Tech Splits Squad Between Meets In Waco & California
April 16, 2015 | Track and Field
Le'Tristan Pledger takes her top-five national 100m hurdles ranking into this Saturday's Michael Johnson Classic, in Waco, Texas..
LUBBOCK, Texas -- The No. 9 men's and No. 15 women's Texas Tech track & field teams will split the squad this weekend between the Michael Johnson Classic, in Waco, Texas, on April 18, the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., April 16-18 and the Azusa Clay Invitational, in Azusa, Calif., on April 17.
In Waco, where the majority of the Red Raiders will compete this weekend, field events will begin on Saturday at 11 a.m., and the running events will get started at 1 p.m.
"We have a great opportunity this weekend, especially in Waco," Texas Tech head coach Wes Kittley said. "We've been close to home the past couple weeks, and now we're going head into a big meet with some great competition. I think if the kids compete the way I believe they can and will, something special will happen this weekend."
Tech is slated to go up against athletes from Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Nebraska, Tulsa and Fresno State, among others.
The Mt. SAC Relays and Azusa Clay Invite, year after year, make for some of the premier distance and throwing marks track & field will see all season, so the Red Raiders could be poised for a big weekend.
Last weekend, the Red Raiders and Lady Raiders swept the team titles at Wes Kittley Invitational, and earned some great accolades in the process.
Joseph Richards III was named Big 12 Athlete of the Week after winning the 400m dash in Abilene, running a 45.61 in the process, the No. 5 time in the nation. It was his first time to win the award.
JaCorian Duffield is now receiving votes on the April edition of the Watch List for the Bowerman Award, the premier award for track & field, honoring the outstanding male and female track & field athletes in the nation for 2015.
Competition at the Mt. SAC relays begins tonight, at 8 p.m. CT.
Out of the Blocks
· Texas Tech's men's (No. 9) and women's (No. 15) track and field teams have each been ranked in the top 15 for the duration of the outdoor season so far. Tech is one of four Big 12 squads to have both the men's and women's teams ranked in the USTFCCCA top 15.
· Texas Tech's Joseph Richards III won Tech's eighth overall Big 12 Athlete of the Week award of 2015, after winning two events at the Wes Kittley Invite, including running the No. 5 400m dash (45.61) in the nation. This is the fourth-straight week in which Tech has won a Big 12 Athlete of the Week award, after Hannah Carson won it last week, JaCorian Duffield won it on the men's side two weeks ago and Chris Caldwell took the honor the week before that. This is Richards III's first Big 12 Athlete of the Week award of his career.
· Through two weekends of competition, Texas Tech currently has 24 men and women and four relays ranked in the nation's top 50 in their respective events.
· The Red Raiders and Lady Raiders currently combine to have eight marks ranking in the nation's top five in their respective events.
· Texas Tech is looking to become just the third team in Big 12 history to repeat as outdoor conference champions, following up on their historic 2014 title in Lubbock.
Who's Got Next?
Texas Tech track & field travels to Des Moines, Iowa next weekend to compete at the Drake Relays, which will be held April 23-25.
Sights Set On Austin
The outdoor qualifying process differs a little bit from the one used for the indoor season. The top 48 athletes and top 24 relays in each event in the west region will advance to the NCAA West Preliminary Round, in Austin, Texas, May 28-30. From there, the top 12 athletes in each event from each region will advance to the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships, in Eugene, Ore.
Making History
Texas Tech has already had seven individuals combine to break 11 different school records this season, with many of those having been broken twice already. Overall, Tech school records have been broken 20 times in 2015.
Last Year At The Mt. SAC Relays
Beneath the bright lights at Historic Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Kennedy Kithuka brought a full day of world class track and field competition to a close with a world class performance of his own.
Racing in his first outdoor 5,000-meter event as a Red Raider, Kithuka shattered the 7-year-old school record and ascended to the top of the NCAA Division I performance chart with a memorable and downright dominant performance.
It took just 1,600-meters before Kithuka separated himself from the highly-touted field. And he never looked back, eventually cruising across the finish line with a school record and NCAA-leading time of 13 minutes 26.98 seconds. The performance shattered the previous record mark by 14 seconds.
Lady Raider Le'Tristan Pledger helped Texas Tech close out the 56th annual Mt. SAC Relays Saturday with a school record performance in the 100-meter hurdles inside Historic Hilmer Lodge Stadium.
Pledger etched her name in the outdoor record book after crossing the finish line in 13.09 seconds to take down the previous record of 13.10 set by Katie Grimes in the previous year.
Last Time Out
A slew of personal-best and nationally-ranked performances sparked Texas Tech to a sweep of the men's and women's team titles at the ACU Wes Kittley Invitational, on a windy Saturday in Abilene, Texas.
The No. 10 Red Raiders won eight events and scored 383 points, while the No. 14 Lady Raiders won nine events, on their way to 370 points at the second-annual meet named after Texas Tech head coach Wes Kittley.
Leading the way for the No. 10 men's team were Joseph Richards III (45.61), Steven Champlin (45.92) and Kyle Collins (46.23), who went 1-2-3 in the 400m dash, running the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 times in the nation in the process.
Cierra White and Le'Tristan Pledger were up to their usual tricks as White (11.32) won the women's 100m dash, and Pledger (13.16) took the victory in the women's 100m hurdles. White also won the women's 200m dash (23.23) and Pledger took second in the 100m dash, with a 11.72.
Kole Weldon won the men's hammer throw for the second consecutive week, with a toss of 59.55m/195-4, and followed that up with a win in the discus as well, with a best throw of 57.62m/189-0.
Viershanie Latham continued her strong outdoor season, sweeping the long jump and triple jump titles. Her triple jump of 12.92m/42-04.75 was an all-conditions collegiate best, and is the No. 7 mark in the NCAA.
Kyle Thompson won the men's pole vault, with a personal-best clearance of 5.30m/17-4.50, and nearly cleared 5.40m/17-8.50 after that. Haley Cook (4.00m/13-1.50) completed the event sweep on the women's side, clearing a personal-best height for the second-straight week.
Keeping A Watchful Eye
Texas Tech high jumper JaCorian Duffield is receiving votes in the April edition of the Bowerman Trophy Watch List, as announced by the U.S Track & Field And Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
The Bowerman, which debuted in 2009, is presented annually by the USTFCCCA to the most outstanding male and female collegiate track & field athletes in the nation.
Duffield swept both the Big 12 and NCAA Indoor high jump championships earlier this year, clearing what was a personal-best 2.29m/7-6.0 at the time to claim the national title over teammate Bradley Adkins and become the third indoor NCAA Champion in Texas Tech history.
At the next meet in which he competed, the Texas Relays, Duffield started his outdoor season with a bang, clearing a personal-best and school-record 2.31m/7-7.0, which at the time was the No. 1 jump in the world, and is still currently the top mark in the NCAA.
Big Time Big 12 Athletes
After Joseph Richards III's Big 12 Athlete of the Week win this week, a Tech athlete has won the honor in each week of the 2015 outdoor season so far.
This is the fourth-straight Big 12 Athlete of the Week award for the Red Raiders, after Hannah Carson won the award last week, JaCorian Duffield won the week before her, and Chris Caldwell took the honor the week before that. This is the first time Richards III has won this award, indoors or outdoors.
The last time a school was responsible for four-consecutive outdoor Big 12 Athlete of the Week Awards was in 2008, when Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego won on April 22, D'Andra Carter was honored on April 29, Kipyego was the recipient again on May 6 and Tech earned a sweep on May 13, between Patience Knight and Shawon Harris. Six different Tech athletes have won the award in 2015.
Players Mentioned
