The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Outdoor Championship
Track & Field ready to face rivals at Big 12 Championship
05.10.2018 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorns seeking history at conference meet in Waco
Big 12 Outdoor Championship
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Texas Meet Notes
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Track & Field is prepared to take on their conference rivals this weekend in Waco as the Longhorns attempt to bring home individual and team titles from the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championship. Action from Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium begins Friday morning and runs through Sunday evening with Baylor hosting this year's championship meet. The Longhorns will attempt to sweep the indoor and outdoor titles this year on the women's side and the men will be attempting to win their fourth consecutive outdoor crown.
A number of individuals will attempt to make history for the Longhorns this week in Waco as well. Senior hurdler Ariel Jones is the three-time defending champion in the women's 400m hurdles. No woman has claimed the Big 12 title in her event all four years, including Lifetime Longhorn and Olympic gold medalist Melaine Walker. For the men, redshirt junior Steele Wasik will try to become just the second man in Big 12 history to repeat as the decathlon champion, while Ashtin Zamzow will attempt to win the program's first-ever title in the heptathlon after she won the first pentathlon crown in Texas history in February.
Action starts at 11 a.m. Friday with the start of the multi-event competitions. The hammer throw and javelin will be held later in the day and the evening will close with the men's and women's 10,000m. Saturday will see a full slate of events with the conclusion of the multis, a series of field events and preliminary heats for the running events along with the final in the steeplechase. Titles will be handed out Sunday after the conclusion of the remaining field events and finals in the running events.
Texas has won more Big 12 Outdoor Championships than any other team and the Longhorns hope to continue that trend, but Interim Head Coach Tonja Buford-Bailey knows her team must be in top form and be ready to step up against some of the best teams in the nation to come home with two trophies.
"It's just a matter of the mindset and how you go into it because you can only control yourself. You can't control the other teams, and if they don't have a good day and you have a great day, no matter what the stats look like, yes definitely, you can win both titles," she said. "We have a better shot on the women's side, but our goal is to go in and win both of them."
There are multiple ticket pricing options for fans wanting to attend the meet in Waco. Single session tickets range from $5 for youths, $10 for general admission and $15 for reserved seating. All-session passes are available at a discounted rate as well.
Fans unable to attend the meet can watch the conference championship meet live online with coverage provided by FloTrack. A subscription to their FloPro services is required for viewing.
Live results of the meet will be provided by DeltaTiming.com with links available at Big12sports.com, BaylorBears.com and TexasSports.com.
Fans can also keep up with the meet by following the team's Twitter account @TexasTFXC for updates from the meet. They are encouraged follow @Big12Conference and interact with the meet using the hashtag #Big12TF.
Events to Watch
• Women's 400m Hurdles: Senior Ariel Jones is trying to make history this week as the first woman to win a Big 12 Championship in this event 4 consecutive years. Jones has owned this race the last 3 years and currently ranks No. 4 in a tightly packed field. Junior Mariam Abdul-Rashid currently holds the No. 1 time in the Big 12 heading into the meet.
• Men's 1500m: Texas has not won a Big 12 title in the men's 1500m since Leo Manzano in 2008. A group of Longhorns hope to change that statistic with 4 runners ranked in the top 6 in the conference heading into the meet, including the 1-2 spots on the list. Freshman Sam Worley leads the conference at 3:40.00 and junior Alex Rogers is right behind him at 3:40.49.
• Women's 100m Hurdles: Texas has won more Big 12 titles in this event than any school with 6 crowns. Sophomore Rushelle Burton is the defending champion and brings a group of teammates with her as the Longhorns have 4 hurdlers ranked 7th or better in the conference heading into the meet, including 1-2-3. Last year, Texas scored 23 points in this event.
• Javelin: Texas heads into the Big 12 Championship with the top javelin thrower on both the men's and women's sides. Senior Fabian Dohmann is tops among the men by nearly 20 feet and Haley Crouser looks to defend her title, holding nearly an 11-foot advantage on the field. Crouser became the first woman to win a Big 12 Championship in the javelin last season.
• Decathlon & Heptathlon: Redshirt junior Steele Wasik is the defending champion in the decathlon as he looks to continue the Longhorns' dominance in his event at the Big 12 Championship. Wasik is also trying to become just the 2nd athlete to win the Big 12 decathlon in back-to-back years. Redshirt junior Ashtin Zamzow won the women's first Big 12 title in the pentathlon during the indoor season. Now she hopes to win UT's first heptathlon title in the Big 12. If Texas can sweep the multi-events, it will mark the first time a school has done so at the Big 12 Outdoor meet since Missouri in 2003.
Texas Track & Field Notebook
Texas to Host NCAA Championships in 2019 & 2020
• The NCAA announced The University of Texas as the host of the 2019 and 2020 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Texas will host the national championship meet for the first time since 2004.
• Texas Athletics put in its bid to host both the 2019 and 2020 championships after the NCAA announced those years would be up for bid due to construction at Oregon's Historic Hayward Field as Eugene prepares to host the 2021 IAAF World Outdoor Championships.
• Mike A. Myers Stadium served as the host for the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships and hosts one of the largest meets in the nation on an annual basis with the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays serving as the marquee meet for the facility every year. This year's 91st Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays Built By The Home Depot welcomes more than 7,000 athletes and 200 media members to the facility for the meet.
• With a seating capacity of 20,000, Myers Stadium is one of the largest track stadiums in the U.S. This year's Texas Relays saw a total attendance of 45,612 during the 4 days of action, including 20,704 on the final day of the meet. The stadium is regularly packed to capacity for the UIL Texas State Championship meet every year as well.
• Myers Stadium has seen some of the best performances in NCAA history as well with 2 collegiate records being broken at the facility during the 2017 season. A total of 21 marks currently ranking among the top 10 in NCAA history were achieved at Myers Stadium.
Texas Ranked Among Nation's Best
• Texas Track & Field is again among the top programs in the NCAA this season with the women ranked No. 12 in the latest USTFCCCA Rankings heading into this week's action. The men's squad slipped a spot this week to No. 15. Texas is among the 9 programs in the country who have their men's and women's teams both ranked in the Top 15 in the nation right now.
• The Big 12 Conference is well represented with 5 men's teams in the Top 25, including Texas Tech (2), Kansas (17), TCU (18) and Baylor (24).
• For the women, Texas is the top team in the conference with Kansas State not far behind at No. 16. Texas Tech stands at No. 19. Kansas dropped out of the Top 25 to No. 30 this week.
Crank Receives President's Leadership Award
• Junior Gabby Crank was honored this week as 1 of 6 students campus-wide to be selected as a recipient of the President's Leadership Award by the Texas Exes.
• Given annually by the Texas Exes, the President's Leadership Award is given to 6 students each year who have demonstrated outstanding leadership within the student community at The University of Texas. Each year the award goes to 1 sophomore, 2 juniors and 3 seniors.
• Crank is double majoring in Business Honors and Plan II Honors and juggles all that goes with being a collegiate athlete for a perennial power, but she also has made an impact in her community as a leader. She has been named a member of the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team as one of the top student-athletes in both performance and grades in her event nation-wide, studied abroad in Rome, been an education volunteer for human trafficking in Thailand and serves her fellow student-athletes as representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and a worship leader for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
• On winning the award Crank said: "Honestly, this award came as a surprise because there are so many awesome leaders I've gotten to know on our team and around UT's campus. I'm utterly humbled and honored to be considered a representative of such a great group of people. This award doesn't change who I am or the way I hope to tackle every day, but is an amazing reminder that the little things don't go unnoticed."
39 Longhorns Named Academic All-Big 12
• The Big 12 Conference announced its 2018 Academic All-Big 12 Track & Field Teams on Wednesday and the Texas Longhorns came away with 39 honorees, 20 for the men and 19 women. A total of 32 of those were named to the first team for Texas as the league recognized 343 student-athletes overall.
• Texas landed 16 men on the first team and four on the second team. The women's team had 16 make the first team and three named to the second team.
• The 16 Longhorns on the first team marks the 4th consecutive year the Texas men have set a program record for first-team honorees.
• With 19 total honorees, the Texas women tied a program record for most Academic All-Big 12 selections from 2010 and 2012. The 16 first-teamers also ties a program best from the same years.
Coach Talk
Interim Head Coach Tonja Buford-Bailey
On excitement heading into Big 12 Outdoors: I'm a little bit more excited about this one than the indoor meet because we have more events. We have 400 hurdles, we have relays, we have steeplechase and javelin. So we have some of the outdoor events that I think are really going to come into play for both the men and women.
On women's team: I definitely think the strength is in the sprints. We have some solid distance and solid field events, but the strength is going to be in the sprints meaning they have to step up and give us scoring opportunities. They need to go in on the first day and get as many of them into the final, and what that does is encourages everybody else.
On men's team: The men's team, our strength is definitely in the field and the distance. Our throwers are gifted and work really hard, Barrett Poth our pole vaulter has done really well this season. With Sam Worley and Alex Rogers and the rest of our distance kids have really stepped it up this season. In the steeplechase, I'm really ready to see John Rice go for a title.
Players Mentioned
