The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Conference Outdoor Championships
Men's Track & Field wins Big 12 Championship
05.14.2017 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorn Women finish 2nd behind K-State
Complete Results | Texas Post-Meet Notes
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Texas Men's Track & Field came away from three days of action at Rock Chalk Park with their third consecutive Big 12 Conference Championship crown on Sunday. The Longhorns registered 153.5 points over the 21 events and held of the hosting Kansas Jayhawks by 10.5. The win marks the eighth men's Big 12 outdoor title for the Longhorns.
"This means a lot to have the guys be able to win the indoor in February and come back and repeat because you really wanted to do it for that senior class," said Head Coach Mario Sategna. "We relied on them heavily and they came through."
The Texas women finished second behind the Kansas State Wildcats. The Longhorns tallied 128.5 points but could not overcome K-State's 133 as the Wildcats scored big in the field events to counter UT's barrage of points in the sprints and hurdles on Sunday.
"On the women's side it was obviously disappointing but K-State did a phenomenal job these last three days. They picked up points across the board," Sategna said. "The tradition for K-State has been in the field events. Cliff Rovelto and his coaching staff always do a great job, but they were picking up points on the track that really made the difference.
"We're excited. As a program, anytime you win a championship it's exciting for the men or the women, but we did come here with the intention of bringing home two trophies."
Texas did win six women's events and four events on the men's side throughout the meet. Sophomore Teahna Daniels claimed first in the 100 meters with senior Chrisann Gordon winning the 400. Freshman hurdler Rushelle Burton claimed first in the 100 hurdles and junior Ariel Jones made it a three-peat in the 400 hurdles for Texas. The women's 4x400 meter relay closed the night with a victory as well. Haley Crouser opened the meet on Friday with a win in the javelin.
The men's victories belonged to Spencer Dunkerley-Offor in the 110 meter hurdles, Byron Robinson in the 400 hurdles, Steele Wasik in decathlon and the men's 4x100 meter relay.
On the final day of action Sunday, the Texas men got things going with a win in the first running event of the day as the team of O'Brien Wasome, Aldrich Bailey Jr., Charles Anumnu and Senoj-Jay Givans put together three solid exchanges to cross first. A stellar exchange between Bailey and Anumnu pulled the Longhorns even with Baylor before Givans out-ran the Bears' anchor leg for the win.
Sunday's action started off earlier with a trio of women's field events for the Longhorns.
Throwers Lauryn Caldwell and Elena Bruckner continued their strong weekend at the Big 12 Championship with their final of three events. Caldwell took sixth place in the discus with a measurement of 51.30 meters (168-4), and Bruckner was seventh at 50.43 meters (165-5). They combined to score five points for the team total in the event as the throwers battled windy conditions throughout the competition with a strong wind coming from the right.
Senior Mawi Berkhadley came into the meet following her best performance as a Longhorn and nearly improved on that performance. She posted a clearance of 1.68 meters (5-6.00) and finished in a tie for ninth. Berkhadley just clipped the bar on her final attempt at 1.73 meters (5.8.00), which would have been a new personal record.
In the triple jump, sophomore Georgia Wahl came just short of making the podium in the triple jump. On her third attempt, she improved her distance to 12.75 meters (41-10.00), but it was not enough to move into the top eight as she finished in ninth.
High winds made for fast times in the sprint events on Sunday afternoon with Texas dominating both the men's and women's races by scoring points in bunches.
Burton led the way for a group of four women in the 100 hurdles and got the win as the freshman holds the top time in the NCAA this season. She clocked in at 12.70 seconds on Sunday. Jones took second in 12.87 seconds to mark the fastest time of her career regardless of wind. Ashley Miller was fourth and Mariam Abdul-Rashid finished eighth.
Immediately after the women grabbed 23 points in that race, the men followed suit in their 110 meter hurdles led by Dunkerley-Offor. He clocked a wind-aided 13.45 seconds for his victory, pulling away over the final two hurdles. Sophomore John Burt finished third in just his second meet back after spring football practices ended. He clocked in at 13.77. Wasik made it to the final and finished in fifth place to bring his point total for the meet to 16 points after winning the decathlon and finishing seventh in the javelin earlier in the meet.
Texas made it a clean sweep in all four hurdle events with Byron Robinson and Ariel Jones repeating as champions in the 400 hurdles.
Robinson cruised to his win with a time of 49.98 seconds. Sophomore Kirema Macharia stepped up for the men's team in his first Big 12 Championship to finish in sixth place at 53.30. He ran a personal best during preliminaries on Saturday and clocked the No. 1 time in those heats.
Jones won her third straight Big 12 title in the women's 400 meter hurdles. She finished this time around in 57.28 seconds. Abdul-Rashid made it 2-for-2 in scoring in the hurdle events as well with her fourth-place finish.
Points rolled in for the men's team in the sprints with Senoj-Jay Givans finishing second in 10.03 seconds. Charles Anumnu and Chris Ntreh finished 6-7 to give Texas 13 points in the 100 meters.
The 200 meters was a huge point grab for the men and helped solidify the championship. With five men in the final, the Longhorns tallied 18 points in the event to put the men up 19.5 points on Kansas heading into the final two events of the meet.
In the women's 200, the pair of sophomores Teahna Daniels and Zola Golden tied for third place. The each were credited with a time of 22.98 seconds. They ran a dead heat when the times were expanded to break the tie with official times of 22.974. Daniels and Golden combined to score 11 points for the women. Daniels also won the 100 meters earlier in the meet with a new all-conditions lifetime best of 11.12 seconds.
The women's team also continued its dominance of the 400 meters at the Big 12 Championship with Chrisann Gordon's victory. She clocked in at 51.40 to lead the charge for another point grab. Golden finished right behind in second place and freshman Serenity Douglas made it a total of 20 points for that event as she finished in seventh place.
Like earlier in the meet, the men's field events played a big part in getting the win with multiple athletes scoring in some of the events.
Redshirt junior Alan Zapalac set the tone on Sunday in the men's first field event of the day. He posted a new personal record on his second throw of the discus competition to shoot himself up the standings into second place overall. He would eventually slip to third place and hold that spot at 57.11 meters ( 187-4). Redshirt sophomore Brian Peterson finished sixth with his throw of 54.31 meters (178-2) to give the men nine team points combined with Zapalac.
Another event the men registered two scoring athletes was the triple jump.
Freshman O'Brien Wasome and senior Nick Phynn finished 4-5 together as they joined the rest of the triple jump field in putting on a show with multiple lead changes and movement in the standings throughout the competition.
Wasome tallied a leap of 16.17 meters (53-0.75) to finish in fourth place. Phynn had one of the few non-wind-aided marks of the competition and tallied a mark of 15.65 meters (51-4.25) for a new PR.
In the pole vault it was Nick Meaders' turn to make a strong contribution to the team scoring. He cleared 5.26 meters (17-3.00) to finish in a three-way tie for fourth place. The pole vault was one of the deepest events at the meet with multiple athletes ranking in the top 24 in the nation.
The mid-distance contributed a handful of points for the women on Sunday with senior Sandie Raines finishing sixth in the 1,500 meters. She had freshman Destiny Collins right behind her in seventh place. Sophomore Gabby Crank took sixth in the 800 to bring the group's points total to eight.
Raines was attempting to make history in the 5,000 meters but was out-done by KU's Sharon Lokedi. Raines finished 12th overall but was the back-to-back defending champion trying to become the first woman to win the Big 12 crown in the 5k three times.
Sophomore Alex Rogers provided the men's lone point from the distance crew on Sunday after the team had scoring performances in the 10,000 meters and the steeplechase earlier in the meet. Rogers would finish eighth in the 1,500.
Texas closed the night on the women's side with a show of force in the 4x400 relay. Even with the team championship out of reach, the Longhorns lined up their A squad and laid down their fastest time of the season to set the tone moving forward to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in two weeks.
Jones, Gordon, Douglas and Golden combined to run 3:29.13 and give Texas a win and lock in second place overall in the team standings. That time ranks Texas No. 9 in the NCAA heading into the postseason.
Sategna said the meet overall was great to watch because of the strength of the Big 12. Winning a conference title in this league is something to be proud of but not to be dwelled upon as the team must now focus on the next stage.
"You look at the performances and the marks across the board for the entire meet and you see why this is one of the best conferences in the country," he said. "Now we will turn our attention to the regional meet at home in two weeks and try to get as many as we can through that meet and the national championship in Eugene."
Texas will host the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds on May 25-27 at Mike A. Myers Stadium. The meet will pit the top 48 athletes in the region in each event up against each other with 12 spots to the NCAA Championship on the line.
Coach Talk
Head Coach Mario Sategna
On the women's 4x400: I do think how we closed out the meet with the women's 4x4 was great. We talk about Texas Fight all the time, and they could have gone out there knowing we weren't going to win the meet. But their intention was to win the final event, and that helped solidify second place.
On the men's sprinters: I was really impressed with what we were able to do on the men's side. You're obviously trying to advance as many as you can through the preliminaries, but to say five guys were going to make the final in the 200 is impressive in this conference. Coach Zach has been doing a great job with that group.
On Steele Wasik's performance over three days: This was huge. When he decided to join our program, I knew what he was capable of, so it's to have people like that who you know are returning next year and will be able to lead at these types of meets.
Associate Head Coach Tonja Buford-Bailey – Sprints/Hurdles
On her group overall: I'm very proud of the sprinters as a whole. Every young lady that we entered scored and we scored in every sprint event. That means a lot in terms of team points. They knew they had a job to do and I feel like they accomplished it.
On Chrisann Gordon: The only senior we have is Chrisann and she was a great leader today by example winning the 400 and contributing on both relays.
On Ariel Jones: Ariel Jones had a great day finishing first and second in the hurdle events and in running so fast in the 100 hurdles. She was struggling with that event a bit at the beginning of the season so it was great to see her get her mojo back.
On sophomores Teahna Daniels and Zola Golden: I can't say enough about Teahna and Zola, both sophomores stepping up big for the team. They scored a lot of points by doubling in individual events and running on relays. Zola and Teahna have worked so hard and it's great to see it paying off.
On men's hurdlers: Spencer and John were very impressive in the 110 hurdles and I was happy for Spencer. Finally winning his first conference title and running it in PR fashion. Byron showed why he is an Olympian. It was just amazing to watch what he did today all alone out-running the field by so much. I'm very excited to see him run in his first-ever NCAA outdoor meet in two weeks. That will be fun to watch.
Assistant Coach Zach Glavash – Men's Sprints
On the men's sprinters: Today was a good group effort. It started out well with the victory in the 4x1. It took each person in the group to score the points we needed to win. I was pleased with the performance of our men's sprint group. It's always nice when you can pull of a Big 12 Championship.
Assistant Coach Ty Sevin – Throws/Pole Vault
On men's discus: Alan Zapalac has been throwing the discus very well in practice and he put it together for a big PR today in competition. That was a huge throw, not just for him from a distance standpoint, but for the team to move him up the standings and score some significant points for us. And I was pleased with Brian Peterson's performance. He wasn't able to get the disc to ride the wind like Alan did today, but he should be proud of what he did for the team to contribute to winning a team championship. I'm excited to see what he can do at the regional meet based on what he has done at our other home meets this season.
On men's pole vault: Nick Meaders came into this conference championship meet with some momentum after getting two PR's at our last home meet. He jumped well today in really windy conditions that can be difficult to pole vault in. I think he and Barrett Poth are both capable of jumping well when we host the regional meet.
Assistant Coach Seth Henson – Multis/Jumps
On Steele Wasik: I can't say enough about Steele's effort over the past three days. To compete in 13 events in three days is not easy.
On women's jumpers: Georgia and Mawi both competed with heart today. They gave it their very best up against some of the toughest competition in the country.
On men's triple jumpers: O'Brien ran a great opening leg on the 4x100 to help our men grab the gold. Then he joined up with Nick to solidify some valuable points in the triple jump. Nick showed he is a true veteran in the sixth round by moving up from seventh to fifth with a big jump on his last attempt.
Assistant Coach Brad Herbster – Distance
On his female runners: Today the performances were in tough windy conditions for the distance runners. I thought Gabby did a nice job competing and placing sixth for us in the 800. Sandie and Destiny scoring in the 1,500 was good but coming up short on the team title by a few points is always tough to take. I feel like as we head into regionals we need to fine tune some things.
On the men's distance runners: Alex fought, but we had a good opportunity in the 5k to score needed points and it got away from us. If we want to get people to NCAA's in Eugene we will need to be on it when we host the regional meet in two weeks.
Players Mentioned
