Texas Tech Athletics
Big 12 Championships
Tech Track ends Conference Championships, Looks to Nationals
March 01, 2003 | Track and Field
March 1, 2003
LINCOLN, Neb. - Competition came to a close Saturday evening at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in the Bob Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb., with the Texas Tech men placing seventh scoring 50.33 points and the women finishing 11th with 15 points. The 50+ points scored by the men is the second-most points scored by the men in an indoor conference championships bettered by only the 1988 team.
For the men, Dwayne Benoit (Abilene, Texas) would get the chance to set the tone for the second consecutive day running first in the mile. Due to a protested preliminary round, Benoit was not guaranteed All-Conference honors as 10 athletes competed in the finals. Starting on the outside Benoit raced out to the front of the pack and led at the breakline. At the completion of the first lap the Cooper High product held on to second. But it looked as if the pace was too much as by the start of the fifth lap he had fallen back to ninth. Unlike in the prelims, there would be no final kick for the junior as he placed 10th with a time of 4:18.36.
Both Licretia Sibley (Fort Worth, Texas) and Rachelle Evans (Dallas, Texas) would run in the faster of the two heats of the women's 400-meter dash finals. The two Red Raiders would run against the second and third fastest women in the Big 12, both from Texas. Evans looked strong out of the blocks and made up the stagger on Sibley around the third turn. Entering the final lap, Evans ran up on one of the Longhorn sprinters causing her to stutter-step. Sibley then ran up on Evans. The two Texas runners started to pull away and Sibley ran a solid final 100 meters passing Evans and finishing with a time of 54.63 for third place. Evans finished with a time of 55.07 in finishing sixth.
The men's 400m would turn out to be one of the better contested events of the afternoon. The first heat pitted teammates Matt Stewart (Odessa, Texas) and Jason Lovell (Reseada, Calif.) against each other. The Red Raider duo ran stride for stride through the first lap. Heading into the final turn Stewart and Lovell were neck-and-neck in second and third, respectively. Nebraska's Josh Leonard ran around the pack to move into first out of the final turn but Stewart found a last burst of speed and passed the field to win his heat in a time of 48.77. Lovell finished in third with a time of 49.44, and the best was yet to come.
The second heat of the 400 included a pair of athletes which had already automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships and Albert Booker (Trent, Texas). UT's Ashton Collins would gain the early lead with Booker close on his heals. The race would be run at a blazing pace with Baylor's Jeremy Warnier fighting for the lead. Collins won the race, followed by Warnier and Booker. Booker's time of 46.34 was just .01 seconds off Warnier's second-place time, a new indoor personal record (PR), one of the top 10 times run in the NCAA this season and a new school record bettering Rohan McDonald's 46.49 run at the 1998 Big 12 Championships. Overall, Booker claimed third, Stewart placed fifth and Lovell finished eighth.
The first heat of the men's 200 included both of Tech's qualifiers in Booker and Julieon Raeburn (Trincity, Trinidad). Raeburn made his move right from the blocks and erased the stagger before the final embankment. Booker ran a steady race and ran to a first-place finish with a time of 21.37. Raeburn finished second in the heat with a time of 21.49. Overall, the pair would place fifth and sixth, respectively.
"Booker was exceptional this weekend," commented head coach Wes Kittley. "He [set a personal record] in the 400 by almost a second and ran real tough in the 200. He really led the team this weekend and we ran him a lot."
The vertical jumps were one area in which the men looked to score several points. With three polevaulters in the top five in the conference and Mike Beasley (Abilene, Texas) leading the way in the high jump.
In the pole vault, Bobby Most (Laredo, Texas) cleared an NCAA qualifying height of 17-feet, 5.75-inches as he placed second and was one of four Tech vaulters to score in the event. Ken Wilson (Lewisville, Texas) placed third with an elevation of 17'-0", while Buster McLain (Gruver, Texas) also cleared 17'-0" as he tied for fifth by judge's decision. Finally, Jared Thornhill (Snyder, Texas) tied for eighth by clearing 16'-6" giving Tech 17.88 points in the one event.
"I was confident coming into today's event," noted Most. "I hurt my growing here two weeks ago and had to pull out of the competition. Today I felt good and started to clear some bars and move up on some poles. This was not as high as I wanted to go, but it is an improvement. Hopefully I can improve again next weekend and make sure I get into nationals."
Beasley gave the Red Raiders five more points as he cleared 6'-11.75" in finishing fourth and Chad Pharis (Vernon, Texas) tied for eighth via judge's decision also clearing 6'-11.75", earning half a point.
A pair of freshmen earned All-Conference honors in their first conference championships Saturday afternoon. Clifton Eddington (Dallas, Texas) earned All-Conference honors in the triple jump as he soared 48'-6.75" to finish seventh, while Kyle Atwood (Muleshoe, Texas) also placed seventh in his event, the 1,000m run, with a time of 2:26.50.
The men's 1,600-meter relay would place fourth in a time of 3:12.58. The opening leg was run by Booker who took the lead early and never let gave it up. Lovell would take the baton and maintain the lead until the fifth turn when he fell back to second. By the sixth turn Tech was in third place where Stewart would take the reins. Stewart ran a solid leg and looked to have made up some ground on Baylor and Texas. Orin Darrington (Austin, Texas) was called upon to anchor the team. Darrington held his own as he was passed by a hard-charging Nebraska sprinter. The Pfluggerville High product held on to fourth, the rest of the way giving the Red Raiders its final five points.
Other Red Raiders competing on the final day include: Geralda Dukuly (Grand Prairie, Texas) who placed 10th in the triple jump; Austin Parker (Mckinney, Texas) placed 16th in the triple jump; Tracie Akerhielm (Sulpher Springs, Texas) finished ninth, Brionne Yosten (Hereford, Texas) placed 18th and Abby Schubert (Albuquerque, N.M.) placed 22nd in the 3,000m; Megan Schuessler (Llano, Texas) had a 10th place throw in the weight throw; and the women's 1,600m relay finished sixth.
