The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA West Preliminary Rounds
Track & Field begins NCAA quest in Kansas
05.25.2016 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorns looking for top 12 finishes at NCAA West Prelims
Complete Meet Notes
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Texas Track & Field begins its quest for national titles this week as the Longhorns take on some of the sport's elite at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Action begins Thursday from Lawrence, Kansas, at Rock Chalk Park where three days of competition will narrow the field down in the West region to determine who advances to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon in June.
The top 48 individuals and top 24 relays in each event within the region qualifies for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds with the top 12 finishers at the meet advancing to the NCAA Championships. The decathlon and heptathlon are not held at the NCAA West or East Preliminary Rounds as the top 24 athletes in those events automatically advance to the championship site in Oregon.
Texas is coming off a sweep of the Big 12 Outdoor Championship with the women winning their third straight title and the men claiming back-to-back wins. It marks the first time in Big 12 history a school has won both the men's and women's outdoor titles in back-to-back years.
"At this point it doesn't matter what you're ranked. It's head-to-head competition, and I have the utmost confidence in our coaching staff to get everybody prepared and do what we need to do," Head Coach Mario Sategna said. "Traditionally when you look at the winning programs, a lot of those have come out of the West region."
The Longhorns enter this week's meet among the elite in the nation with the women standing at No. 4 in the latest USTFCCCA Rankings. The men's squad comes in at No. 7 to make Texas one of seven schools to have its men's and women's teams both ranked in the top 10 heading into the NCAA prelims.
Action is set to start from Rock Chalk Park at noon Thursday with the men's hammer throw. The first running events get underway at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. Action resumes Friday at noon with more field events and running at 5 p.m. Saturday's competition is slated for a 3 p.m. start in field events and at 6 p.m. on the track.
Fans can keep up with the action at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds with live results online provided by FlashResults.com. A link will be provided at TexasSports, KUathletics.com and NCAA.com. Updates on the Longhorns will also be available on the team's official Twitter account @UTexasTrack. The NCAA also will be tweeting from its official track and field account @NCAATrackField. Fans are encouraged to follow and interact with the meet by using the official hashtag #NCAATF throughout the three days of competition.
Host Kansas will also provide a livestream of the meet. Fans can watch online at kuathletics.com/watch.
Events to Watch
• Women's 100m & 200m: Senior Morolake Akinosun is one of only two women to ever score in 4 events in back-to-back years at the NCAA Championships. She will look to make it three straight if she can advance through the 100 and 200 this weekend.
• Women's 400m: Senior Courtney Okolo leads a trio of Longhorns hoping to advance through the NCAA West Prelims. The collegiate record holder hopes to help guide teammates Chrisann Gordon (No. 3 in West) and Zola Golden (No. 14 in West) to top 12 finishes.
• Women's 100m Hurdles: Texas has qualified all 4 of its women's hurdlers in this event for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Can Texas get multiple through to the NCAA Championships in Oregon again in 2016?
• Women's 400m Hurdles: Texas also has qualified all 3 for its 4 women's hurdlers in the 400m hurdles with hopes of getting at least 2 through again this year. Last year Ariel Jones and Melissa Gonzalez advanced out of this meet. Can Texas repeat or improve on that this year?
• Men's 4x400m Relay: Texas ranks among the top relay squads in the NCAA this season. The time of 3:02.18 broke the school record and ranks No. 2 in the NCAA this year and leads the West region.
• Women's Triple Jumps: Freshman Asa Garcia ranks No. 3 in the West region and No. 4 in the NCAA this season in her primary event. Fellow freshman Georgia Wahl also will be competing this week to get her first NCAA postseason experience.
• Women's Pole Vault: Sophomore Kally Long leads a group of Longhorns looking to make their first NCAA Outdoor Championship. Long finished 12th indoors and ranks 7th in the West. Redshirt freshman Ali Uhle is tied for 11th and sophomore Shay Petty is tied at 19th.
• Men's Long Jump: Texas qualified all 3 of its men's long jumpers for the NCAA West Prelims. Senior Basil Fares leads the trio with a pair of freshman looking to advance. Fares ranks 9th in the region heading into the week's meet. Steffin McCarter is 21st and Ika Morton ranks 40th with the top 12 finishers advancing to Oregon.
• Men's Pole Vault: All 5 of UT's men's pole vaulters have qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Only Kansas has move in this meet with 6 pole vaulters. Texas hopes to see a group of Longhorns advance through to the championship meet with 4 ranked 13th or better.
• Men's 400m: After earning first team All-America honors indoors the pair of Zack Bilderback and Aldrich Bailey, Jr. are looking to do the same outdoors. Bailey ranks 5th in the West and Bilderback is 11th. The pair also is expected to run on UT's 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Carlton Anumnu gives Texas a trio looking to advance in this event with his ranking of 20th in the region.
• Throwing Events: Texas has an entry in every throwing event but the Men's Shot Put, Men's Javelin and Women's Hammer Throw.
Texas Track & Field Notebook
Longhorns Both in Top 10 Nationally
• Texas is among the elite programs in the NCAA again in 2016 on both sides. Both the Longhorns rank in the top 10 in the latest USTFCCCA Outdoor Rankings with the men climbing one spot to No. 7 and the women are up two at No. 4.
• The Big 12 Conference has two other men's teams ranked with Texas: Texas Tech (10) and Kansas (25). The league has a total of four women's ranked in the Top 25: Kansas State (12), Oklahoma (14) and Texas Tech (19).
• 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 Pre-NCAA Preliminaries Watch List among those up for the award.
• 2014 Bowerman Finalist Courtney Okolo won her third overall NCAA title in the 400 meters and second indoors.
> 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.
Standard Bearers
• After Ryan Crouser tied the indoor collegiate record in the shot put this year at the Big 12 Indoor Championships, Texas now currently holds eight collegiate records combined among the men and women. The nearest competitor is Arizona and Colorado with five apiece. All of Colorado's records are held by one athlete.
• Courtney Okolo already owned the collegiate record in the outdoor 400 meters, but she cut .32 off her time running 49.71 seconds at the LSU Alumni Gold in April.
Longhorns Sweep Big 12 Titles
• Texas successfully defended its men's and women's Big 12 Conference titles earlier this month. Both squads dominated the meet and had the titles secured before the final event. The women scored 167.7 points over the 21 events and won by 30.2 over Oklahoma. The men tallied 134 points and bested Kansas by 28 points.
• This marks the first time in Big 12 Conference history a school has swept the Big 12 Outdoor Championship in back-to-back years.
Akinosun Sets Standard at Big 12 Championship
• Senior Morolake Akinosun will close her career having never lost an outdoor conference championship. The sprinter claimed the women's 100 meters and 200 meters titles for a third straight year to become the only woman in Big 12 history to win either event three times. Akinosun also ran the anchor leg of the victorious 4x100 meter relay.
• Akinosun also won the 100 and 200 titles at the Big Ten Championships during her freshman year at Illinois, making her undefeated at outdoor conference championships all four years of her collegiate career.
• Akinosun is slated to run both the 100 and 200 this week at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Should she advance through to the NCAA Championship site along with both relays, she will attempt to become the first woman to score points at the NCAA Championship in four events in three consecutive years.
Longhorns Sweep High Point Awards at Big 12 Championship
• With the men and women both winning conference titles each team was assisted heavily by a veteran leader to hoist the championship trophies. Morolake Akinosun and Aldrich Bailey Jr. were each recognized as the Big 12 Championship High Point Scorers.
• Akinosun earned the honor for a second straight year. This time around she scored 22.5 points to help Texas win the team title. She crossed the finish line first in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay.
• Bailey was victorious in the 200 meters, winning in 20.57 seconds to score 10 points. His total was 20.5 as he also finished second in the 400 meters and ran on the winning 4x100 relay. This is the first time Texas has won the men's high point scorer award since 2006.
• Akinosun also was voted the Big 12 Outdoor Performer of the Year for her efforts at the championship meet.
Raines Wins Again
• Junior Sandie Raines made it back-to-back for the Texas woman in the 5,000 meters at the Big 12 Championship. Raines defended her title, winning 16:17.52 and leading throughout much of the race. The win helped secure the team title for the Longhorns giving Texas more than a 20-point lead heading into the final event.
Men's 4x100 Back on Top
• With the team of Charles Anumnu, Senoj-Jay Givans, Zack Bilderback and Aldrich Bailey, Jr. the Texas men stormed around the track in 39.24 seconds to win the 4x100 meter relay at the Big 12 Championship.
• The victory marked the first time Texas has won the men's 4x100 at the conference meet since 2002.
• The Longhorns pulled away from TCU on the final stretch as the Horned Frogs' anchor leg was even with Bailey before Bailey kicked and left his competitor behind for the win.
More Texas Quotes
Head Coach Mario Sategna
On heading into postseason: I know our athletes are going to perform at a very high level. A, because they're prepared, and B, because the academic calendar has ended and that's a huge weight off their shoulders. They can really concentrate on track and field."
On the mentality of this meet: It's about beating people head-to-head. The West region as deep as it is if you're one of those final 12 athletes that does advance to Oregon, the times, the performances, the distances are going to take care of themselves."
Senior Morolake Akinosun
On transitioning to NCAA postseason competition: We've been getting ready for the regional meet all year. You think about the NCAA meet at the beginning of the year and the regional meet or the preliminary rounds are just making sure you handle your business and get to Eugene in a few weeks.
On the difference between the regional meet from rest of the season: It matters more this week. It's like a run your race or you're done type thing where other races if you don't do as well you still have next week. There is no next week if you don't perform how you're supposed to.
On her mental approach to this week: I've done this before so I'm well prepared to flip the switch and know that it's competition time, it's championship season time and I know what it takes to get it done.
Players Mentioned
