The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hock, Thornton honored with Big 12 Conference awards
05.08.2013 | Track & Field / Cross Country m, Track & Field / Cross Country
May 8, 2013
IRVING, Texas - The No. 6 Texas men's track and field team continues to haul in honors after claiming the Big 12 Conference Outdoor title Sunday.
Johannes Hock was voted the 2013 Big 12 Outdoor Outstanding Male Freshman of the Year and Bubba Thornton was tabbed the men's outdoor coach of the year, the conference office announced Wednesday.
Hock won the decathlon in record-setting fashion at last weekend's meet at Baylor.
He led from start to finish, posting a meet-record 8,293 points, which is the top mark in the collegiate ranks this season, second best in school history, No. 2 in the world this year and seventh on the all-time collegiate list.
Hock broke the Big 12 meet record (8,004) of Kansas State's Moritz Cleve set in 2009.
The only Texas decathlon mark better than Hock's was Trey Hardee's collegiate-record 8,465 set at the 2006 Texas Relays. Hardee was the silver medalist at the 2012 Olympics.
Hock became the third Longhorn (Aaron Fox, 1997; Donovan Kilmartin, 2006) to sweep the multi-events at the Big 12 meets.
He is the first Longhorn to earn Big 12 Outstanding Male Freshman of the Year honors since Jamaal Charles in 2006.
Thornton earned the conference's coach of the year award for the 10th time in his 18 seasons at Texas, including five during outdoors (also 1997, 1999, 2003, 2006).
Thornton led the Longhorns to a sweep of the Big 12 indoor and outdoor titles for the third time in school history (also 1999, 2006).
Texas posted 146.50 points at the three-day outdoor meet in Waco, Texas, to down Oklahoma, which tallied 133.
The Longhorns posted four individual victories, including a record-setting performance by sophomore Ryan Crouser, who broke both school and meet mark in the shot put with a toss of 69-2 1/2 (21.09m).
Thornton also won the league's indoor coach of the year award when he led the Longhorns to the Big 12 title in February.
Thornton has led the Longhorns to top 15 finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 12 of his 17 completed seasons, including four top five finishes.
While at Texas, Thornton has produced 24 NCAA individual champions, a relay champion and 83 athletes who have combined for 207 All-America honors (indoor and outdoor).
The Longhorns will serve as host to the NCAA Division I West Preliminary Round on May 23-25.
For the complete release from the Big 12, click here.