Texas Tech University Athletics
Thompson & Brown Claim Big 12 Titles On Saturday
May 14, 2016 | Track and Field
May 14, 2016
FORT WORTH, Texas -- The Texas Tech No. 8 men's and No. 19 women's track & field teams ended day two of the 2016 Big 12 Outdoor Championship with two individual titles in the heptathlon and men's long jump on Saturday, May 14.
Charles Brown's first jump of the day wins him the Big 12 Long Jump Championship! #WreckEm #Big12TF pic.twitter.com/dX3Y1vUo2r
-- TTU Track & Field/XC (@TTU_TF_XC) May 14, 2016
The duo held firm after the javelin, as Thompson improved with each of her three throws, tossing it to a distance of 42.76m/140-3 on her third attempt for 720 points. Hinton's best mark also came on her third throw, going for 34.79m/114-2 to earn 568 points. Heading into the 800 meters, Thompson had 4671 points, while Hinton had 4515 points.
Thompson left no doubt as to who would win as she took first in the 800 meters at 2:21.73 to capture her second-straight Big 12 Heptathlon title with 5,471 points. The total passed her previous-best of 5,440 points set at last year's meet, making it the fifth-best score in school history. She becomes the fifth Big 12 student-athlete to take the throne in back-to-back years.
"It feels good to score 10 points again for Texas Tech," Thompson said. "Going back-to-back is awesome. It means a lot to me because I was able to come out and put together a good mark again this year after winning it last year."
Thompson and Hinton would finish 1-2 in the event, as Hinton closed out with 5,287 points, which is good for 10th all-time at Texas Tech. They are the first teammates since 2010 to take the top two spots in the event at the conference championships.
The Red Raiders picked up another Big 12 title thanks to freshman Charles Brown in the long jump. Brown's first attempt of the day went for a strong distance of 7.75m/25-5.25, which would hold as the winning mark.
"I knew it was a good mark and I knew it would get me to the finals, but I didn't think it would win me the competition," Brown said. "It feels good because during indoor I was struggling with my approach. I knew I had the jumps in me, I just had to get my approach right. Coach [James Thomas] had been working with me, my teammates had been cheering me up and I finally got the approach right and now I'm jumping well."
Texas Tech has now claimed three of the last four Big 12 titles in the men's long jump, with Shujaa Benson and Bryce Lamb winning in 2014 and 2013, respectively. Brown is also the first freshman to win the event since 2010.
Michael Samuels opened the day in the decathlon with a sixth-place time of 15.74 (All-Conditions PR) in the 110-meter hurdles to score 762 points. He would toss the second-best discus mark of the field at 36.63m/120-2 on his last throw to pick up another 596 points.
Samuels would clear 3.80m/12-5.5 on his second attempt in the pole vault, after clearing each of the first four heights on his first attempt at the bar. A pair of personal-bests in the javelin (50.22m/164-9) and 1500 meters (4:47.51) earned Samuels a third-place finish in the Decathlon with 6,812 points.
Tech picked up two All-Big 12 performer honors in the women's long jump, as she Viershanie Latham and Gionna Jackson finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Latham's final jump of the day would propel her up to fourth at 6.10m/20-0.25, while Jackson hit the sand at 6.08m/19-11.5 to place fifth. The duo combined for nine team points for the women, and will compete again on Sunday in the triple jump.
The women's team also earned points in the women's pole vault, thanks to Haley Cook's fifth-place finish. The senior cleared the bar at 4.06m/13-3.75 on her second attempt to earn four points for the women's team standings.
The Red Raiders also qualified for the finals in a plethora of events. In the 400 meters, two from the men's team and one from the women's side advanced to Sunday's final. Kyle Collins posted the fastest time of the prelims at 46.01, while Joseph Richards III qualified with a time of 47.28. In the women's 400m, Sara Limp circled the track to a time of 54.62 to make it to the final.
Another preliminary leader came in the men's 400-meter hurdles, as JW Smith posted a time of 51.94 to lead the field. Tech also added two more in the men's 800 meters, as Vincent Crisp (1:50.20) and C.J. Jones (1:50.25) advanced to Sunday's final after strong preliminary races.
The final day of the 2016 Big 12 Outdoor Championship begins at 11 a.m. on Sunday, May 15, with the women's discus, while running finals kick off at 4:30 p.m. All of the running events will be streamed live on the Fox Sports Go app or on FoxSportsGo.com.
