Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Heads to Tyson Invite and Music City Challenge
February 11, 2016 | Track and Field
Feb. 11, 2016
LUBBOCK, Texas - The Texas Tech track & field teams are set for their final tune-up before the Big 12 Indoor Championships, splitting squads for the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville and the Music City Challenge in Nashville on Feb. 12-13.
Congrats to @bradley_adkins on being named Big 12 Athlete of the Week! https://t.co/uHcXS9qFaQ #WreckEm #Jumpman pic.twitter.com/MC3ZVMNWUS
- TTU Track & Field/XC (@TTU_TF_XC) February 10, 2016
The Red Raiders will face some of the best competition in the country this weekend in Fayetteville and Nashville. Men's and women's ranked teams at the Tyson Invitational include: Alabama (No. 15/--), Arkansas (No. 8/No. 1), Baylor (--/No. 17), Clemson (--/No. 25), Florida (No. 1/No. 4), Kansas State (No. 25/No. 6), Kentucky (--/No. 12), LSU (No. 4/No. 21), Miami (Fla.) (--/No. 15), N.C. State (No. 19/No. 9), Nebraska (No. 16/--), Oklahoma State (No. 24/No. 22), Southern California (No. 17/No. 7), TCU (No. 9/--), Tennessee (No. 7/No. 14), Texas (No. 5/No. 5) and Texas A&M (No. 2/No. 18). The Georgia men's team (No. 10) will join the Red Raiders as the two ranked squads at the Music City Challenge.
Friday's schedule begins at 1:15 p.m. with the women's 400-meter dash. Saturday starts a couple hours earlier at 11 a.m., beginning with the women's pole vault.
The men's team is ranked No. 14 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) computer rankings for the second-straight week. The Red Raiders debuted in the 2016 poll at No. 17.
GUESS WHO'S BACK…BACK AGAIN
The Red Raiders return to Fayetteville for their fifth weekend of competition, after starting the season there. That weekend, Chris Caldwell recorded a time of 7.75 seconds to win his first of three-straight 60-meter hurdle finals, a time that was 0.01 seconds from the 10th-best time in school history. Shanice Stewart recorded the sixth-best long jump mark in Texas Tech history, hitting a distance of 6.29m/20-7.75 en route to the victory. Trey Culver and Bradley Adkins finished 1-2 in the men's high jump, making it the second-straight meet at the Randal Tyson Track Center that Texas Tech teammates placed first and second, the previous time being the NCAA Indoor Championships.
LEAVING THEIR MARK
Four more top-10 marks were added to the Texas Tech record books thanks to last weekend's performances, totaling 11 this season. Viershanie Latham broke her own school record in the women's triple jump with a leap of 13.06m/42-10.25, making it back-to-back weeks she's accomplished the feat. Latham was joined by Gionna Jackson, who finished third in the event and put up the fifth-best mark at Texas Tech at 12.71m/41-8.5. In the men's 400 meters, Kyle Collins posted his second-straight sub-47 second time, clocking in at 46.43 seconds, for the seventh-best time in school history and sixth-best in the NCAA this season. For the third time this season, Shanice Stewart wrote her name into the top 10 marks in the women's long jump, this time at No. 8 with a jump of 6.22m/20-5.
Shanice Stewart. 3 TTU Top 10 LJ marks in 2016:
6th - 6.29m/20-7.75
8th - 6.22m/20-5 - Friday
10th - 6.19m/20-3.75https://t.co/qEXnavdzal- TTU Track & Field/XC (@TTU_TF_XC) February 6, 2016
Senior Bradley Adkins racked up his first Big 12 Athlete of the Week honor of his career on Feb. 10. Adkins finished first among collegiate athletes in the men's high jump at the New Mexico Classic after clearing 2.20m/7-2.5 on his first attempt. It was the top jump of any collegian over the weekend, leads the conference and ranks fourth in the NCAA this season. It also marked the second-straight week he had improved his mark from the meet before. Adkins joined Chris Caldwell as the two Texas Tech recipients of the weekly honor in 2016, Caldwell's coming after running a time of 7.75 in the 60-meter hurdles in Fayetteville on Jan. 15.
IRON WOMAN
In her first collegiate pentathlon, freshman Kaylee Hinton tallied a first-place fini>sh and came 71 points from the 10th-best score in school history. Hinton opened the event with a time of 8.59 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles in fourth. In the high jump, Hinton cleared 1.66m/5-5.25, which was also the fourth-best mark. After a toss of 10.70m/35-1.25 in the shot put, Hinton recorded the top long jump mark at 5.78m/18-11.75 to rocket her to third-place and 30 points from the leader with one event to go. In her first 800-meter run of the season, she posted a time of 2:27.74 to propel her to her first pentathlon win while donning the Scarlet & Black. Hinton ranks second in the Big 12 and 23rd in the NCAA this season after her performance last weekend.
THREE'S COMPANY
Every time Shanice Stewart has competed in the long jump in 2016, she has recorded a new top 10 mark in the Texas Tech record books. At the Arkansas Invitational, she recorded a first-place finish behind a mark of 6.29m/20-7.75, which is the sixth-best jump in school history. Two weeks later at the New Mexico Team Invitational, she came in second at 6.19m/20-3.75. That mark would stand as the ninth-best at Tech, until last weekend. Stewart added another first-place finish at the Husker Invitational after reaching a distance of 6.22m/20-5, ranking eighth in the school record books and pushing her previous jump to 10th. Stewart's name appears eight times in the school's top 10 records.
BACK-TO-BACK
Kyle Collins has had two stellar performances in the 400-meter dash this season. In his first at the New Mexico Team Invitational, he put up a time of 46.83, which was then the 17th-fastest time in the country and fourth in the Big 12. Last weekend, he improved his time and circled the track to a mark of 46.43, finishing first among collegiate competitors and second only to Olympic medalist Jarrin Solomon by 0.006 seconds. This mark moved Collins up 11 spots to No. 6 in the country. Collins will get another opportunity to improve his time on a fast track this weekend in Fayetteville and will be joined by teammate Joseph Richards III, who leads the conference and is fourth in the country at 46.39 seconds. The duo is also a staple of the men's 4x400 relay team, which is ranked fifth in the NCAA heading into the Tyson Invitational.
INTO THE RANKINGS
The Texas Tech men's team remained at No. 14 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) computer rankings this week. The Red Raiders opened the season at No. 17 and moved up to 15th after two weeks of competition. Tech is one of five Big 12 schools in the top 25 in this week's poll, as Texas leads the way at No. 5, followed by TCU (9), Oklahoma State (24) and Kansas State (25). On the women's side, Texas and Kansas State are at the top of the leaderboard at fifth and sixth, respectively, while Baylor (17) and Oklahoma State (22) also check into the poll. Tech will face a total of 18 ranked universities this weekend in Fayetteville and Nashville.
Players Mentioned
