The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Men's Track & Field preview: NCAA Outdoor Championships
06.03.2013 | Track & Field / Cross Country m, Track & Field / Cross Country
NCAA Championhips Meet Info | NCAA Outdoor Championships - Declarations/Start Lists/Results | NCAA Outdoor Championships Notes (PDF)
June 3, 2013
Texas has 15 Qualifiers for NCAA Outdoor Meet: The Texas men's track and field team, which is No. 8 in the most recent USTFCCCA computer rankings, has 15 qualifers in nine events for the four-day NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships. The Longhorns collected the third-most qualifiers on the men's side when they played host to the NCAA West Preliminary Round on May 23-25.
Two National Leaders: Texas has the top-ranked athlete nationally in a pair of events. Ryan Crouser's school- and meet-record toss of 69-2 1/2 (21.09m) at the Big 12 Championships leads the nation by more than five feet. Johannes Hock also posted a meet record at the Big 12 Championships. His decathlon total of 8,293 is the top mark in the country this season and seventh in collegiate history. Crouser and Hock are both members of the watch list for the Bowerman, presented by the USTFCCCA to most outstanding athlete in the nation.
Horns Lead the Throws: Texas has a nation's best six qualifiers in the throws events with three each in the shot put (Ryan Crouser, Hayden Baillio, Will Spence) and discus (Crouser, Blake Jakobsson, Clint Harris). No men's team has more than three combined in the four throws events. Michigan State, with two, is the only other school with multiple qualifiers in the shot put. Georgia and Purdue each have a pair of qualifers in the discus.
Thornton Leads Horns to Success on the National Stage: Head coach Bubba 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. Under Thornton's direction, UT has finished in the top 25 at the outdoor national meet in each of the last 14 years and in the top 10 four of the last eight years, including a third-place finish in 2006, a fourth in 2008 and ninth in 2012. Texas finished tied for ninth (22 points) at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor meet. Thirteen members of the team competed in nine events with six scoring points, highlighted by Marquise Goodwin's victory in the long jump. Four of the scorers have qualified again, including(Ryan Crouser (discus), Isaac Murphy (decathlon), Ryan Dohner (10,000 meters) and Keiron Stewart (110-meter hurdles).
Doubling Up: Sophomore Ryan Crouser will be one of just four athletes competing in both the shot put and discus at the NCAA Outdoor meet. Crouser, who had the best shot-put mark in the nation and 12th-best discus throw during the regular season, is joined by Kole Weldon of Texas Tech, Chad Wright of Nebraska and Stephen Mozia of Cornell.
Crouser Among the Best in the World: Sophomore Ryan Crouser impressed during the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, tossing the implement a personal-best 67 1/2 (20.43m) to capture the University shot put (section A) title. That was Crouser's first competition since the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships due to ailments. That toss ranked No. 6 on the 2013 world's performer's list, No. 1 in the collegiate ranks and No. 5 on the Texas all-time performance chart heading into the Big 12 meet where Crouser put on one of the best performances in school history. He set a Big 12 meet and school record in the shot put, bettering his nation-leading mark on three of his six attempts. His winning throw of 69-2 1/2 (21.09m) bested the field by more than seven feet and snapped Brian Robison's school record of 68-3 3/4 (20.82m), set in 2006. Couser, a two-time first team All-American, eclipsed the league meet record of 69-0 (21.03m) set by Christian Cantwell (Missouri) in 2003. Crouser's career-best toss ranks No. 5 on the 2013 world performers list, according to the IAAF and Track and Field News.
Dominating the Shot Put: Ryan Crouser not only has the best shot-put mark in the collegiate ranks and led the field by more than five feet in the regular season, but he also posted the top six throws in the nation this season. Crouser had three throws at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships rank among the best in school history. His second attempt went 67-2 1/4 (20.48m), fourth traveled 67-7 (20.60m) and fifth went a school-record 69-2 1/2 (21.09m). He also had two throws in his series at the 2013 Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on this list; the first was 66-10 1/2 (20.38m) and his fourth attempt went 67 1/2 (20.43m). Kole Weldon of Texas Tech ranked second in the nation during the regular season with a toss of 63-9 (19.43m)
Two Decathletes Qualify for NCAAs: The Longhorns are one of four schools with two entries in the decathlon and they have the national leader on their team. Johannes Hock and Isaac Murphy punched their tickets to the national meet during the regular season. The top 24 decathlon marks in the nation earned automatic berths to the NCAAs. Hock has the top decathlon mark in the nation (8,293) and Murphy ranks 10th (7,758). Hock was voted the 2013 Big 12 Outdoor Outstanding Male Freshman of the Year after setting a meet record at the league championships. He led from start to finish, posting the second-best tally in school history, the No. 4 mark in the world this year and seventh-highest total in collegiate history. Murphy, who was seventh at the 2012 NCAA Championships, posted his total in March at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. The Longhorns have scored twice in the decathlon at one other NCAA meet. Trey Hardee, who holds the collegiate record in the event, won the 2005 NCAA title and Donovan Kilmartin was fourth.
Dohner Looks to Score Again in the 10K: Ryan Dohner is making his second-straight appearance at the NCAA Outdoor meet. Dohner finished seventh in the 10,000 meters last season in a personal-best time of 29:05.11. He will be capping off an impressive season. Dohner earned All-America honors last fall, leading the cross country team to a ninth-place showing at the NCAA meet by finishing 19th in the individual standings. He went on to finish eighth in the 3,000 meters and fourth in the 5,000 at the 2013 Big 12 Indoor Championships. The junior followed that up by finishing third in the 10K and then fourth in the 5,000m at the league outdoor meet. His finish in the 5K was key as it occurred during the next-to-last running event of the meet and helped the Longhorns hold off Oklahoma for the victory.
Princeton Transfer Making a Return Trip to NCAAs: Trevor Van Ackeren is appearing at the NCAA Outdoor meet for the third time in the last five years, but first time as a Longhorn. The senior transfer from Princeton is seeded No. 19 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase after posting a personal-best time of 8:46.05 at the NCAA West Preliminary Round. Van Ackeren's last two trips to the NCAAs were in the 1,500 meters. He earned second team All-America honors at the 2012 meet by finishing 14th in the semifinals. He also qualfied for the 1,500 at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor meet.
Final Trip to the National Meet: Keiron Stewart's storied four-year collegiate career will come to an end at the NCAA Outdoor meet. The six-time All-American, who graduated last month, will be making his fourth-straight appearance at the NCAA Outdoor meet and seventh overall at the national meets. Stewart has competed just once due to injury since the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays (3/29) when he clocked a 13.51w, the seventh-fastest mark in the nation this season. Stewart was fifth in the 60-meter hurdles at the 2013 NCAA Indoor meet. league title in the 110-meter hurdles. The senior owns school records in both 60 and 110-meter hurdles. He has posted six of the top twelve 110mh times in school history. Stewart qualified for the NCAA Outdoor meet by finishing fourth in the quarterfinals (13.64w) at the NCAA West Preliminary Round. His best finish in the 110mh is fifth in 2011.
Staying at Home: The Longhorns are leaving the state of Texas to compete for the first time in six weeks. In fact, they have only left the state twice to compete since the NCAA Indoor Championships. The team traveled to Tucson, Ariz., on April 6 for the Jim Click Shootout and sent a group of distance runners to the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., on April 18-19. Texas claimed the Big 12 Outdoor title three weeks ago in Waco, Texas. The Longhorns have won the league outdoor title each of the four times it was held at Baylor (also 1997, 1999, 2006).
Family Ties: Ryan Crouser will be competing close to home this week. He is from Boring, Ore., which is southeast of Portland and roughly 120 miles north of Eugene. Crouser will have plenty of family and friends in attendance. They will also be there to see his cousin, Sam Crouser, who qualified for the meet by finishing third in the javelin (257-8/78.53m) at the NCAA West Preliminary Round. He was an All-American last season and competed in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials. They come from a family of track and field stars. Ryan's father, Mitch, was a thrower in college, serving as a discus alternate on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team. His uncle (Sam's father), Dean Crouser, was a three-time NCAA champion for Oregon, winning the shot put and discus in 1982 and the discus in 1983. Another uncle, Brian Crouser, is a two-time NCAA javelin champion (1982, 1985) and was a key member of Oregon's last NCAA outdoor championship team in 1984.
Texas Tidbits:
- Only two schools have more distance runners qualified for the NCAA Outdoor meet than Texas Ryan Dohner, Craig Lutz - 10,000m; Trevor Van Ackeren - steeplechase). Oklahoma State and Georgetown each have four entries in 5,000m, 10,000m and steeplechase.
- Zack Bilderback has been a pleasant surprise this season. After scoring at the Big 12 Indoor meet in both the 600 yards and 4x400-meter relay, Bilderback claimed third in the 400 meters at the league outdoor meet. His personal-best time of 46.08 moved him to No. 8 on the West Region list and 17th nationally. He was ranked third in the country among freshmen in the 400m during the regular season and is the top-ranked first-year performer in the field at NCAA Outdoor meet.
- Ryan Dohner is the only athlete in school history to rank in the top five on the performers list of both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Dohner's time of 13:45.25 at the Mt. SAC Relays was bettered only by Jeff Canada's school record 13:44.34 at the 1989 edition of the same meet. Dohner's time of 29:05.11 at the 2012 NCAA Championships (seventh place) ranks No. 5 on the UT performers chart. Dohner was a key figure at the 2013 Big 12 Outdoor meet. He finished third in the 10,000 meters on the opening day of the competition. Then came back less than two days later to finish fourth in the 5,000m, which helped enable the Longhorns to hold off Oklahoma for the victory.
2013 NCAA Division I Track & Field Outdoor Championships Information
June 5-8 - Eugene, Ore. - Hayward Field
Schedule: The four-day meet begins at 2 p.m. CDT Wednesday with the first day of the decathlon. Click here for the complete schedule.
Heat Sheets, Results, Live Results: Click here for the links.
Broadcast/Webcast Schedule: ESPN3/ESPNU will telecast the majority of the meet, with supplementary webcasting on Pac-12 Live Stream. The broadcast schedule (all times Central):
- Wednesday, June 5: 2-10 p.m. - Pac-12 Live Stream
- Thursday, June 6: 1-5:50 p.m. - Pac-12 Live Stream; 5:50-10 p.m. - ESPN3
- Friday, June 7: 2:30-6:30 p.m. - Pac-12 Live Stream; 6:30-9 p.m. - ESPNU/ESPN3
- Saturday,June 8; 2:30-4 p.m. - Pac-12 Live Stream; 4-6 p.m. - ESPNU/ESPN3
Social Media: Follow/view @TexasMTF for UT updates; view Twitter hashtag #NCAATF or follow/view @OregonTF for meet updates and information.
Texas Entrants/Seeds: The Longhorns will have 14 athletes competing in 15 events at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore.
| Event | Seed | Name | Time/Mark |
|---|---|---|---|
| 400 Meters | 7. | Zack Bilderback | 46.10 |
| 1,500 Meters | 14. | Patrick McGregor | 3:45.66 |
| 10,000 Meters | 17. | Ryan Dohner | 30:04.45 |
| 21. | Craig Lutz | 30:18.01 | |
| 110-Meter Hurdles | 8. | Keiron Stewart | 13.64w |
| 3,000-Meter Steeplechase | 19. | Trevor Van Ackeren | 8:46.05 |
| Pole Vault | 5. | Reese Watson | 17-8.50 (5.40m) |
| Shot Put | 2. | Ryan Crouser | 62-11.25 (19.18m) |
| 9. | Hayden Baillio | 62-0.25 (18.90m) | |
| 22. | Will Spence | 59-9.50 (18.22m) | |
| Discus | 8. | Ryan Crouser | 189-9 (57.84m) |
| 10. | Blake Jakobsson | 188-0 (57.30m) | |
| 11. | Clint Harris | 187-5 (57.12m) | |
| Decathlon | 1. | Johannes Hock | 8,293 |
| 10. | Isaac Murphy | 7,758 |
Note: Seed is based on the mark/time posted at the NCAA West Preliminary Round.
TEXAS ENTRIES - NCAA OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Eugene, Ore. - Hayward Field - All times Central
Wednesday, June 5
- Decathlon - Day One (2:00 p.m.): Johannes Hock, Isaac Murphy
- Pole Vault - Final (6:00 p.m.): Reese Watson
- 400 Meters - Semifinal (7:15 p.m.): Zack Bilderback
- Shot Put - Trials/Final (7:30 p.m.): Ryan Crouser, Hayden Baillio, Will Spence
- 3,000-Meter Steeplechase - Semifinal (8:45 p.m.): Trevor Van Ackeren
Thursday, June 6
- Decathlon - Day Two (1:30 p.m.): Johannes Hock, Isaac Murphy
- 1,500 Meters - Semifinal (6:45 p.m.): Patrick McGregor
- 110-Meter Hurdles - Semifinal (7:20 p.m.): Keiron Stewart
- 10,000 Meters - Final (9:15 p.m.): Ryan Dohner, Craig Lutz
Friday, June 7
- Discus - Trials/Final (6:00 p.m.): Ryan Crouser, Blake Jakobsson, Clint Harris
- 3,000-Meter Steeplechase - Final (7:40 p.m.):
- 400 Meters - Final (8:05 p.m.):
Saturday, June 8
- 1,500 Meters - Final (4:31 p.m.):
- 110-Meter Hurdles - Final (5:16 p.m.):