FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The No. 19-ranked Mizzou Tigers are down in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend to line up with the best in the nation at the 50th running of the NCAA Indoor Championships. Junior Markesh Woodson and seniors Kearsten Peoples and Jill Rushin will all don the black and gold for the final meet of the season, facing off against 15 of their fellow top-ranked competitors in their respective events. Competition at the Randal Tyson Track Center will kick off at 4:00 p.m. CT on Friday (March 13) and continue through Saturday evening (March 14).
THE MEET
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This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the NCAA Indoor Championships, an occassion that has a unique meaning for the Tigers as they celebrate the anniversary of one of the two teams in Mizzou history to claim a national title. Under the leadership of legendary Head Coach Tom Botts, Robin Lingle ('65), Gene Crews ('66), Charlie Brown ('67), Earl Denny ('67), and Steven Herndon ('67), tallied a total of 14 points to beat out the 45 teams in attendance during the NCAA Indoor Championships' debut in Detroit, Mich. (for more on the 1965 team, check out the Anniversary story here).
This year, three Tigers will look to continue that tradition of excellence, entering the meet weekend ranked within the top ten of each of their respective events.
A live broadcast of the NCAA Indoor Championships will be streamed live on ESPN3 starting at 6 p.m. CT on Friday and Saturday. There will also be a tape-delay of the meet aired on ESPNU on Monday, March 23, starting at 6:30 p.m. CT.
NATIONAL LEADER
Senior Kearsten Peoples is preparing to endan exciting indoor season, as she enters the weekend as the SEC Champion and No. 1-ranked weight throw woman in the NCAA. Her PR, and new school record, put her at No. 7 in collegiate history for the event after she threw a bomb of a throw at the Missouri Collegiate Challenge to close out the regular season (22.84m / 74-11.25).
That was the second time this season that Peoples assumed the top spot in the national rankings. She took the lead for the first time at the end of January when she threw her first PR of the season (22.15m / 72-8) at the Armory Track Invitational. She lost that position two weeks later, falling to Texas A&M's Brea Garrett during the Tyson Invitational. Peoples wasn't down for long, though, spending only one week in the No. 2 spot before gapping the rest of the country byover a foot. The USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week enters the meet as one of the favorites for the title.
SHOT PUT DOMINANCE
Mizzou continues their dominance in the women's shot put, as Peoples and senior Jill Rushin enter their final indoor championship as two of the top ten-ranked women in the NCAA. Peoples, who has struggled this season in what she considers to be her main event, returned to old form during the SEC Championships two weeks ago, placing fourth with a season's best toss of 17.03m (55-10.50). She currently sits in tenth for the national rankings in the event.
A few spots ahead of her is Rushin, who holds the fifth-best throw in the NCAA with her lifetime best mark of 17.61m (57-9.50). That toss earned her a second-place finish at the SEC Championships, bringing her tally of All-SEC finishes up to sixfor the past three years. Rushin sits behind Peoples on the All-Time Top Ten list as the second-best thrower to ever go through Mizzou with a mark that would have been the school record only two years ago.
WOODSON'S RETURN
Coming back to the NCAA Championships scene after missing last year's meet due to injury is junior Markesh Woodson, who solidified his spot at the meet with a PR and new school record time of 6.58 during the SEC Championships. Woodson cut 0.07-seconds off from his previous season's best of 6.65 to jump ten spots in the NCAA rankings and land at No. 6 heading into the weekend. This time also bestshis previous school record performancefrom freshman year by 0.02-seconds, timed in during the SEC Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., in 2013.
Peoples will kick things off for the Tigers on Friday with the women's weight throw competition at 4:00 p.m. CT. Woodson will follow with the preliminary round of the 60m dash at 7:35 p.m. CT. For the latest on your Tigers, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter @MIZ_TrackField.