Texas Tech University Athletics
Tech Track Sends 15 to NCAA Outdoor Championships
June 06, 2003 | Track and Field
June 6, 2003
Lubbock, Texas - The 2003 track and field season will come to a close next week in Sacramento, Calif., with the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Texas Tech will send nine members of its 11th-ranked men's team and six athletes from its women's team in the hopes of continuing the recent trend of showing up big, at big meets.
Tech's best chances at a national title are in the men's 1,600-meter relay, 800-meter run, pole vault and discus.
The quartet of Albert Booker, Matt Stewart, Julieon Raeburn and Jonathan Johnson enter the week with the third-fastest time in the NCAA in the 1,600-meter relay behind Baylor and Arizona State. The silver medal winning time of 3:03.41 at last week's Mid-West Regional meet in Lincoln, Neb., broke a 16 year-old school record and moved the team up to No. 2 on the Trackwire Dandy Dozen. Tech has already gone toe-to-toe with both the Bears and the Sun Devils earlier this year, at the Drake Relays. The Red Raiders placed third in the event as ASU topped Baylor 3:02.81 to 3:02.82, which mark the top two collegiate times of 2003. The relay team has seen the Bears two other times during the outdoor season, the Big 12 Championships and the NCAA regional meet, with the Bears coming away with dramatic come-from-behind wins each time.
Johnson will be performing double duties next week as his is also entered in the 800. The sophomore currently ranks sixth in the Dandy Dozen and enters the meet with the eighth-best mark in the NCAA. The talent pool in this two-lap race may provide the best competition of the meet as of the top 13 marks this year only one was turned in by a senior. The Abilene, Texas, product placed fourth in this event a year ago in Baton Rouge, La., and must chase down the two-time defending NCAA Champion Outkile Lekote of South Carolina if he is to become the first male NCAA Champion in school history.
The running events will not have to bear the burden of carrying the men's team this year as junior Jason Young is coming off a school record setting performance in the discus a week ago. The Dallas native's fling of 202-feet has Young in the number two position on the descending order list behind Gabor Mate of Auburn. Young already knows what the majority of his competition can do as six of the next seven ranked athletes competed against him in Lincoln.
Freshman Bobby Most is coming off one his most disappointing meets after recording three misses on his opening height in the pole vault in Lincoln. By way of an at-large bid the Laredo, Texas, native will still be one of the favorites to win the gold medal as he holds the third-best mark in the event of the 26 athletes in the meet. Jared Thronhill will accompany Most in the pole vault after placing third at the Mid-West regional and earning an automatic berth to the championships.
Booker and Raeburn will join Johnson in working overtime at Hornet Stadium as they will run the 400 and 200, respectively. For Raeburn the championships are his final chance to win gold as his eligibility will expire at the conclusion of the week. The Trincity, Trinidad, native has a season-best mark of 20.70 and enters the week with the 13th best time in the half-lap race. Booker on the other hand is just a sophomore and received his first ranking on the Dandy Dozen list for the 400 at No. 10, released earlier this week. The Trent, Texas, native already holds the school record in the 400 at 45.72, run at the ACU Open in May.
Finally for the men's team, who once was a wild card for points, Chad Pharis has come into his own in the high jump. In his last two meets the sophomore from Vernon, Texas, has been nothing short of spectacular winning the first Big 12 title in a field event for Tech, clearing a personal best of 7-feet, 2.5-inches, then turning around two weeks later and winning the silver medal at the regional meet.
Trackwire.com projects the men's team to score 21 points and finish in a three-way tie for 11th next week, but with a team that has come up big when the chips were down, the Red Raiders sould turn in their best finish in school history.
The women's team is not headed to the Golden State to cheer on the men's team, rather they are out to prove then belong with the best.
Brionne Yosten might be the biggest story of the Red Raider track program this year. The sophomore from Hereford, Texas, was unsure if she would ever be able to race at a competitive level again a year ago when she was diagnosed with anemia. Doctors got her medication under control over the summer and she has now just begun to show the type of runner Wes Kittley thought she could be. Yosten qualified for regionals in the 1,500 at the Drake Relays by running a 4:22.48. This after learning she was entered in the race only a couple of hours prior to the race and she had already anchored the sprint medley relay to a second-place finish earlier that morning. Her third-place finish at the regional meet earned her and automatic bid to her first NCAA Championship meet.
The women's 1,600-meter relay team suffered all season because of injuries. As Kittley looked for the perfect combination at runners, the team was placed in a do-or-die situation. The team of Tori Polk, Rachelle Evans, Karletha Cook and Licretia Sibley was able to get the baton around the Ed Weir Track in a time of 3:35.51 but did not receive an automatic berth as it placed fourth. The time, however, was the second fastest in school history and moved the quartet into favorable position for an at-large bid, which it received. Now the team is looking to set a new school record and earn the title of All-America by placing in the top eight.
Just like every great tale, there has to be a surprise twist to the ending. Junior Tracie Akerhielm finished 10th at the regional meet in the 5,000 and was ranked 52nd on the NCAA descending order list so a trip to California seemed out of the picture. In fact, the Sulpher Springs, Texas, native had already made plans to have her wisdom teeth removed on June 6. Those plans changed quickly as she received the second-to-last at-large bid for the 5,000 and now sets her sights on the top eight.
Both teams have worked hard over the past six months and are looking to put an exclamation point on a season that could be the start of push to power for the Texas Tech track and field programs. The final chapter will unfold Tues. - Sat., June 11 - 14 at Cal State University, Sacramento.
Players Mentioned
