The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Outdoor Championship
05.13.2018 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Wasik repeats as decathlon champion
Big 12 Outdoor Championship
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Compiled Fri-Sat Results | Texas Post-Meet Notes Saturday
Highlights
WACO, Texas – Saturday was moving day for the Texas Track & Field teams at the Big 12 Championship, and the Longhorns made some big moves on the scoreboard and in the preliminaries on Saturday afternoon from Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium. The men's team won three events on Saturday while the women added one more title.
The day started with Steele Wasik successfully defending his title in the decathlon and setting the tone for the rest of the team. Wasik became just the second man in Big 12 history to repeat as champion in the event. His score of 7,588 was good enough to hold off the field by 80 points and likely secure a spot at the NCAA Championships as one of the top 24 decathletes in the nation.
"I think that's pretty cool," Wasik said of being the second man to repeat in the decathlon. "It definitely wasn't an easy thing to do. I definitely want to go for three. I think Wolf Mahler and George Patrick may having something to say about that, but it's a really cool goal to have to be the only person that has won three in a row. It's been a really tough year and securing that mark for NCAAs is nice."
Wasik's win also marks the seventh Big 12 championship for Texas in the decathlon, more than any other program.
As fans cheered on the running events, shouts were coming from the field as freshman Tripp Piperi made his presence known both audibly and on the record book. He joined an elite club as he registered a throw of 20.19 meters (66-3.00) to win the shot put as a true freshman. His throw was a new stadium record for Clyde Hart Stadium and ranks him No. 7 in the NCAA this season. Piperi also moves up to No. 6 in school history.
"I've been trying to get this since I hit 19.83 indoors and I've been ridiculously consistent until now, and I finally hit that breakout. Hopefully, we got more to come," Piperi said. "It's a big deal. I'm not trying to look at it as a huge deal because I want to keep doing better, but it definitely feels amazing finally hitting that 20-meter mark."
As the day started with a Big 12 title it ended with two more.
One conference crown went to an athlete who has come so close every year to taking the top spot on the podium. This time around in her final Big 12 Championship appearance senior Kally Long stood on the top rung of the podium claiming her win in the women's pole vault.
Long cleared a height of 4.34m (14-2.75) and got the victory as she had no misses on any heights she cleared. The runner-up from Kansas also cleared 4.34m on her first attempt but misses at 3.89m and 4.29m cost her a share of the title.
After so many close finishes and coming back from an injury last year, Long said this title is special and one she has had her mind set on winning for some time now.
"I've been wanting to do this for my team for so long, and I've come so close. I have plenty of seconds. I have plenty of thirds," Long said. "But I'm just so happy to come out here and finally get that win for them. I came in with that mentality that I had a job to get done and I wasn't going to let it slip through my fingers one last time."
The track erupted with Texas Fight chants as sophomore John Rice came down the homestretch with a big lead in the 3,000m steeplechase. Leading from the gun, Rice guided the field through a tactical race until he left them all way behind to win his first conference title.
Rice clocked in at 9:02.00 and was more than seven seconds ahead of second place as he gave Texas its first Big 12 title in the men's steeplechase since 2013.
Back to the scoring opportunities for Texas, the women's multi-event also saw some fireworks from the Longhorns as well.
Ashtin Zamzow came up just short of her goal of the indoor/outdoor sweep, but did finish second overall with a strong showing of 5,662 points. She posted her best marks ever in four of the seven events and is currently in position to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Virginia Preiss joined Zamzow on the podium in fifth place. She shot up the standings from seventh place to fifth with a huge PR in the javelin and found herself with a nice cushion between her and sixth place. With her score of 5,053 points she moved up six spots from last year's conference championship and scored nearly 500 more points than she did a year ago.
With the 12 team points scored by Zamzow and Preiss in the heptathlon, it gave the women's team a steam of momentum to head into the preliminary heats for the running events and other finals scheduled for later in the day Saturday.
Points were added to the board for the women's squad in the discus and long jump on Saturday afternoon.
Sophomore Elena Bruckner found her stroke in the discus to finish in sixth place with a season's best measurement of 53.11m (174-3). Bruckner was up against one of the strongest fields in the nation for a conference championship with three of the top 10 throwers in the nation in the Big 12.
Georgia Wahl held fifth place for some time in the women's long jump competition and slid down two spots during the final to finish in seventh with her leap of 6.13m (20-1.50). The mark was slightly wind-aided but improved her overall finish at the meet from last year when she came in 12th place.
Fifth-year senior Spencer McCloud closed his career with a podium-worthy performance. He ended up in a three-way tie for seventh place in the men's high jump to score a point for the men with his clearance of 2.06m (6-9.00).
All the momentum gained from Friday night's strong showings in the javelin followed by the success of Piperi and Wasik earlier on Saturday helped carry the Longhorns during the prelims that saw 72 percent of their entries advance through to the finals.
The men's distance runners made a statement right away in the prelims with four Longhorns advancing through to the final of the 1,500m. The group of Alex Rogers, Sam Worley, Charles Mills and Logan Emery will look to score in bunches on Sunday.
For the women, Mary Beth Hamilton ran her strongest race of the season, clocking 4:25.90 for a new PR and the top time of the prelims in the 1,500m. Alex Cruz will join her in the final to give Texas two scoring chances in that event.
The women's sprinters played the biggest role in the success from prelims with all four runners, Pedrya Seymour, Rushelle Burton, Mariam Abdul-Rashid and Ariel Jones, advancing to the final in the 100m hurdles along with both entries in the 400m hurdles. Jones ran her fastest time of the season at 57.01 as she is seeking to become the first woman to ever win four Big 12 Conference titles in the 400 hurdles.
It was the same story for the men's hurdlers as John Burt blazed to a new personal best time in the 110m hurdles. He crossed the line in 13.71 seconds with a legal wind. That time moves him to No. 12 in the NCAA this season and also climbs up to No. 5 in school history.
Burt leads a group into the final with Medric Roberson and Isaiah Lucas also running PRs to advance to the final, and Wasik is ready to score in his third event of the meet by making the hurdles final. In addition to winning the decathlon, Wasik also placed fifth in the javelin on Friday night.
Freshman Micaiah Harris guided the men's sprints group with advancements to the final in both the 200 and 400. He registered a new personal best in the 400 that moves him to No. 8 in school history.
In total Texas advanced 13 of its 18 prelim entries on each side Saturday. That gives the Longhorns a plethora of scoring opportunities in the running events along with the three field events for both the men and women remaining on Sunday.
Interim Head Coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said she is excited to see what Sunday has in store after the Longhorns were able to advance through the prelims in bunches. Having that many scoring opportunities in the finals for both the men and women give Texas a chance to be in the hunt for both titles and will make for an exciting final day of competition.
"We did not have a lot of people that didn't advance. They came out here and were really focused. They're just running for their teammates," she said. "And throwing and jumping. They're doing it all for their teammates so it's really exciting."
Also competing in the decathlon was freshman walk-on Eric Cain. With the coaching staff seeing an opportunity to possibly steal points in the decathlon with a smaller field than usual, Cain entered the decathlon even though he had not competed in one or even done some of the events contested during a decathlon. He fought through the 10 events with Wasik guiding and cheering him on, answering the call from his coaches and teammates. Cain came away in 12th place overall.
Day 3 is set to start at 2:30 p.m. Sunday with the final six field events. Then running finals start at 5. The Longhorns will look to capitalize on their depth in the sprints events on the women's side and the distance events for the men. Fans can watch the meet live on FloTrack.org with a subscription to the site's FloPro services.
Texas currently stands in second place with 60 points on the men's side trailing Kansas State by just five. The women are also in second place with 51 points with K-State holding the lead with 66.
Coach Talk
Interim Head Coach Tonja Buford-Bailey
On Kally Long: We had a chat right before and she said, "I got this." And she came out with the win. It's a good thing for her.
On confidence athletes showed before winning: That's what you want. What that means is everything I've been working on, I'm going to go and do. You go to these meets all year to figure out where you are and what you need to work on. And you start putting it together. You put it together so it culminates to this.
Associate Head Coach Ty Sevin: Throws/Pole Vault/Multi-Events
On Kally Long winning: That's a relief off both of our shoulders because she has competed at these meets so hard and has come so close so many times. I get choked up just thinking about it because I couldn't think of anybody happier for it to happen to.
On Tripp Piperi: He walked up to me at the beginning of the meet and said, "I got this, Coach." That's all he said. His last throw was a lot farther and her got caught up and fouled. Kudos to him. He is a gamer from the word go and he's the kind of kid we need to fill our team with at Texas.
On Steele Wasik: Steele battled through every event. He's just a warrior. There's not enough that can be said about what this kid means to this team to come back after the decathlon and make the final in the hurdles.
Assistant Coach Brad Herbster: Distance
On John Rice: Just seeing John step up and race the way he wanted to. He and Jake Johnson really hammered it out in what was a slower steeplechase race to get us valuable points. I think it speaks volumes to the work John has done and it makes me look forward to tomorrow because I think he can come back and do some damage in the 5k along with our other guys in that race. For the program, that's a really positive sign and a really positive direction for us to win an event like the steeplechase, but we've got a lot more to do tomorrow.
On the 1500m: It was fun watching Cruz and Mary Beth run today. MB ran a great race and had a solid PR. Getting both of them through to the final can provide crucial points for us tomorrow. The men's race fed right off of the women with Alex Rogers setting a good pace to make sure we could get Logan Emery through in his heat as well. Sam Worley and Charles Mills ran a smart race to advance. Having four men in the final of the 1,500 meters is huge. There is potential for a lot of points in that race just by having four people in the final.
