Texas Tech Set To Defend Big 12 Outdoor Title
May 14, 2015 | Track and Field
May 14, 2015
The Tech No. 7 men's and No. 10 women's track & field teams will travel to Ames, Iowa, for the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, to be held May 15-17. The men will look to defend their 2014 team outdoor championship, which they won at the Fuller Track Complex, a year ago.
The meet begins Friday at 11 a.m., with the combined events, and select field event finals. The championships continue Saturday, with field events beginning at noon, and running event prelims starting at 3:30 p.m. The meet concludes on Sunday, as field events begin at noon and running event finals start at 3 p.m.
"On paper, I think both teams have a shot at doing well, but it's what you do when the lights come on that matters," Texas Tech head coach Wes Kittley said. "With how they're ranked in conference, the men could score 150 points, which would be enough to win. They just have to take care of business. Our big guns have to do what they've done all year, but the key to success will be your athletes who enter the meet ranked in the middle of the pack. Those people were the ones who really stepped up last year, and they'll need to do it again. Same goes on the women's side. You have to take care of yourself, and everything else will fall into place."
The Tech men come into Ames looking to become just the third team in conference history to repeat as outdoor champs. It would also be the third Big 12 outdoor team title in school history. The Lady Raiders are searching for their first Big 12 outdoor team championship, and will look to improve on last year's third-place finish, in Lubbock.
Tech is coming off a huge performance at the Red Raider Open, where the Red Raiders and Lady Raiders combined for 15 event wins and 30 personal-best marks.
The Big 12 will host a live stream of the meet each day at Big12Sports.com, and regional FOX Sports networks will carry live coverage on Sunday.
Out of the Blocks
-Â Texas Tech's men's (No. 7) and women's (No. 10) track and field teams have each been ranked in the top 20 for the duration of the outdoor season so far. This week's rankings mark the first time both teams have been in the top 10 since 2012.
- 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 men's title in Lubbock.
- As of today, Texas Tech is in position to earn 48 men's and women's entries for the 2015 NCAA West Preliminary Round, in Austin, Texas. Through a qualifying finish at that meet is the only way an athlete can gain entry to the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships, in Eugene, Ore.
- Texas Tech currently has 22 men and women and three relays ranked in the nation's top 50 in their respective events. The teams also combine to have the Big 12's top mark in eight different events.
- The Red Raiders and Lady Raiders currently combine to have nine marks ranking in the nation's top 10 in their respective events.
- If the Texas Tech men perform to their current conference rankings, they would score 150 points, which would be just short of last year's winning score (160.5), which was 35.5 points clear of second-place Texas.
Who's Got Next?
Texas Tech track & field will head to Austin, Texas, for the NCAA West Preliminary Round, May 28-30. At that meet, the Red Raiders will have a chance to qualify for the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Sights Set On Austin
The outdoor qualifying process differs a little bit from the one used for the indoor season. The top 48Â 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 eight individuals combine to break 12 different school records this season, with many of those having been broken twice already. Overall, Tech school records have been broken 22 times in 2015.
Last Year At The Big 12 Championships
The Red Raider track and field team won its second Big 12 Conference title in program history Sunday, and did so in front of its home crowd at the Terry and Linda Fuller Track and Field Complex.
The Red Raiders scored a program -best 160.5 points over the three days of competition, and became the first Big 12 track and field team to win a conference title at home since Colorado in 2008.
Senior Red Raider distance runner Kennedy Kithuka and junior high jumper Bradley Adkins each won individual Big 12 Championships Sunday as Kithuka completed the 5,000 and 10,000-meter sweep with a facility record performance in the 5k late Sunday. In his second dominating performance of the weekend, he took down a Fuller Track and Field Complex record that had stood for 31 years, and now has six individual Big 12 track and field and cross country championships to his name. Kithuka broke a seven-year old Fuller Track record Friday with an equally overpowering performance in the 10,000-meters.
Meanwhile, junior thrower Kole Weldon was named the men's High Point Scorer after combing for 24 points with runner-up performances in each the shot put, hammer throw and discus. With the three-day effort, he became Tech's first High Point Scorer in program history while earning All-Conference honors in each of the three events for the second-straight season.
Adkins went on to win Tech's first conference high jump title since 2003 clearing a career-best 2.21-meters (7'-3.00"). He was followed by teammate JaCorian Duffield in second and freshman Dayton Fisher who tied for third as the jumpers combined for 23.50 points in the event.
Tech became the first team in Big 12 history to go 1-2-3 in the high jump at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships.
Last Time Out
The No. 6 Red Raiders and no. 12 Lady Raiders combined for 15 event wins and nearly 30 marks that either equaled or created new personal-bests at the Red Raider Open, in Lubbock, Texas, on Thursday.
The highlight of the day took place at the women's triple jump, where three Lady Raiders scored top-12 NCAA marks to lead the No. 12 women's team. Paetyn Revell threw down jump after jump that broke her previous personal best, and it all culminated in a school record flight of 13.43m/44-0.75, two and a half feet longer than her previous wind-legal personal best. That mark vaulted her to No. 3 in the nation.
Viershanie Latham had a personal-best mark as well, leaping 13.17m/43-2.50, which slightly moves her up the national standings to No. 8, and Gionna Jackson completed the trio of personal-bests marks, jumping 12.98m/42-7.0, good enough for No. 12 in the nation.
Leading the way for the No. 6 Red Raiders was JaCorian Duffield, who won the high jump, with a clearance of 2.26m/7-5.0. He is still undefeated in the outdoor season, and has not lost in the high jump since Feb. 14, at the indoor Tyson Invitational.
In the sprints and hurdles, the usual suspects led the way on the women's side. Cierra White (23.17) won the 200 meters, and Le'Tristan Pledger ran a very fast 13.02 to win the 100 meter hurdles.
Keeping A Watchful Eye
Texas Tech high jumper JaCorian Duffield has received votes in both the April and May editions 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
Texas Tech finished with 10 Big 12 Athlete of the Week awards between the 2015 indoor and outdoor seasons, which is the second highest total by a single team in Big 12 history. Seven different Tech athletes won the award.
Players Mentioned
