stop with the cross country student-athletes. In all, the women's track and field team compiled a cumulative GPA of 3.289 and four others - Cortni Ervin, Leslie Farmer, Laura Greenfield and Katie Vanarsdall - all joined Leinert and Vanatta with perfect GPAs. The term GPA of 3.289 means that the women's program will garner its 45th-straight All-Academic team honor from the USTFCCCA when those are announced after the outdoor track and field season.
In all, 18 of the 40 women's track and field team members finished with a GPA better than 3.50 and 30 of the 40 women's track and field student-athletes finished with a GPA better than 3.00.
Adcock at the Thorpe Cup
Mizzou track and field junior Nick Adcock placed fifth overall amongst a field of 14 elite decathletes as part of the Thorpe Cup competition in Marburg, Germany. The competitors at the meet included multiple Olympians and former national champions.
Adcock represented the United States at the Thorpe Cup, a combined events dual meet between the United States and Germany. He set a season-best mark in the pole vault and a career-best in the discus. His overall score of 7,646 points is his best of the 2009 season and is just 11 points shy of his personal-record total.
Cantwell Claims IAAF World Title
Former Tiger track and field standout Christian Cantwell won the shot put World Championship at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in Berlin, Germany, after tossing 22.03m (72-3 ½) in his fifth attempt on Aug. 15, 2009. His mark was a new season-best, shattering his previous mark of 21.81m (71-7), set at the Aviva London Grand Prix. The event title is the first-ever Outdoor IAAF World Championship for Cantwell, adding to his two Indoor IAAF World Championships, claimed in 2004 and 2008.
Follow Mizzou Track & Field's Blog!
The 2010 Mizzou track and field season will not only offer some of the most exciting competition, but it will also provide some of the best ways for fans to follow their team. MUTigers.com has developed a blog in order to keep fans in the loop about everything regarding Mizzou athletics. Each sport will have its own official blog so fans can stay current with each program. The track and field blog can be found here: http://www.mutigers.com/blog/track-field/.
The live blog will be back this weekend in hopes of providing event-by-event results and a interactive experience for any fans that cannot be in attendance at the meet.
Next Up
Mizzou will make its way back up to Ames, Iowa, for the third time during the indoor season, this time for the 2010 Indoor Big 12 Championships. At last year's indoor championships, the Tigers finished seventh overall on both the men's and women's side. Shannon Leinert will also look to continue her 800m Big 12 Conference winning streak as she swept both the Big 12 indoor and outdoor titles last year.
As always, for all the latest on Mizzou track and field, stay tuned to MUTigers.com.