Texas Tech University Athletics
Quoting Head Track and Field Coach Greg Sholars
June 21, 1999 | Indoor Track
Feb. 23, 1998
"It's going to be a little different for us this year because we have combined our men's and women's programs. It's been a very exciting indoor season for us thus far, merging those two programs together. If you've had a chance to watch our men's and women's track and field teams, they're coming from two different extremes. The men's team is more powered by the sprints and our women's team is more powered by the distance runners. We're kind of excited about going to the Big 12 Championships. We're still a team that's going to be more excited about individual accomplishments more so than the overall team as a whole. We're very much in the developmental stages on our women's team and we're taking steps forward as far as the men's team is concerned.
"Some highlights will be definitely on our women's side, Crystal Harlan, who's right now ranked No. 2 in the Big 12 in the high jump. She provisionally qualified for the national championships. She's No. 2 in the conference only to the American collegiate record holder from the University of Texas. We're really excited about her potential in the Big 12 meet, and we're looking forward to her qualifying for the national championships. We've also got Evette Turner in the distance races, who came to us as a transfer student and was the first athlete I've had the opportunity to bring in on the women's side. She lead our cross country team to its highest finish in Tech history this fall. We're excited about her right now where she's currently ranked third in the Big 12 Conference. Also, we have Amber Affeldt, who is our returning Big 12 Champion in the 600 meters. We've been running her in various events, trying to find her groove this year.
"If you look at the Big 12 in track and field, if you're in the top four in just about any event, from the throws all the way through the sprints, your usually one of the top four in the country. It is a very, very competitive conference in track and field.
"On our men's side, we've got a little bit more to work with. Josephus Howard ("Pap"), he's right now leading the nation in the 200 meters, he's actually leading the world. He ran 20.51, which is one of the top times in the NCAA as well as one of the top times in the history of mankind. There's a real strange event as far as indoor track is concerned. Every track that we've run on is a little different. If you've seen ours, ours is a perfect circle. Some are almost perfect squares, some are wood, some are rubber, some are banked, some are flat. It's always kind of a curious situation when you run on these different tracks, as to how the performances will come out. We're real fortunate when we go up to Ames, Iowa. They've got a big 300 meter track, that's probably one of the larger indoor facilities in the world, and we're really excited about running on that track. You have more of an advantage running on a big track, especially for the speed because you can really get wound up and go. For Pap's case, him running that 20.51 was the fastest time ever on an oversized indoor track. In running that time, he broke the record of the young man who won the NCAA championship as well as was an Olympic championship finalist in the 200 meters. So, he's in great company and he's also going to represent us in the 55 meter dash. Shameron Turner will be backing him up in the 200 meters, a freshman from Dallas Kimball, so we've got some strength there in that event. Also in the 400 meters, we've got Rohan McDonald, a junior transfer who we brought in this fall. He is currently ranked third in the Big 12 in the 400 meters. So, we've got the sprint events covered as well as having an opportunity to come back and score in the mile relay, something that Tech hasn't done in a while. We've got our mile relay provisionally qualified for the national championships.
"We're looking forward to moving forward as a team. I think we should be in a position to have a better chance than Tech has had in quite some time as an overall team on our men's side. Again, our women's team is very much in the developmental stages.
We have a team that is in a position to do things better at the national level, sometimes quicker than they can do things at the conference level. Our conference is one that's made up of depth. You've got to have a large number of athletes competing across the board in all events to have a chance to compete very well at the conference level. But, at the national championships, its usually the team with the higher quality athletes that has the chance to be more competitive. So, we've go some great individuals, we just don't have the depth right now. We have the potential to have a champion at the national level in Pap Howard.
