Jayhawks Journey to Arkansas, Notre Dame for Pre-Conference Tune-Up

LAWRENCE, Kan. – With the Big 12 Indoor Championships looming next week, Kansas track & field will send a handful of Jayhawks to a pair of meets this weekend for one final tune-up prior to the league meet. Fifteen Kansas tracksters will journey to the Randal Tyson Track Center for the Arkansas Qualifier on Feb. 19, while the KU women’s distance medley relay squad will shoot for one of the nation’s fastest times of the season at the Alex Wilson Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, on Feb. 20. 
 
Livingston Trying for More History in the 800
Over the last two weekends, junior Strymar Livingston has turned in two of the school’s fastest indoor 800 meter clockings of all time, moving to third on KU’s all-time list with his personal best 1:49.19 last weekend at the ISU Classic. The Brooklyn, New York native will try to shave off even more time this weekend when he hits the oval inside the Randal Tyson Center at the Arkansas Qualifier. Livingston’s performance last week in Ames currently has him sitting at 33^rd on this season’s NCAA 800-meter list, meaning he will need to shave around 1.5 seconds off that time to try and find himself inside the all-important top-16 at season’s end and qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
 
With Livingston expected to be a busy man at the Big 12 Indoor Championships next weekend, the 800 meter race in Arkansas Friday will likely be Livingston’s best chance to post a half-mile time that could punch his ticket to the national meet in early March. The junior will toe the start line for his event at 6:50 p.m., Friday.
 
KU Women Looking for Strong DMR Outing at Alex Wilson
The Jayhawks are sending a star-studded lineup to the Alex Wilson Invitational Saturday in hopes of qualifying a team to the NCAA Championships in the Distance Medley Relay. The KU quartet is expected to include juniors Whitney Adams and Lydia Saggau, sophomore Sharon Lokedi and freshman Nicole Montgomery. All four Jayhawks have already constructed stellar indoor campaigns.
 
Lokedi is a week removed from breaking the KU record in the 5,000 meters and is ranked second in the Big 12 in the 3,000 meters. Montgomery is coming off a career outing in the 400 meters at the Tyson Invitational last week, when she became the fourth-fastest KU female in the indoor event with her time of 54.43. Adams has moved among the top-six Jayhawks on Kansas’ all-time list in three indoor events this season, which includes becoming the second-fastest Jayhawk in the 800 meters with her personal-best time of 2:07.71 at the Husker Invitational. Saggau also posted a career best in the 800 meters at the Husker Invite and is an All-Big 12 performer in the 1,000 meters.
 
The foursome will hit the track inside the Loftus Sports Complex on Saturday for the distance medley relay event that routinely produces some of the best times every indoor season. The women’s DMR is slated to begin at 10:50 a.m. (CT).

SANNI HOPING FOR MORE MAGIC IN THE 200 METERS
Junior sprinter Zainab Sanni will also be looking to extend her indoor season past the Big 12 meet next week and will try to improve upon her already impressive yearly best in the 200 meters at the Arkansas Qualifier. The Aurora, Colorado product’s personal-record 23.68 clocking at the Husker Invitational has her among the top-35 sprinters in the nation, but Sanni will need to shave off a few more fractions if she wants to qualify for her first NCAA Indoor Championships. For the second-consecutive week she will race inside the Randal Tyson track which has been the site of 14 of the 20 fastest 200-meter times in 2016. The starting gun for the 200 meters will go off at 7:25 p.m.
 
OTHER JAYHAWKS COMPETING IN ARKANSAS

• Laura Taylor – Pole Vault (3 p.m.)
• Tre Daniels, Matt Anyiwo, Alex Wilson, Jaime Wilson – 400 meters (5:30 p.m.)
• Dorie Dalzell, Megan Linder, Morgan Lober, Wumi Omare – 400 meters (5:45 p.m.)
• Hussain Al Hizam, Paulo Benavides, Greg Lupton – Pole Vault (6 p.m.)
• Jaron Hartley – 200 meters (7:10 p.m.)

 
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks will head back to Ames, Iowa for the Big 12 Indoor Championships to be held in the Lied Recreation Center for the third-straight season. The league meet is scheduled to kick off Friday, February 26 and conclude Saturday, February 27. Get live updates and results from the Jayhawks’ performances by following on Twitter, Instagram and Vine at @KUTrack.