Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Open Marks Single Home Outdoor Event
March 28, 2007 | Track and Field
March 28, 2007
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LUBBOCK, Texas - After opening the outdoor season in Arizona with numerous regional marks, personal bests and two school records, the Texas Tech teams will host their only home event at the R.P. Fuller Stadium in Lubbock on Saturday. The Texas Tech Open will begin with both field and track events starting at 10 a.m. on March 31st. The meet marks the only time during the nine-week stretch of outdoor season that the Red Raiders will compete at home, compared to the three chances during the indoor season.
In last year's only home outdoor meet, Texas Tech posted 14 regional qualifying marks and finished the event with the fall of one school record. Last year marked the coming out of D'Andra Carter's outdoor Tech career, as the then-freshman threw a distance of 171'-5" in the women's discus to break the 2003 Tech record. She would later go on to toss a mark of 179'-6" at the Big 12 Championships in Waco, Texas.
Also during the 2006 meet, Tech's tandem of hurdlers, Shawon Harris, Marlon Odom and Bryan Scott, each finished with regional marks. Odom and Harris ran times of 13.71 and 13.86, respectively, in the 110M hurdles. Scott finished the 400M hurdles in a clocking of 51.74.
While many Red Raiders will remain in the comforts of R.P. Fuller Stadium, two Techsters will be making the trip to Palo Alto, Calif., to compete at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday. Kevin Chelimo and Violet Chemakwila will be looking for automatic and provisional marks in the 10000M.
Chelimo missed a provisional mark in the 10000M by 9.5 seconds at last year's Big 12 Championships. He qualified for the outdoor nationals in the 5000M in 2005, where he finished 10th with a run of 13:59.87.
Chemakwila will be looking to meet the mark that she met in 2005, as she was a national qualifier in the 10000M that year. She finished the event fifth at the Big 12 Championships and earned an automatic time of 34:05.86 earlier in the season at the Mt. SAC Relays.
The automatic mark for the men's 10000M is 28:45.00, while the provisional is set at 29:30.00. On the women's side, 33:30.00 is set at the automatic mark with 35:00.00 as the provisional.
MAKING A STATEMENT All it took was one race for senior hurdler Bryan Scott to make his statement. In the event that made the Lubbock native an All-American just last year, Scott raced to the nation's fastest mark of 49.78 in the 400M hurdles at the Jim Click Shootout on March 24th. Not only does he sit atop the list of times in the country, but the sub-50 second mark is the senior's personal best and qualifies him for the NCAA Midwest Regional in May.
The second mark in the country sits at 49.81 from Justin Gaymon of Georgia. South Carolina's Thomas Hilliard is third with a run of 50.87.
Scott also qualified for the regionals as a member of the men's 4x400M relay squad. With a split of 45.9 as the second leg, he assisted in aiding the Red Raiders to a first-place finish with a time of 3:07.60.
ANOTHER NATIONAL LEADER To go along with Scott's leading mark in the 400M hurdles, senior Marlon Odom ran his way to the top of the 110M hurdle performance list. The Killeen, Texas, native clocked a time of 13.67 to title the event at the Jim Click Shootout. Mississippi's John Yarbrough has the second-fastest time in the nation with a run of 13.71, while the third mark is 13.77 by LSU's Alleyne Lett.
Odom also qualified in two events in Tucson, Ariz., as the senior ran a personal best time of 51.95 in the 400M hurdles. He is currently 10th in the country with the clocking. His previous best in the event was a run of 52.73 from the 2005 outdoor season at the TCU Invitational.
INTRODUCING Sandra Iwunze At her very first outdoor event with the Red Raiders, freshman Sandra Iwunze made herself known to the Texas Tech record books. The Houston, Texas, native ran a time of 59.88 in the 400M hurdles to break the previous school record of 1:00.74 that was set last year by Tia Barginear.
The mark qualifies Iwunze for the NCAA Midwest Regional in Des Moines, Iowa. She sits with the 14th fastest mark in the nation and a whole season ahead of her.
Although not reaching the necessary time in the 100M hurdles, Iwunze finished fifth at the Jim Click Shootout with a time of 14.02. The regional-qualifying time in the event is 13.92, while Tech's school record sits at 13.63.
The freshman proved his worth during the indoor season, when he was the Big 12 runner-up in the 600Y and helped the men's 4x400M relay to a fourth-place finish at the same meet. Washington made his first trip to nationals in early March as a member of the relay team. He and his teammates finished just out of All-America placing, as they clocked a time of 3:08.71 to finish ninth.
AND ON SHE RUNS Success found Irene Kimaiyo during the cross country season as well as the indoor track season, and the junior is on her way to more during outdoor. Kimaiyo completed her cross country career in 2006 with All-America accolades and turned around during indoor to title the 5000M and become runner-up in the 3000M at the Big 12 meet.
During the first meet of the outdoor, Kimaiyo had personal bests in both of her events while she finished first in both. In the women's 1500M, she raced to a time of 4:25.59 to earn her first regional mark of the outdoor. She also took first in the 3000M with a run of 9:42.05.
JUST KEEPS GETTIN' BETTER As if breaking her own indoor record twice wasn't enough, junior Julianne Kennedy upped her outdoor multis record in the first meet of the season. The native of Sherman, Texas, held the previous school heptathlon record of 5,104 points, but finished with 5,147 at the Jim Click Combined on Fri., March 23rd. She finished with two personal bests in the seven events, running 14.42 in the 100M hurdles and throwing for 116'-4" in the javelin.
The record comes after Kennedy broke her indoor record of 3,737 points twice. She finished with a top mark of 4,025 when she titled the event at the Big 12 Championships to earn her first crown.
Kennedy's current outdoor mark is the seventh best in the nation, while she is leading the conference standings in the event.
STILL A STRENGTH Indoor season found great improvement in Texas Tech's vaulters and the outdoor is looking to provide ample opportunity for Red Raider qualifiers following that strong indoor showing. Four of the Tech vaulters have already hit regional-qualifying marks, with three hitting personal bests.
On the men's side, freshman Brian Porter and senior Seth Harris have already cleared 16'-6.75" or better. Porter finished with a height of 17'-0.75", his first time clearing 17 feet. The mark currently leads the conference and is six inches greater than second place, where Harris sits. Porter is seventh in the nation.
Lindsey Walesheck finished the Jim Click Shootout with a PR of 13'-1.5" to earn a regional mark and sit as the ninth best in the country. She is currently first in the Big 12, while sophomore Amanda Alley is listed as second with a height of 12'-5.5". The mark was also a personal best for Alley, as well as a regional qualification.
