The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Outdoor Championships
No. 6/4 Track and Field opens Big 12 Championships
05.15.2021 | Track & Field / Cross Country
The Longhorns positioned themselves to make a run at the conference titles this weekend in Manhattan, Kan.
MANHATTAN, Kan. – The No. 6/4 Texas Track and Field program opened the 2021 Big 12 Outdoor Championships with record-breaking marks and impressive performances on Friday at the R.V. Christian Track on the Kansas State campus. Texas sits in third in the women's standings with 21 points, while the men are slotted sixth with seven points, after the opening day of the conference meet.
Elena Bruckner scored first for Texas on Friday, tallying two points behind a seventh-place effort in the women's hammer throw. Bruckner record three of the five longest throws on UT record in her series, including each of the two longest. Her best was a school-record throw of 58.35m/191-5 on her third attempt. Prior to that, Bruckner threw the hammer 56.84m/186-6 (No. 2 in UT history) and 55.75m/182-11 (No. 5) on her first two tries.
Rhiley Fritz and Gabby Kearney added 13 points for the Longhorns on the women's side with second and fourth-place finishes, respectively, in the javelin. Fritz finished runner-up with a best throw of 48.15m/157-11, which came on her fifth attempt. Kearney, meanwhile, placed fourth with a throw of 47.19m/154-10 on her final effort of the day.
Madeline Vondra pushed Texas' total to 21 on the women's side with a six-point effort in the 10,000-meter run, the final women's event of the night. Vondra clocked 34:30.13 in the six-mile race to finish third in the field. It was the second-fastest 10,000-meter time of Vondra's Longhorn career to date, trailing only the personal-best she ran en route to victory at the Texas Relays earlier this season (33:55.72).
Bennett Inoff tallied the first points for the Texas men on Friday, earning three points with a sixth-place finish in the javelin throw. Inoff's finish came on the heels of a collegiate-best throw of 60.88m/199-9 on his first attempt under the lights.
Haftu Knight added four points to the Texas tally on the men's side with a fifth-place effort in the 10,000-meter run. Knight clocked a personal-best 28:53.08 despite the race, which was the final event on Friday's schedule, being delayed by more than two hours due to inclement weather in the area. His time helped him climb to No. 3 among Texas' top performer's all-time in the event.
In multis competition, Leo Neugebauer grabbed hold of the men's decathlon lead on Friday, scoring 4,139 points in the competition's first five events. He picked up three victories in the long jump (7.43m/24-4.5 | 918), shot put (14.53m/47-8 | 761) and 400-meter dash (50.45 | 794) to go with a second-place effort in the high jump (1.99m/6-6.25 | 794) and a fourth-place run in the 100-meter dash (10.95, +2.6 | 872). Neugebauer's performances in the long jump, high jump and 400-meter race were all outdoor collegiate-best marks for the German international. His teammate Alex Loving currently sits in fourth place (3,695) at the halfway point of the decathlon.
In the women's heptathlon, Kristine Blazevica sits in fourth place and just 41 points off the lead after four events on Friday. She recorded three personal-best marks on opening day, doing so in the 100-meter hurdles (13.77, +1.9), high jump (1.72m/5-7.75) and 200-meter dash (24.93, +2.0). Blazevica also recorded a mark of 12.03m/39-5.75 in the shot put.
The Longhorns continue their pursuit of Big 12 titles on Saturday in Manhattan, with the day's starting gun set to fire at 10 a.m. CT with the decathlon 110-meter hurdles. Big 12 Now on ESPN+ will have live coverage of the conference meet from 2-5:30 p.m. CT on Saturday.
Players Mentioned
