The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Conference Outdoor Championships
Track & Field sweeps Big 12 Championship again
05.16.2016 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorns dominate in historic fashion
Complete Results | Texas Post-Meet Notes
FORT WORTH, Texas – It was a record-setting day for Texas Track & Field at the 2016 Big 12 Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championship. The Longhorns dominated the meet to win both the men's and women's crowns. It marked the first time in Big 12 history that a school has swept the outdoor titles in back-to-back years.
The women won with 167.7 points to best the field by more than 30 points. Texas won the men's trophy with a total of 134 points over the 21 events with second place scoring 116 points.
"It's not just about a few individuals or a group. It takes an entire team to win a conference championship," said Head Coach Mario Sategna. "It's obvious who starts at the top and that is a tribute to our coaches and all their work they put in. To come up here and repeat as conference champs is special."
The Longhorns also won the men's and women's high point scorer awards with two of the most impressive performances in the meet. Senior Morolake Akinosun scored 22.5 points winning the 100, 200 and 4x100 meter relay. Aldrich Bailey tallied 20.5 points for the men's team by winning the 200 meters, finishing second in the 400 and running on UT's victorious 4x100 relay. It marks the first time since 2006 Texas has won the men's high point scorer award.
Akinosun's performance was also record-breaking as she became the first woman to win three Big 12 titles in both the 100 and 200 meters.
"You can't say enough about Morolake. She's proven not just at the conference level but also at the national level, and she will continue to flourish even post-collegiately," Sategna said.
Texas set the tone for the day when the running events began by winning both the women's and men's 4x100 titles. The women cruised to their win in 44.05 seconds with the team of Caitland Smith, Courtney Okolo, Zola Golden and Akinosun.
The men followed suit by winning their first 4x100 meter relay Big 12 title since 2003. Charles Anumnu, Senoj-Jay Givans, Zack Bilderback and Bailey combined to win in 39.24 seconds, with Bailey running down TCU's anchor leg over the final 20 meters.
From there, the Longhorns dominated the running finals with additional victories in the women's 400 meters, 400 meter hurdles and 5,000 meters. The also tacked on a win in the 400 meter hurdles. In all, Texas won nine of the 22 running finals on Sunday.
Sophomore Ariel Jones successfully defended her title in the 400 hurdles, crossing the line in 57.36 seconds. Junior Byron Robinson made history for the Longhorns winning the first men's 400 meter hurdles title in school history. He finished in 49.39 seconds.
The other title went to Sandie Raines as she also successfully defended her title in the 5,000 meters. She becomes the fourth woman in Big 12 history to win the event in back-to-back years. Raines crossed the line in 16:17.52. Afterward, she said she had the option to not run the race as the women's team title was already in the bag, but being a competitor she was not going to miss out on winning again.
"I said I wanted to because I wanted to defend my title," Raines said. "It means a lot to win a Big 12 Championship. This is my event and I wanted to do that, and I love it."
Texas scored in bunches in the running events with four finalists in the women's 100 meter hurdles and 400 meter hurdles. The men had four finalists in the 200 to make the Longhorns the top sprinting team in the Big 12.
Field events also played a key role in helping the Longhorns solidify their titles on Sunday as Texas scored in six of the seven events held on the final day of the meet.
Texas now turns its attention to the NCAA Championships with the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in Lawrence, Kansas, in two weeks. The top 48 athletes in the region qualify for the meet with the top 12 finishers advancing to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon in June. The top 24 relay teams qualify with the top 12 advancing as well.
Throwers Score Valuable Points
Texas opened the final day of the Big 12 Championship with four strong showings in the discus. Redshirt freshman Lauryn Caldwell finished eighth in the discus to score in her second event of the meet with her throw of 50.30 meters (165-0).
Three men's throwers nearly made the final in the discus with Brian Peterson holding fifth place after the first three rounds and Alan Zapalac in eighth. Derek Fenton stood in ninth and was knocked out reaching the final late in the third round of throws.
In the final rounds, Peterson was bumped one spot to sixth and scored three points with his throw of 52.41 meters (171-11). Zapalac's throw of 50.77 meters (166-7). Fenton placed ninth with a distance of 50.75 meters (166-6) for a new personal best, his second of the meet after finishing eighth in the shot put yesterday.
The final throwing event of the meet saw Shelby Poncik score points in her final Big 12 Championship meet for the Longhorns. She finished fifth in the javelin with a distance of 48.72 meters (159-10) for a new personal best to bring momentum into the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds.
Hurdlers Dominate Big 12
Texas saw its women's hurdlers crush the competition on Sunday. With four women in the final of the 100 meter hurdles, Texas scored 17 points in the event with Ariel Jones taking runner-up to score eight points in a new personal best time of 13.32. Mariam Abdul-Rashid finished fifth and Ashley Miller took sixth with Mobolaji Adeokun finishing seventh.
Jones led a pack of Longhorns into the final of the women's 400 meter hurdles as well. Four women made that final and Jones claimed victory. Melissa Gonzalez finished third with Sydne Fowler finishing fifth and Abdul-Rashid crossing sixth. They combined to score 23 points in the event and help extend the team's lead.
After the women scored 23 points, it was time for Byron Robinson to win his first Big 12 title in the 400 hurdles. He clocked 49.39 to win the team's first men's title in the event.
The men also got big points in the 110 meter hurdles. Freshman John Burt cracked 14 seconds to finish second in 13.98. Decathlete Reese Thompson also ran in the final of the open event and finished eighth to give Texas a total of nine points.
Texas scored a combined 59 points in the four hurdles races.
Sprinters Roll at Big 12 Championship
With seniors Morolake Akinosun and Courtney Okolo closing their careers as back-to-back-to-back champions in their respective events, the Longhorns won all three of the women's sprint titles on Sunday at the Big 12 Championship.
But, the Longhorns also displayed great depth in all the sprint events with multiple runners making the final in the 100, 200 and 400 for both the men and women.
Aldrich Bailey Jr. won the men's 200 meter title with a time of 20.57 seconds. He was joined in the final by Senoj-Jay Givans, Charles Anumnu and Zack Bilderback. Givans crossed in fourth with Anumnu and Bilderback going 6-7. Those finishes gave the men a total of 20 points for the event.
Three women made the final in the 100. Akinosun won and saw Caitland Smith finish third behind her with Teahna Daniels taking fourth for a total of 21 points. In the women's 200, Akinosun got the win again and Courtney Okolo took third. Smith finished sixth and the Longhorns tallied 19 points.
The 400 also was a major point grab for both teams. Okolo won her third title with a time of 50.76 seconds in the event and Chrisann Gordon crossed in third. Zola Golden was fourth to give Texas a huge 23 points.
Bailey led the charge for the men finishing second in the 400 as Bilderback took fifth and Carlton Anumnu was seventh for 14 points.
Distance Runners Set Tone for Championship Run
After the men's and women's 4x100 relays both won to open the running events, Texas got 10 points in the men's 1,500 meters to get the ball rolling in the individual running events. Freshman Alex Rogers crossed in third place and Brady Turnbull closed his final Big 12 Championship with a fifth-place finish.
The distance group continued to make big contributions in the 800 meters. Robert Uhr finished sixth in the men's final and Mary Beth Hamilton scored five points by finishing fourth with her time of 2:06.58.
Mentioned earlier, Sandie Raines won her second straight title in the 5,000 meters to close the individual events with authority. Katie Burford nearly scored in the event as well finishing ninth in her final Big 12 meet. On the men's side, Rogers finished 10th and fellow true freshman Charles Mills was 23rd.
Jumpers Score Crucial Points
Texas tallied big points in the triple jump and high jump on Sunday to help win both the men's and women's team titles.
Freshman Asa Garcia took fourth place with a new personal best leap of 12.94 meters (42-5.50) to score five huge points. For the men, junior Nick Phynn finished sixth to score three points as he jumped 15.21 meters (49-11.00). Georgia Wahl just missed scoring points for the women in the event as she was eight centimeters from advancing to the final.
Sierra Patrick scored for the women in the high jump. Her first attempt clearance at 1.66 meters (5-5.25) tied her for sixth place. Spencer McCloud jumped well early in the men's competition but was unable to get over the bar at 6-11.00, which would have been good enough to score. He finished in 10th place with his clearance of 2.06 meters (6-9.00). Mawi Berkhadley also cleared 1.66 for the women but did not clear on her first attempt and finished in a tie for 11th place.
Texas Quotes
Head Coach Mario Sategna
On the dominance in the sprint events: When you look back at the history of the program, men and women, you always want to continue that tradition. I think the great thing now, especially on the women's side, now not only are we dominant in the sprints, the hurdles and the relays, but you're seeing the distance runners win like Sandie Raines, and you're picking up points across the board in the field events. It's only going to continue to get better with the people we have coming in.
On how the team swept both titles in dominant fashion: We really didn't have any bad events. There wasn't that one individual that faltered or anything like that. We came in here prepared and we knew the task at hand. We didn't want to overdo it in regards to running people too much because at the end of the day you still have regionals, you still have national finals, but it was still coming in here utilizing our veteran leadership to take advantage and set the tone.
On the emergence of the men's sprint group: That's the vision when we combined the program, to be complete across the board. There were some areas we had to add to. We're very fortunate with that group of sprinters on the men's side. I think what really set the tone for that was if you look back two years ago or even last year, the women being so dominant. The guys, those are their training partners, they're out there every day and they want that. Success breeds success, and I think that it's helped to elevate the guys.
On Morolake Akinosun's accomplishments: You can't say enough about Morolake. She's proven not just at the conference level but also at the national level, and she will continue to flourish even post-collegiately. That doesn't just happen by chance. Her attention to detail, her work ethic day in and day out, there are sacrifices that come along the way when you're competing at a high level like that. It's great to see somebody in our program that you can definitely build around and it's also great for our young athletes to learn from that as well.
Senior Courtney Okolo
On her win in 400 meters: I didn't execute my race today. I think it's a combination of factor, but the main thing about this meet is to score points and to win. I did my job with that, so I'm happy.
On winning both titles: I think at the end of the day we can't be hard on ourselves if we didn't perform how we want to because the main goal is to win. At a moment like this seeing both the men and women win it doesn't even matter what happened in the meet, we're just happy to come together as a team and win.
Players Mentioned
