Jayhawks Journey to Big Apple for Armory Collegiate Invite

Jan. 30, 2013

Meet Notes in PDF Format Get Acrobat Reader

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Armory Collegiate Invitational
Dates

Friday, Feb.1, 2013
Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013

Location New York, N.Y.
Venue The Armory
Start Time Fri – 8:30 a.m. (CT)
Sat – 7:30 a.m. (CT)
Coverage FloTrack Webstream
Meet Home ArmoryTrack.com
Meet Schedule
Accepted Entries: Men | Women

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas men’s and women’s track and field squads will hit the road this weekend when they make their way to New York City for the 2013 Armory Collegiate Invitational Feb. 1-2. The meet will take place at The Armory Track and Field Center in downtown Manhattan and will feature 23 teams ranked in the top-25 of either or the men’s and women’s national polls, including the No. 2 ranked KU women.

KU_Track Quick Hits

  • Kansas will travel to New York for the Armory Collegiate for the fourth-straight season. More than 100 universities and colleges spanning both the nation and the globe will compete at the meet that is now in its 12th year.
  • If the season were to end today, the Kansas women would have eight Jayhawks qualify for the NCAA Championships in eight events. Last season the national runner-up team had seven athletes qualify in six events.
  • In only her third-career pentathlon, sophomore Lindsay Vollmer broke the school record in the event with her score of 4,073 at the Jayhawk Classic last week. The mark also took down the facility record set in 1992.
  • Andrea Geubelle once again has found her way to the top of the NCAA, both in the long jump and triple jump. The senior’s Jan. 29 triple jump mark of 13.45 meters and her Anschutz record long jump mark of 6.25 meters are both ranked among the top-five in the nation.
  • Junior Alex Bishop vaulted to new PR heights twice in the last two weeks. Most recently, he cleared 5.31 meters (17-5 ft.) at the Jayhawk Classic on Jan. 25.
  • Freshman Anastasiya Muchkayev has now broken her native Israel’s national shot put record twice this season. Muchkayev threw 16.18 meters on Dec. 6, but hit a mark of 16.78 meters last week at the Jayhawk Classic.
  • Natalia Bartnovskaya moved to No. 2 on KU’s all-time indoor pole vault list at the Jayhawk Challenge with her clearance of 4.29 meters (14-0.75 ft.). The mark sits as the third-best in the nation this year.
  • Freshman Tianna Valentine has already made her mark as one of the fastest Jayhawks in school history. She now ranks fourth on the all-time school 60 meter list after running 7.45 at the Jayhawk Classic last week.
  • Senior Kyle Clemons ran a career-best 600 yards (1:09.77) on Jan. 11. The time remains as the fastest in the nation this season.
  • Last week at the Jayhawk Classic (Jan. 25), junior Natalie Becker improved on her personal best mile time by over eight seconds, finishing in 4:53.29.

LAST TIME OUT
Sophomore Lindsay Vollmer broke the 15-year-old school pentathlon record Friday afternoon as the Kansas men’s and women’s track teams wrapped up their home indoor schedule at the Jayhawk Classic inside Anschutz Pavilion. Eleven other Jayhawks collected individual victories including all four of the KU relay teams.

Vollmer recorded personal bests in three of the five events on the day to record her new personal best score of 4,073. Andrea Geubelle moved her name near the top of the national lists once again, recording a mark of 13.45 meters (44-1.5 ft.) to win the triple jump. Demi Payne and Alex Bishop had career days in the women’s and men’s pole vault, with Payne leaping to 4.25 meters (13-11.75 ft.) and Bishop clearing 5.31 meters (17-5 ft.).

VOLLMER’S RECORD DAY
Sophomore Lindsay Vollmer became the first Jayhawk to break a school record this season, taking down Candace Mason’s 15-year-old pentathlon record on Jan. 25 at the Jayhawk Classic in Lawrence. Vollmer started the day by collecting an impressive 1,101 points in the 60-meter hurdles with her PR time of 8.53. Another personal best in the high jump (1.72 meters [5-7.75 ft.]) earned her 879 points and a strong throw of 11.66 meters (38-3.25 ft.) in the shot put claimed 639 points and put the sophomore in a commanding lead with two events to go. In the long jump, she notched her third personal best of the day, leaping to a mark of 5.85 meters (19-2.5 ft.).

Vollmer completed the 800 meters in 2:26.24 to bring her point total up to 4,073, enough to take down the KU pentathlon record by 20 points. Vollmer’s mark places her at No. 5 in the NCAA rankings this season and puts her in prime position for a qualifying spot at the NCAA Indoor Championships in early March.

DIAMOND TO COMPETE AT BOSTON GRAND PRIX
While her teammates are competing in New York, junior sprinter Diamond Dixon will venture to Boston, Mass., this weekend for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix held at the Reggie Lewis Center on the campus of Roxbury Community College.

Dixon will compete in the 400 meters, which is slated for Saturday, Feb. 1 at 5:04 p.m. (CT). She will be one of four “elite” athletes competing in the race, which will include former Texas A&M All-American Jessica Beard.

JAYHAWKS FLYING TO THE TOP OF THE NCAA
The Jayhawks have used the early-season meets to climb near the top of the NCAA performance charts. Currently, KU has nine athletes ranked in the nation’s top-20 in nine events on the women’s side and two athletes in two events on the men’s side. The No. 20 mark is an important ranking to stay above since the top-16 performers in each event at season’s end will punch tickets to the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. on March 8-9.

A year ago, Jayhawk men and women ended the indoor and outdoor seasons ranked in the NCAA top-10 in 17 events and No. 1 in three events, including the women’s indoor 400 meters, women’s indoor triple jump and the women’s indoor 4×400-meter relay.

JAYHAWKS INVADING THE RECORD BOOKS
Only halfway through the 2013 indoor season several Jayhawks have already begun to move their way up in the school’s indoor record books. Besides Vollmer’s pentathlon record, four KU women have already toppled some Anschutz Facility records; Paris Daniels in the 200 meters, Alena Krechyk in the weight throw, Natalya Bartnovskaya in the pole vault and Andrea Geubelle in the long jump. Kyle Clemons also recently inserted his name into the Anschutz record books with his 1:09.77 in the 600 yards at the Jayhawk Challenge.

A total of 13 indoor and outdoor school records are currently held by Jayhawks on the active roster, all but one of them by women. As is no surprise, Diamond Dixon and Andrea Geubelle hold both the indoor and outdoor KU records in the 400 meters and triple jump, respectively. Alena Krechyk has been consistently topping her own school record in the weight and hammer throws for two seasons now. Senior Heather Bergmann sits atop the KU modern-day javelin charts after breaking the record last season. And the women’s 4×400-meter relay, which is comprised of all returners, holds the indoor and outdoor marks by quite a wide margin. The most recent addition to the record-breaker club was Lindsay Vollmer in the indoor pentathlon.

VAULTING VIRTUOSOS
The KU pole vaulters have been arguably the most impressive event group thus far in 2013. Juniors Natalia Bartnovskaya and Demi Payne have each climbed their way into the NCAA’s top-five rankings. Bartnovskaya is less than an inch from breaking the school record after clearing 4.29 meters (14-0.75 ft.), while Payne recently moved up to No. 4 on the all-time school performance lists with her PR height of 4.25m (13-11.25 ft.). Bartnovskaya’s mark has her at No. 3 in the nation with Payne at No. 5.

On the men’s side Alex Bishop has put himself in a NCAA qualifying position after notching a personal-best height of 5.31 meters (17-5 ft.) last week. The mark is the 13th-best in the nation this season. Sophomore Regan Gilbert also has been impressive, clearing 5.30 meters (17-4.5 ft) two weeks ago at the UCS Pole Vault Summit. Since the Summit was not an NCAA sanctioned event, Gilbert’s mark does not qualify for the national rankings.

KANSAS WOMEN STILL NO. 2, GAINING ON NO. 1
For the third-straight poll, the KU women’s track & field team remained ranked as the nation’s No. 2 team as released by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Jan. 29. Kansas is gaining on Clemson at the top of the rankings, now just five points behind the Tigers as opposed to a 24 point gap a week ago. The Jayhawks have remained ranked second in the nation after claiming the spot in the preseason rankings released three weeks ago.

The Jayhawks are the highest ranked of their conference brethren. KU joins Iowa State (No. 10), Texas (No. 14) and Baylor (No. 18) as Big 12 teams named to this week’s rankings.

MUCHKAYEV MAKES NATIONAL HEADLINES
Freshman thrower Anastasiya Muchkayev didn’t necessarily make U.S. headlines but was highly publicized in her home country of Israel after her performance at the Bob Timmons Challenge on Dec. 6, 2012. The native of Be’er Sheva, Israel, hit a shot put mark of 53-1 ft., to win the event in her collegiate debut. The mark was not only a personal best but broke the Israeli national record in the event.

After downing Israel’s outdoor shot put and discus records early in 2012, Muchkayev was named the Israeli Track & Field Athlete of the Year in late December.

IN COACH REDWINE’S WORDS
This weekend will present the athletes with their first really competitive meet of the season. How do you think the Jayhawks will handle the big stage?
“It will be really good for both the men’s and women’s teams to go to New York. It’s a great experience and a great competition. I expect us to go up there and compete well. I know the athletes are fired up to get out there so we’re looking forward to it.”

Does a big, national meet like this give the coaches a good measuring stick of how well the athletes will react at the NCAA meet? Or is it too soon to say?
“It’s still a bit too early to jump to conclusions but a meet like this can really give an athlete confidence to know that they can compete and realize exactly where they are versus some other great athletes from across the U.S. People often times perform differently with more intense competition and this meet will definitely allow for that.”

This will be the first time this season the track athletes will run on the banked track. How do you think that change will affect them?
“As we move forward, the NCAA track is banked so they’ll need to be prepared to race on that kind of surface. The Big 12 Championships will be on a flat track and so they need to know how to compete on a flat track as well. By that time, I think we will have the best of both worlds and this weekend will just allow our runners to work out the mistakes.”

With less than a month until the Big 12 Championships, are you happy with the direction both teams are headed?
“It’s time to start getting race-fit, time to start sharpening up and being ready to compete at the national level and at the conference level. I think if we do those things we’ll be pretty successful.”

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