Tech Set for Big 12 Outdoor Championships in Manhattan

Friday, May 14

Manhattan, Kan.

11:00 A.M.

Texas Tech Athletics

Big 12 Outdoor Championships

Tickets

Tech Set for Big 12 Outdoor Championships in Manhattan

May 13, 2021 | Track and Field

Buy Tickets Live Results Schedule

Red Raiders primed for K-State-hosted conference title meet.

By: Jeremy O'Brien

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech will depart Wednesday for the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, to be held Friday through Sunday in Manhattan, Kan. It will be the first Big 12 Conference outdoor title meet since 2019. The meet was originally set to be held in Lubbock this year, but with the 2020 contest canceled it was given to K-State, who was set to host in 2020.

The Red Raider men will enter the meet defending outdoor champions. They posted a dominant 164 points – just 11 from the Big 12 record – to capture their fourth straight conference title en route to winning the first men's NCAA title in any sport in school history one month later. This season, they will enter projected second behind favorites Texas, who won the indoor title in March. The USTFCCCA has Tech at 969.29 points in its Conference TFRI index. The Longhorns are just ahead with 1,089.05.

Gabe Oladipo will get his first crack at a Big 12 outdoor title, entering the top discus thrower in the conference. Oladipo's top mark of 192'-2" (58.57m) – a personal best – goes along with his second-ranked shot put PR of 61'-11.5" (18.88m). He even ranks top-eight in the hammer throw with a personal-best distance of 206'-10" (63.04m), which landed just one centimeter shy of the school record.

Tech's other conference leader is Maliek Kendall, who returned after missing most of the indoor season to run a PR 13.78 in the 110m hurdles. A career best, it was the first time in his career he has run sub-14 seconds in the event.

The sprints group will be in position to score big points at the meet, led by Courtney Lindsey and Karayme Bartley. Lindsey's final meet of the regular season resulted in a career-best 10.20 in the 100m, which ranks third in the conference. He has run as low as 20.56 in the 200m, which ranks fifth. That 200m will also contain Bartley and his career-best 20.42 run at the Texas Tech Open. Terrance Jones has run as low as 20.88 in his first season in Lubbock, and Ashton O'Conner will join the group as well.

The 100m contain Jacolby Shelton and his 10.28, as well as Keion Sutton and his career-best 10.35 run this season. Sutton. Shelton and Sutton contributed points to Tech's 2019 Big 12 and NCAA team titles on the 4x100. That relay has run as low as 39.37 this season with those two plus Lindsey and O'Conner on it.

As was the case at this year's indoor conference meet, middle distance will have the opportunity to score across multiple events. Takieddine Hedeilli, who has broken the school records in the outdoor 800m (1:46.83) and 1500m (3:41.60) in his first outdoor season as a collegiate runner, will lead the group. Marco Vilca used his final tune-up meet to run a big career-best 1:47.59 in the 800m. Sven Cepus has also run sub-1:50 this outdoor season, timing 1:49.30. This middle distance group also has at its disposal Owen Likins, Alfred Chawonza and Paul Sherrill, who are versatile enough to run in either.

Jumps will be led by Big 12 Champion and All-American Jalen Seals, who ranks fourth in the long. Seals' career-best 25'-6.75" (7.79m) was set at the Texas Relays. This jumps group also includes Safin Wills (25'-0.75"/7.64m) and Clark Griffith (24'-11.25"/7.60m). Jequan Hogan joins Seals in the triple, owning a season-best 52'-8.75" (16.07m).

Werner Bouwer will throw the javelin in search of his first Big 12 title since 2017. The South African jav specialist, who was an All-American in 2019, has finished runner-up each of his last two outdoor conference meets.

The women's team, as it has the last couple of years, will contend for its first-ever Big 12 title. The USTFCCCA has Tech's Conference TFRI at 1,014 points to Texas' 1,307.29.

Field events provides this group a huge boost. Led by Ruth Usoro, who has used her first outdoor season at the Division I level to land some of the best long and triple jumps marks in NCAA history. Usoro, who has already swept the Big 12 indoor titles in both events, will get her crack at the outdoor versions of them. At 47'-7" (14.50m), she leads the conference – and country – in the triple. Her long jump mark of 22'-2.25" (6.76m), a school record and the first jump in program history over 22 feet, has her second. Monae' Nichols has been on an incredible stretch of her own, became one of three – including Usoro – in school history to jump 21 feet, marking 21'-5.5" (6.54m) at the Texas Relays. Her 43'-5.75" (13.25m) is also one of the best in school history. Chinne Okoronkwo (42'-11.5"/13.09m) and Chelsey Cole (41'-5.75"/12.64m) join the ranks to make the foursome the top triple group in the nation this season.

Okoronkwo will also pole vault. A three-time Big 12 Champion in the event and reigning outdoor title holder, will enter with a season-best 14'-0" (4.27m). The women's pole vault crew has been incredible strong this season. Okoronkwo, along with Chloe Wall (13'-8.25"/4.17m), Ryleigh Redding (13'-8.25"/4.17m) and Sarah Tackitt (13'-4.25"/4.07m) have made this group the first in school history to have four vaulters over 13'-4". They are the third-ranked vault foursome in the nation this season.

Two-time Big 12 weight throw champion and discus All-American Seasons Usual will enter this meet with a PR of 195'-10" (59.70m) – over 16 feet better than the distance that placed her fourth at the 2019 meet. Kayli Johnson ranks seventh in the conference with a season-best 180'-4" (54.96m) to go with her fourth-ranked 55'-10.5" (17.03m) mark in the shot put. Rounding out the throws will be Callie Jones, the heptathlete who sits fourth on the conference's open javelin leaderboard with a top throw of 160'-6" (48.92m).

Jones will enter the hep with a career-best 5,809 points, set at Arizona's Jim Click Shootout. Kaylee Hinton owns a season-best score of 5,809 points. Set in the season's final meet, the score was just 60 from her own school record. Hinton is a two-time Big 12 Champion in the event, winning first in 2017 and repeating in 2018. The momentum from the 2017 title would propel her to an eight-place finish at that year's NCAA Outdoor Championship, making her a First Team All-American for the first time in her career.

The sprints and hurdles group will be led by Lexye Price, whose continuous PR'ing in the 400m hurdles has not only handed her the conference lead but propelled her into the national top-10 in the event. Price's personal-best 57.41 has been monumental improvement from the 1:01.02 she ran at the 2019 Big 12 meet.

Price has run on the team's season-best 4x400 relay, which has clocked as low as 3:32.85. Sara Limp ran the second leg on that relay. She will lead the group into the 400m on the high from her career-best 52.18 run at the Corky/Crofoot Shootout. That meet was a breakout for the quarter-mile group, which all timed either personal or season bests in the race. Amanda Crawford (52.95, SB) and Jadsia Warden (53.72, PR) – who also ran on the team's best 4x4 – were on Limp's heels. Kiara Lester ran an outdoor PR of 53.79 in the race as well.

Peyton Ricks, who seems to PR every week, has worked her career-best 100m time down to a fifth-ranked 11.47. She has also run a career-best 23.45 this season. Virginia Kerley (11.52) and Kiah Dubarry-Gay (11.54) also stand to run strong 100m races. D'Jenne Egharevba was a 200m scorer at the 2019 conference meet, running 23.80. She has run as low as 23.60 this season.

Joanna Archer, who has put together several PRs this season, owns a season- and career-best 2:07.31 which will enter her in the meet ranked ninth in the conference.

The opening day of the Big 12 Outdoor Championships will begin at 10 a.m. with the beginning of the heptathlon and decathlon. Field events will begin at noon, and the lone running events – the 10,000m – will take place at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase here. Live results will be available here.