The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Rod McCravy Memorial
Track & Field splits for weekend of action
01.19.2017 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorns take on top teams at Kentucky, New Mexico
Meet info & Links
Rod McCravy Memorial
Date: January 20-21 | Location: Lexington, Ky.
Live Results | schedule | heat sheets | Twitter |
Live Video (Saturday 11 a.m.)
Cherry & Silver Collegiate Invitational
Date: January 20-21 | Location: Albuquerque, N.M.
Live Results | schedule | heat sheets | Twitter |
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Track & Field splits up for a pair of meets this weekend as the Longhorns take on elite teams and athletes in Kentucky and New Mexico. The bulk of the team is headed to Lexington, Kentucky, for the Rod McCravy Memorial, while the throwers and pole vaulters head to Albuquerque for the Cherry & Silver Invitational. Both meets are two-day affairs with some of the top teams facing off.
The Rod McCravy Memorial has become one of the top meets during the collegiate indoor season over the last few years with a large number of athletes qualifying for the NCAA Championships at Nutter Field House. Texas will take on the likes of Baylor, UCF, Clemson, Harvard, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Miami, Ole Miss, Penn State, Purdue and USC over the two days with some of the best fields in the nation this weekend. The women's 60 meters and 60 meter hurdles could put nearly half the top 10 up against each other early in the season.
Action at the Cherry & Silver Invitational will include a number of the top pole vaulters as teams have flocked to the ABQ Convention Center since 2014 to jump at altitude. Texas junior Kally Long hopes to build off her double-PR performance last week as she currently leads the nation with her mark of 4.42 meters (14-6.00).
Some of UT's top individual athletes will also make their season debuts in open events after taking last week off completely or only running in relays. Seniors Senoj-Jay Givans and Aldrich Bailey Jr. are set to run for the men and senior Chrisann Gordon makes her debut after winning Olympic silver on Jamaica's 4x400m relay.
Fans unable to attend the meet can keep up with the action online with live video and results. Saturday's portion of the Rod McCravy Memorial will be streamed via SEC Network +. Subscribers to the SEC Network cable channel can watch the meet online by using espn3.com or the Watch ESPN app for their smartphone or tablet. The stream is set to begin at 11 a.m. CDT Saturday. Live results from the meet also will be provided by PTTiming.com. The Cherry & Silver Invitational will not have live video but live results can be found at LiveRunningResults.com. Fans can get updates on the Longhorns from both meets on the team's official Twitter account @UTexasTrack.
Events to Watch
Rod McCravy Memorial
• Women's 4x400m Relay: This week could be a potential preview of NCAA Championships with 5 teams in the meet that qualified for the national championship last year. Texas, USC, Kentucky, Purdue and Baylor all boast some of the top relay squads in the country again this year.
• Women's 60m Hurdles: There is potential for some heavy hitters to face off in this event. 4 of the top 11 based on USTFCCCA Preseason Rankings could be entered, in addition to freshmen Alexis Duncan, who finished 4th at World Juniors for Team USA in the 100m hurdles. Junior Ariel Jones ranks 11th in the event in the preseason. No. 1 Devynne Charlton of Purdue finished 3rd at NCAA's last year.
• Men's 60m: Seniors Senoj-Jay Givans and Aldrich Bailey Jr. make their individual event debuts this week. Givans is coming off his best outdoor season yet, becoming the first Longhorn to run a legal sub-10 in the 100 meters. He then placed 6th at the Jamaican Olympic Trials. Both are set to run on the men's 4x400m relay as well against a strong Baylor team.
• Women's 60m: Based on USTFCCCA Preseason Rankings, there is the potential for 14 of the top 30 to be entered in this event on Saturday, including 4 of the top 6. Texas sophomore and defending NCAA champ Teahna Daniels is coming off a win in 7.38 seconds to open her season last week.
Cherry & Silver Collegiate Invitational
• Women's Pole Vault: The facility at Albuquerque has seen some of the best jumps in collegiate history. Former Longhorn Kaitlin Petrillose broke the collegiate record at the ABQ Convention Center to win the 2014 NCAA Championship. Since then, the event has seen a resurgence and 3 of the 9 higher jumps have been at the ABQ Center. Junior Kally Long current ranks No. 1 in the NCAA this season.
Texas Track & Field Notebook
Longhorns Among NCAA Favorites
• Texas is among the elite programs in the NCAA again in 2017 and the women are eyeing their first NCAA indoor title since 2006 as they stand at No. 5 in the USTFCCCA Indoor Preseason Rankings heading into the meet. The men's team is No. 7 in the rankings after finishing 5th at the NCAA Championship last year.
• Texas is 1 of 7 schools to have its men's and women's teams ranked in the Top 10 in the preseason.
• The Big 12 Conference has 3 other men's team ranked in the Top 25: Texas Tech (12), Oklahoma State (14) and Oklahoma (24).
• The Big 12 Conference has 4 other women's teams ranked in the Top 25: Oklahoma State (11), Baylor (13), Kansas State (18), Oklahoma (25).
• Last year at NCAA Indoors the women won 3 events with Teahna Daniels claiming the 60m with an American Junior record time of 7.11 seconds. She is back for her sophomore season. Courtney Okolo won the 400m and anchored the victorious 4x400m relay and has graduated, but half of the champion relay squad is back in 2017. For the men, Zack Bilderback became the first Longhorn to win the men's 400m, but the then-senior graduated.
• 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.
2017 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 gone on to win multiple Olympic medals. One Longhorn is on the Preseason Watch List among those up for the award.
• Senior Byron Robinson won the 400m hurdles at the Big 12 Championship in May, posted the fastest time in the NCAA and ran for Team USA in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to help garner his spot on the list.
> Robinson ran No. 1 time in collegiate season last year in 49.10 seconds at the LSU Alumni Gold
> Claimed Big 12 Conference title in 49.39 seconds
> Ran personal best 48.79 to finish 2nd at U.S. Olympic Trials and qualify for Team USA
> Advanced through prelims at the Olympic Games with time of 48.98
> Improved his PR in the semifinals to 48.65 for the No. 8 time but missed advancing to the final by .01.
> During 2016 indoor season, Robinson broke the school record in the 600 yards to win the Big 12 Conference Championship. His time of 1:07.99 also broke the Big 12 meet record.
Long Vaults to National Lead
• Junior pole vaulter Kally Long opened the 2017 season with the best performance of her career, clearing a pair of personal records and posting the best jump in the NCAA so far in 2017.
• Long cleared 4.37m and 4.42m (14-6.00) to win the Texas A&M Team Invitational over Big 12 Outdoor champ and All-American Annie Rhodes of Baylor. Long cleared 5 of 6 bars on first attempts and cleared 4.42m on her second.
• Long's jump ties Arkansas' Victoria Weeks for the national lead
• Long cleared that height on a short approach. After the meet, she said she was only using an 8-step approach
Men's Jumps Dominate at Texas A&M
• Texas opened the season with an impressive showing from the men's jumps group, winning all 4 jumping events at the Texas A&M Invitational
• Sophomore Steffin McCarter dominated the men's long jump with win by more than 16 inches. His jump of 7.77m (25-6.00) is No. 4 in the NCAA this season and moves him to No. 6 in school history.
• Freshman Obrien Wasome won big in the triple jump. He bested the field by nearly 3 feet at 15.58m (51-1.50).
• Redshirt Sophomore Barrett Poth posted a PR in the pole vault at 5.32m (17-5.50) to defeat Texas A&M's Audie Wyatt on misses. His height is currently No. 11 in the NCAA.
• Senior Spencer McCloud started the 2017 season with the first collegiate win of his career. He cleared 2.08m (6-9.75) to get the win over a jumper from A&M.
Hurdler Returns to Track with Fire
• Redshirt junior hurdler Spencer Dunkerley-Offor made his return to the track after missing 2016 due to injury in style at the Texas A&M Invitational. He won the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.88 seconds.
• That time is just .06 off his personal best from 2015 and ranks No. 10 in the NCAA so far this season.
• Dunkerley-Offor was a first team All-American outdoors in 2015 finishing sixth in the 110m hurdles and was runner-up at both Big 12 Championships.
Bruckner Debuts with Runner-Up
• Freshman thrower Elena Bruckner made her collegiate debut with a runner-up finish in the shot put.
• The lefty threw the shot 16.00m (52-6.00) to trail Baylor's Cion Hicks by just. The mark ranks Bruckner sixth in school history already and currently stands at No. 14 in the NCAA this year.
• Bruckner was the No. 1 throws recruit out of high school, ranking in the top three in the shot put and discus.
• She qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the discus, finishing 16th and went on to represent Team USA at the IAAF World Junior Championships and finished 7th in both events.
• Bruckner ranks No. 3 all-time in the high school shot put in the U.S. and is No. 4 in the discus all-time.
DMR's Claim Victory in Opener
• The men's and women's distance medley relay teams both started the 2017 campaign with wins.
• Mary Beth Hamilton, Gabby Crank, Destiny Collins and Meghan Lloyd combined to run 11:33.35 for the win a new meet record in the process. That is the No. 2 time so far this season.
• Jake McConnell, Robert Uhr, Spencer Dodds and Alex Rogers posted a time of 9:54.68 for their win. They also rank No. 5 in the NCAA.
Standard Bearers
• No school holds more current collegiate records than the Texas Longhorns. The men and women combine to hold a total of 8 collegiate records heading into the 2017 season. The nearest competitor is Arkansas with 5 records. Arizona, Colorado and LSU each have four. All of Colorado's records are held by one athlete.
• Two of UT's records were set during the 2016 campaign. Ryan Crouser tied the indoor collegiate record in the shot put at the Big 12 Indoor Championships. 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 Dominate at Olympic Games
• Texas had its most successful Olympics in history in 2016 with a 9 Longhorns competing in Rio in track & field.
• The Longhorns won 6 medals for an amazing .667 percentage at the Games.
• Michelle Carter (2006) became the first American woman to win gold at the Olympics in the shot put. Carter broke her own American record in the process, winning on her last throw of the competition over two-time defending champion Valerie Adams of New Zealand.
• Texas made it a double in the shot put with 2016 Longhorn Ryan Crouser winning the men's competition. Crouser had one of the most impressive performances in the history of the event. He had zero fouls in his series of six throws, with all of them registering at least 20 meters. His winning throw of 22.52m (73-10.75) was a new Olympic record and ranks him No. 10 all-time in the shot put.
• Ashley Spencer (2015) won the third individual medal for the Longhorns in her first year back in her old event. Spencer transitioned back to the 400m hurdles in 2016 and stormed onto the scene with a bronze medal in Rio. Spencer clocked in at 53.27 seconds despite a few setbacks during the run. Spencer got off on her strides and led with her "off" foot over each hurdle but persevered and closed hard over the final 100 meters to move into medal position. Spencer also showed guts during the semifinals when she clipped the eighth hurdle but managed to save herself from falling, regained her stride and pushed to the finish to advance to the final.
• Courtney Okolo (2016) won gold for Team USA in the 4x400m relay. The NCAA champion in the 400m and anchor leg for UT's relay team that won titles and ran some of the fastest times in collegiate history had a different role wearing Red, White and Blue. Okolo ran the opening leg in both the prelims and the final to put her team in the lead and set the tone for the gold medal performance.
• Morolake Akinosun (2016) earned a gold medal with Team USA in the 4x100m relay. Akinosun ran the anchor leg in the prelims to get her medal in what was one of the most bizarre events of the Olympics. Team USA was interfered with during an exchange in the prelims and dropped the baton. After a protest, the Americans were allowed to re-run the race, solo, to see if they could qualify based on time and get an at-large bid to the final. With Akinosun running by herself down the final stretch, the U.S. clocked 41.77 for the fastest overall time in prelims. USA went on to win gold in 41.01 in the final.
• Current Longhorn and 2017 senior Chrisann Gordon also won a relay medal for role with Jamaica. Gordon ran the third leg for Jamaica in the prelims to help her country make the final and earn her right to a medal. She ran her leg in 50.75 seconds as the team clocked 3:21.42. Gordon handed the baton to the anchor leg with a significant lead in their heat. The Jamaicans would take second in the final and give Gordon a silver medal.
• In addition to the 6 Olympic medalists, also representing The Forty Acres in Rio were:
> Byron Robinson (2017 senior), USA, 9th place 400m hurdles
> Marielle Hall (2014), USA, 33rd place 10,000m
> Jamal Wilson (2011), The Bahamas, 25th place High Jump
Players Mentioned
