Three Tigers Headed to NCAA Championships
3/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
March 9, 2010
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Three student-athletes will represent the Mizzou track and field program at the 2010 NCAA Indoor National Championships set for this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark., as announced by the NCAA Monday night (March 8). Nick Adcock (Kansas City, Mo.) and Lars Rise (Trondheim, Norway) will represent the Tiger men at the Championships while Shannon Leinert (Eureka, Mo.) will run for the Tiger women. Competition at the championships will begin Friday (March 12) at 10 a.m.
Both Adcock and Rise will compete in the heptathlon at the NCAA Championships, a fitting tribute to head coach Rick McGuire, who is in his final season as the head coach at Mizzou. During his tenure, McGuire has trained some of the top multi-event specialists and this year has been no different as both Adcock and Rise rank among the top 10 heptathletes in the nation this season.
Adcock claimed the Big 12 title two weeks ago while resetting the Big 12 Championship meet record and toppling his own school record in the event with 5.938 points. That mark ranks him No. 2 nationally heading into the championships. Only Ashton Eaton of Oregon has a better score in the heptathlon this season. Adcock also posted 5,758 points in the heptathlon at the Bill Bergan Combined Events earlier this season, giving him two automatic qualifying marks on the season.
Rise enters the Championships as the No. 10 overall seed in the event with his NCAA provisional qualifying score of 5,648 points, set at the Big 12 Championships last month. That mark earned him fourth place overall and All-Big 12 honors in the event in what was his only heptathlon appearance of the season to date. Rise is a two-time decathlon All-American on the outdoor circuit and fell just one spot shy of earning All-America honors in the heptathlon at last year's indoor championships.
Leinert joins Adcock as one of two automatic qualifiers for the Tigers as she will be in search of her first All-America honors in the 800m run. The two-time Big 12 Champion at 800m was second overall by just three hundredths of a second as this year's championships and has run as fast as 2:04.32 this season. That time ranks her as the No. 4 overall seed headed into the championships this weekend. She is one of only eight runners nationally to post an automatic qualifying time in the event this season.
For complete coverage of the three Tigers at the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships, make sure to check back with MUTigers.com throughout the week.
Players Mentioned
