The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Conference Outdoor Championships
Track & Field looks to defend Big 12 titles
05.11.2016 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorns eye back-to-back championships in Fort Worth
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Complete Texas Notes
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Track & Field looks to defend its titles this weekend as the Longhorns take on their rivals at the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Fort Worth. Action begins on campus at TCU on Friday and runs through Sunday evening with Texas hoping to repeat as both men's and women's champions.
This year's Big 12 Championships will feature some of the top teams and individual talent in the nation with many of the athletes eyeing a potential spot on an Olympic roster this summer. Texas has a number of athletes hoping to participate in Rio this summer but first the Longhorns want to light the tower on campus at The Forty Acres.
"We have to capitalize on our strengths, and that's been the great thing these last few meets that we've had. The coaches are doing a great job getting people peaked at the right time," said Head Coach Mario Sategna. "Definitely for us, our goal every year as a program is to win the Big 12 Championship and then to utilize that to springboard into the regional and ultimately the National Championships."
Both Texas teams enter this week ranked No. 5 in the latest USTFCCCA Rankings but are not alone in the Top 10 in the Big 12. Texas Tech's men stand No. 8 and Kansas State's women are No. 9. Those teams represent threats to the Longhorns from defending their titles as well as other Top 25 teams. For the men Kansas (23) and TCU (24) are also among the nation's best while on the women's side Oklahoma (15), Oklahoma State (18), Texas Tech (19) and Baylor (20) are also ranked in the Top 25.
Action is set to start from Lowdown Track & Field Complex at 9 a.m. Friday with the hammer throw. Combined Events are slated to begin at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Men's pole vault and javelin also will be held on Friday and the first day of action will close with the 10,000 meters. Saturday's schedule will include the conclusion of the Combined Events, preliminaries for running events and a handful of field events beginning at 10 a.m. The final day of the meet starts at 11 a.m. with field events. Running finals start at 4:30 p.m.
A win by the Texas men would separate them from Nebraska for the most outdoor Big 12 titles with seven. If the women are to defend their title, it would be their third straight win, claiming the conference championship every year since Coach Sategna took over the combined program. Both the men and women have finished no worse than second place each of the last four years.
Fans can keep up with the action at the Big 12 Championships with live results online provided by DeltaTiming.com. A link will be provided at TexasSports, Big12sports.com and GoFrogs.com. Updates on the Longhorns will also be available on the team's official Twitter account @UTexasTrack. The Big 12 also will be tweeting from its official account @Big12Conference. Fans are encouraged to follow and interact with the meet by using the official hashtag #Big12TF throughout the three days of competition.
Action from the final day will be aired live online via FOX Sports Go. The broadcast will start at 4:25 p.m. and can be viewed online or via the FOX Sports Go app on your smartphone or tablet device.
Events to Watch
• Women's 100m & 200m: Senior Morolake Akinosun hopes to make history as the best short sprinter in Big 12 history. She is the back-to-back defending champion. No woman has ever won three straight Big 12 titles in the 100m or the 200m.
• Women's 400m: Senior Courtney Okolo has already established herself as the fastest collegiate 400m runner in history. She broke the collegiate record at the 2014 Big 12 Championships at 50.03 seconds. In April she shattered that mark running 49.71 seconds becoming the third woman to ever run sub-50 in the month of April. What will she do this time on the track?
• Men's 400m Hurdles: Junior Byron Robinson currently has the No. 1 time in the NCAA this season at 49.10 seconds. Texas has never won a Big 12 title in this event and he leads the conference by 1.50.
• Women's Heptathlon: Sophomore Ashtin Zamzow ranks 2nd in the conference in the event but is the favorite to win with K-State's Akela Jones expected to participate in multiple open events. Zamzow holds nearly a 500-point advantage over No. 3 on the list. Zamzow has solidified her spot in the NCAA Championships and looks to become the first Longhorn to win a Big 12 title in this event.
• Men's 4x400m Relay: Texas ranks among the top relay squads in the NCAA this season. The time of 3:02.18 by Byron Robinson, Aldrich Bailey Jr., Chris Irvin and Zack Bilderback leads the Big 12 heading into this weekend and is No. 3 in the NCAA. The Longhorns have never won a Men's Big 12 4x400m title outdoors.
• Women's Triple Jump: Freshman Asa Garcia ranks No. 2 in the Big 12 and No. 4 in the NCAA this season in her primary event. Texas has never won a Big 12 title in the triple jump outdoors.
• Women's Pole Vault: Sophomore Kally Long leads a group of Longhorns looking to make this event a major point grab. Texas scored 21 points indoors with Kaitlin Petrillose, Long and Shay Petty. Petrillose is out of eligibility, but Texas still has Long, Petty and Ali Uhle ranked sixth or better in the conference. Texas also has won this event four straight years.
• Women's 400m Hurdles: Texas has dominated this event over the years with a total of 11 titles. Ariel Jones won last year as a freshman and Melissa Gonzalez finished 2nd. Texas has four runners ranked 7th or better in the Big 12 with potential for a score of 20+ points.
• Men's Pole Vault: Senior Reese Watson looks to defend his title and help the men score in bunches in this event again. Indoors Texas grabbed 17.5 points and are eyeing even more outdoors with five vaulters ranked in the Top 10 in the conference.
• Women's 100m Hurdles: Texas has four runners ranked in the Top 8 in the Big 12 Conference with the Longhorns eyeing another point grab. Indoors Texas scored 15 points in the 60m hurdles with three runners making the final.
Texas Track & Field Notebook
Longhorns Both in Top 10 Nationally
• Texas is among the favorites to win NCAA Championships again in 2016 on both sides. Both the Longhorns rank No. 5 in the latest USTFCCCA Outdoor Rankings after the men jumped one spot and the women dropped one.
• The Big 12 Conference has three other men's teams ranked with Texas: Texas Tech (8), Kansas (23) and TCU (24). The league has a total of six women's ranked in the Top 25: Kansas State (9), Oklahoma (15), Oklahoma State (18), Texas Tech (19) and Baylor (20).
• Last year at NCAA Outdoors the men finished seventh with 26 points and the women were ninth with 28 points.
• The men finished the indoor season in fifth place at the NCAA Championships with 25 points.
• The women finished fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a total of 44 points.
2016 Bowerman Watch List
The most prestigious award in collegiate track and field, The Bowerman, is awarded by the USTFCCCA annually to the top male and female track and field star annually. Since its inception in 2009, the winners combined to win three Olympic medals in 2012. Two Longhorns are on the April Watch List among those up for the award.
• 2014 Bowerman Finalist Courtney Okolo won her third overall NCAA title in the 400 meters.
> Okolo ran her first outdoor 400 of the year two weeks ago and shattered her own collegiate record with a time of 49.71 seconds. She is just the third woman to ever run sub-50 in the month of April.
> Okolo ran a world-leading time of 50.69 seconds to defend her indoor title. That time ranks No. 3 in collegiate history and is a new school record.
> Texas defended its NCAA indoor title in the 4x400 and ran the No. 6 time in NCAA history.
> Okolo has run 4x400 splits of 50.59 and 50.77 along with an 800m split in the DMR of 2:07.
> Texas' 4x400 relay time of 3:27.94 at Tyson Invitational this year ranks fourth in collegiate history.
> She has been named USTFCCCA Athlete of the Week twice this season.
> Okolo also ran the third leg of Team USA's 4x400 that won gold at the IAAF World Indoor Championships.
• 4-time NCAA champion Ryan Crouser is listed among the others receiving votes on the May Watch List.
> Crouser tied the collegiate record in the shot put at Big 12 Championships.
> He becomes just the second male athlete in Big 12 history to dominate an event indoors and out by winning every conference championship during his career, joining Missouri's Derrick Peterson in the 800m.
> He had four throws of 21.00 meters or better during his series at Big 12's.
> He was named Big 12 Co-Performer of the Year for his record throw.
Caldwell Breaks School Record
• Redshirt freshman Lauryn Caldwell has been flirting with the school record in the hammer throw all season as she has steadily improved throughout the outdoor campaign. She finally broke it to finish third at the Longhorn Invitational at 53.94 meters (177-0).
• Caldwell also PR'd in the discus with a throw of 53.00m (173-11) to win the event as she is peaking headed into the Big 12 Championships this weekend.
• Caldwell ranks sixth in the conference in the discus and 10th in hammer throw as well as shot put.
Vaulters Thrive in Home Finale
• The men's and women's pole vaulters put on a show at the Longhorn Invitational last weekend to bring a steam of momentum heading into the conference championships.
• Sophomore Parks McNeil and freshman Blake Scott both cleared 5.36 meters (17-7.00) to finish second and to also rank second in the Big 12 Conference this season. It puts them ninth in school history.
• Redshirt freshman Nick Meaders posted a PR, clearing 5.21m (17-1.00) to finish fifth. He now ranks 10th in Big 12.
• For the women redshirt freshman Ali Uhle cleared a PR of 4.20m (13-9.25) to move up to No. 4 on the Big 12 list heading into the champion this week. She also is now fifth in school history.
• Uhle finished fifth in the meet behind four professional vaulters, including former Longhorn Kaitlin Petrillose. Petrillose cleared 4.50m (14-9.00) to hit the qualifying mark for U.S. Olympic Trials. World indoor record holder Jenn Suhr also jumped, clearing a Mike A. Myers Stadium record 4.75m (15-7.00).
Fares Flies to Big 12 Lead
• In his final home meet as a Longhorn, senior Basil Fares leapt 7.89m (25-9.25). The wind-aided mark ranks him No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference this season heading into the championship meet.
• He will look to give Texas its eighth Big 12 title in the long jump and first since Marquise Goodwin won three straight from 2010-12.
• The mark also ranks Fares No. 14 in the NCAA as he looks to close his career with an All-American performance.
• His previous best this season was 7.41m from the Texas Invitational in mid-April.
Texas Distance makes move at Payton Jordan
• The Payton Jordan Invitational was the top meet in the nation this season for distance runners as Stanford welcomed the top talent for its home meet. Texas saw four of its seven runners at the meet post new PR's and improve their standing in the Big 12 Conference.
• Nate Moore cut four seconds off his PR in the 3,000 meter steeplechase clocking 8:54.10 to finish ninth in his section. He kept pace with the leaders before falling back over the final 600 meters. He now ranks No. 3 in the Big 12.
• Katie Burford clocked in at 4:21.09 to take bronze in her section of the 1,500 meters. Her time was a four-second improvement on her previous best. She now stands seventh in the Big 12.
• Mary Beth Hamilton ran 2:06.26 in the 800, shaving just a bit off her previous fastest time as she has steadily improved throughout the season for the Longhorns and now ranks sixth in the conference.
• Brady Turnbull finished sixth in his section of the 1,500 meters in 3:45.51. He now ranks sixth in the Big 12.
Texas Quotes:
Head Coach Mario Sategna:
On his thoughts going into the Big 12 Championships: Well, my first thought is getting everybody through finals, get up to Fort Worth, and definitely look to defend our titles from last year. We've had a great outdoor season to this point and, like we've talked about before, all of these meets, obviously, are stepping stones to get ready for this championship time of the year, and we kick that off at TCU with the Big 12 Championships.
On senior Morolake Akinosun looking to defend four Big 12 titles from last year: Morolake, and I think for all of them, for that that senior class, our veterans, is going to step up. I think the great thing for the conference championship is that it's not just on a few athletes and it's not just on a group… it's on an entire team. As we learned at indoors on the men's side, where we lost by a point and a half… with so many possibilities and the top eight score, every point is going to count. The message to our team, whether they are the jumpers, throwers, sprinters, distance, whatnot, is you have to make the final. If your prelim is on Friday or Saturday, it's about advancing to the finals so you can put yourself in scoring position. And then on that final day on Sunday, I think the great thing for us on both sides is that if it comes down to the last few events, those are definitely our strengths with the 5,000 meters and definitely with the 4x400 relay as our last event.
On the opportunity to score big in certain events like pole vault and relays: We have to capitalize on our strengths, and that's been the great thing. These last few meets that we've had, the coaches are doing a great job getting people peaked at the right time. It makes for a very long year when you look back at how our season started indoors in the middle of January and here we are heading into the second week of May. It's not just by chance. They have an annual plan, they break it down by month and by week, and by the meets we want to peak at. Definitely for us, our goal every year as a program is to win the Big 12 Championship and then to utilize that to springboard into the regional and ultimately the National Championships.
Senior Morolake Akinosun
On defending the Big 12 Conference title: We did such a good job at indoor conference making sure that everyone did what they were supposed to do in order for us to put out a win, so it's about the same thing for us now. Outdoor is better for us because we get to add the 4x100 and the 400 hurdles and sprint events that we're really good at. It's just going in and taking care of business and getting another trophy.
On the potential to score multiple athletes in some events: It's a really great feeling. There's a quote that I like, 'it's important to know moments of success versus moments of significance.' And that's a moment of significance for us. Being able to stand with four, five, six of your teammates on the podium and know that you did this together and that it really was like a true team championship.
On if her winning all four events she entered last year has crossed her mind recently: Yes and no. It's fun for me to go out to Big 12's and win a lot of races, but I'm hoping that we have other people who get to win events. I'd love to win the same events. I'd love to win the 100 again and finish off my career undefeated in the 100.
On how this event prepares them for the rest of the postseason: It's the beginning of the championship season for us. So it's just a stepping-stone. You have to get through Big 12's, then you have to get through regionals, then it's nationals, and for some of us, juniors and the Olympics trials. It's just the first step in a long step of championship competitions we have.
On the camaraderie of the Big 12 finals: It's a lot different when it's Big 12's, because it's now truly a team effort, and it's no longer just like, 'I'm running this race to see how fast I can go.' It's, 'I'm running this race to score points for my team so we can win.' It's when the 'we' really comes in. So it's a lot of fun to really see all your teammates perform, and we're all at the same meet which doesn't happen all the time. It's a lot of fun.
Players Mentioned
