The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Bilderback, Crouser, Sategna receive Big 12 Track and Field awards
03.04.2016 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Seniors share conference honors after stellar championship meet.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas seniors Zack Bilderback and Ryan Crouser both put on dominant performances at last week's Big 12 Conference Championships and for that they have been named Big 12 Male Co-Performers of the Year.
Head Coach Mario Sategna also was named the Big 12 Women's Coach of the Year for the Longhorns' overwhelming victory at the conference meet. The ladies' team won its third straight Big 12 title, this time by nearly 40 points with Oklahoma State trailing the Longhorns by 39 points in the standings. Texas finished 1-2 in the 60 meters and 400 meters while scoring multiple runners in the 200 and 60 meter hurdles as well. Texas tallied an impressive 21 points in the pole vault to rival the 25 scored in the 400.
Bilderback shattered school records in the 200 (20.79) and 400 (45.27) to win Big 12 Conference titles in both events. His time of 45.27 seconds in the 400 broke Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner's Big 12 meet record of 45.53. With his two wins and a runner-up finish in the 4x400 relay, Bilderback was named the Big 12 High Point Scorer with 22 points at the championship meet. His time in the 400 meters is No. 2 in the world this year on any sized track. Bilderback also has been a part of two school records on the 4x400 relay team this year. The team first broke the record at the Power Five Invitational by a slight margin only to best it by nearly two full seconds at the Tyson Invitational. Texas clocked 3:04.41 with Bilderback running the opening leg to rank No. 7 in collegiate history.
Crouser tied the collegiate record of 21.73m (71-3.50) at the Big 12 Conference Championship to dominate the field on his way to his eighth title in the event indoors and out combined. Earlier this year at the Husky Classic he threw 21.28m (69-9.75) to break his own school record at the time and rank No. 10 in collegiate history and set a meet record. He had four throws of 21 meters or better in his collegiate record series at the Big 12 meet and leads the NCAA by more than 3 feet heading into next week's NCAA Championships.
The NCAA Championships are next weekend at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Alabama. Action starts Friday, March 11 with two days of competition to determine individual and team champions. The meet can be seen live online via ESPN3.com.
Players Mentioned
