Missouri
NCAA Championships
Woodson, Montgomery Head to NCAA Championships
3/9/2016 10:16:00 AM | Track & Field
The pair will compete in the semifinals on Friday
COLUMBIA, Mo. - As the rest of the team prepares for the outdoor season, two Tigers have their sights set on one final indoor competition - the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. The pair of senior Markesh Woodson and freshman Kahmari Montgomery both qualified for the premier meet of the indoor season, having landed well-within the top-16 in the national rankings for their respective events. Events at the Birmingham CorssPlex in Birmingham, Alabama, will begin on Friday (March 11) with the semifinal rounds, followed by the finals on Saturday (March 12).
"It's exciting to have Markesh and Kahmari preparing for the national championship," Carjay Lyles, assistant coach with the sprints/hurdles, said. "This has been the goal since the first day of practice, and I'm excited to see how they perform. At this point, it's going to come down to race execution and being free of distraction. If they rely on their training in trust themselves in the midst of competition, it'll be exciting to see what comes. They are ready to make Mizzou proud!"
MEET INFORMATION
USTFCCCA Meet Home // Schedule
Live Results
ESPN3 - Friday (starting at 5:25 p.m. CT) // Saturday (starting at 3:55 p.m. CT)
ESPN2 - Sunday (recap starts at 6 p.m. CT)
Both Woodson and Montgomery bring quite a bit of momentum with them into the weekend, having both earned All-SEC finishes during the conference championship meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas, two weeks ago. For Woodson, this is all familiar territory. The senior has qualified for the indoor national championship meet all four years in the 60m dash, and already has two All-American finishes under his best after he placed fifth in both 2013 and 2015. He'll step onto the track for the semifinal round on Friday with the fifth-fastest mark in the NCAA this season, after he timed just off his school record (6.58) with a 6.59 finish at the Tyson Invitational.
And, while this will be Montgomery's first NCAA Championship competition, his path to the meet is one that the Tigers have seen before. Reminiscent of Woodson's break-out freshman season in 2013, Montgomery will step into the blocks for the 400m dash with the school record and an SEC title in hand. The true-freshman had a quiet enough start to his career in early-January, but that took a season-defining turn during the Rod McCravy Memorial Meet in Lexington, Kentucky, when he took down the 400m dash record for the first time with a 47.33 personal record (PR). That mark wouldn't stand for long, though, as he cut over 1.50-seconds during the SEC Championship meet, running 46.08 during the preliminary round and 45.78 in the final. Montgomery walked away from the conference meet with, not only his first SEC title, but also the sixth-fastest 400m dash performance in the world so far this year.
The weekend will start at 6:30 p.m. CT on Friday for the Tigers with Woodson in the 60m dash semifinal, followed by Montgomery at 6:55 p.m. CT. Both will look to advance on to the final rounds in their respective events, which are scheduled for Saturday afternoon. For the latest on your Tigers, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter @MIZ_TrackField.
Players Mentioned
