April 9, 2011
Columbia, Mo. (April 9, 2011) -- The Missouri men's and women's track and field teams sent nine seniors out in style at the Tom Botts Invitational at Walton Stadium in Columbia. At the final home meet of the year and Senior Day, both men's and women's teams came up with big wins. The women won the meet with 176 points. Indiana State and Missouri State followed with 146 and 111 points, respectively. The men scored 164 points, topping Illinois (148 points) and Indiana State 132 points). Seven teams competed on both the men's and women's sides.
Even though it was senior day, freshman Tre Chambers (Colorado Springs, Colo.) continued his dominant rookie year by another impressive performance that was good enough to earn him male athlete of the meet acknowledgments. Chambers began the day by anchoring a meet record setting 4x100m relay team to a time of 40.85 seconds. Also on the team were sophomores Josh Scott and Tucker Bounds (Columbia, Mo.) and senior Mark Hughes (Center, Mo.). Chambers also won the 100-meter dash with a new personal record of 10.37 seconds. Chambers was not satisfied and went on to win the 200-meter dash in 21.11 seconds - another personal record.
Also coming up with a win for Mizzou was senior Lars Rise (Trondheim, Norway) in the javelin with a huge personal record throw of 65.17m (213-9). Junior Asa Wyatt (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) placed fourth in that event with a season's best throw of 59.90m (196-6).
Senior Brian Hancock (Monroe City, Mo.) continued to impress with a dominant performance in the pole vault. Hancock vaulted 5.36m (17-7) to finish first by nearly a foot and set a new meet record. Freshman Kyle Wessel (Hannibal, Mo.) finished third in the event with a new personal record, vaulting 4.91m (16-1 ¼). Also in the jumps, freshman Jeremy Lampley (Ballwin, Mo.) finished second with a huge personal record jump of 14.66m (48-1 ¾).
Freshman Max Storms (Kansas City, Mo.) also had a huge personal record while winning the 1,500-meter run in 3:51.71. The day concluded for the men with a win in the 4x400-meter relay. The team was led off by Hughes and anchored by fellow senior Chris Davis (Riverdale, Ga.) who relied on an outstanding finish to pass an Illinois runner for the win. Sophomores Bounds and Scott were also on the team, which ran 3:12.89.
Leading the day for the women was a win from junior Leslie Farmer (Jefferson City, Mo.) in the 400-meter hurdles in a season best time of 59.67. Also winning for the women was sophomore Bailey Belvis (Prosper, Texas) in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:34.43.
On the track, the women racked up a lot of points in the mid-distance, distance and relay events. Junior Layne Moore (Emporia, Kan.), sophomore Laura Roxberg (Overland Park, Kan.), Belvis and freshman Landon Wachter (Jackson, Mo.) took second, third, fifth and sixth in the 800-meter run, respectively. Moore ran 2:09.42, Roxberg ran a personal record of 2:10.18, Belvis also ran a personal record of 2:14.68 and Wachter ran a 2:15.34. In the 3,000-meter run junior Kinsey Farren (Dallas, Texas) took second with a time of 10:10.97 and junior Aimee Bonte (Fenton, Mo.) took fifth with a time of 10:31.63.
The day began and concluded with the 4x200-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay teams taking second. The 4x200 team ran a 47.02 and was comprised of senior Shawnte Middlebrook (Lee's Summit, Mo.), junior Sierra Gant (Wichita, Kan.) and freshmen Lauren Flaker (Columbia, Mo.) and Cara Forte (Kansas City, Mo.). The 4x400 team ran a 3:52.14 and was comprised of Farmer, Gant, Wachter and Moore.
In the field events, the women's throwers continued to impress with fourth and fifth place finishes in the hammer throw from sophomore Megan Collins (Lee's Summit, Mo.) and junior Melissa Coil (Clark, Mo.). Collins threw a personal record of 53.54m (175-8) and Coil also threw a personal record of 53.50m (175-6). The women also piled up some points in the high jump with freshman Camille Hays (Indianapolis, Ind.) finishing third with personal record jump of 1.72m (5-7 ¾). Also in that event was junior Stacy Swineburg (Camdenton, Mo.) finishing fifth with a jump of 1.65m (5-5).