June 24, 2014
Junior Jill Rushin
COLUMBIA, Mo. - While the NCAA Championships marked the season's close for most collegiate track & field athletes, there are two Tigers who still have one more competition yet before they can begin to look forward to next year. Juniors Kearsten Peoples and Jill Rushin extended their exhilarating seasons for another two weeks as they prepared for the USATF Outdoor Championships, where they will take on a field of the 18 top female shot putters in the country, including six of the top 20 women in the IAAF World Rankings, on Wednesday in Sacramento, Calif.
The pair, who led the NCAA rankings in the event for much of the outdoor season, return to the USATF Championships stage for the second consecutive year after placing sixth (Peoples) and 14th (Rushin) in 2013. Peoples also qualified for the 2012 Championships, which served as the U.S. Olympic Trials, where she just missed out on making Team USA with her School Record toss of 18.22m (59-9.5).
It's been a break-out year for Rushin, who led the NCAA briefly after throwing her second PR of the season at the Missouri Relays (17.45m/57-3). She bested that again at the Tom Botts Invitational, closing her season with the No. 2 mark in the NCAA, 17.62m (57-9.75). Rushin took the podium twice at the SEC Championships, claiming her first conference title in the shot put before placing third in the discus. She went on to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the shot put, earning a Second Team All-American honor with her 12th-place performance.
Peoples also had an exciting 2014 season, finishing as Runner-Up at the SEC Championships before earning her seventh All-American finish, placing third in the shot put. She also continued her streak of Missouri School Record performances from the indoor season, surpassing her own top mark in the discus at the Emporia State Mid-Week Open with a toss of 57.31m (188-0.5). Her season's best mark of 17.90m (58-8.75) still holds as the top mark in the NCAA for the 2014 outdoor season. Peoples' is one of the six U.S. shot put women currently holding a spot in the top 20 of the IAAF World Rankings, sitting at No. 19.
The shot put comeptition will begin at 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday. For the latest on your Tigers, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter @MIZ_TrackField.