Two Automatic Qualifications Highlight Day One of Husker Invitational
Feb. 3, 2006
LINCOLN, Neb. –
The <?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>University of Kansas men’s and women’s track and field teams were in Lincoln, Neb., today for the first day of competition in the Husker Invitational. The meet, which is hosted by the University of Nebraska, is not team scored.<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
The first day of competition consisted mainly of multi-events and track preliminary heats. The finals for four field events also took place, including the men’s and women’s long jump and weight throw in addition to the 5,000-meter finals (men and women) and the entire women’s pentathlon.
Sophomore Egor Agafonov, a native of Togliatti, Russia, participated in his first meet since joining the team a few weeks ago. He competed in the weight throw in a very strong field, and had a toss of 71 feet, 5 1/4 inches, good for first in the competition and second overall on the Kansas all-time throws list. Senior Sheldon Battle also threw very well on the day, finishing fourth with a toss of 70-0 ½. Both Agafonov’s and Battle’s throws were good for automatic qualifications into the NCAA Indoor Championships in that event. With this qualification, Battle has now automatically qualified in both the shot put and weight throw.
Senior Aaron Thompson and junior Josh Kirk both competed in the men’s heptathlon on Friday. Thompson scored a victory in the 60-meter dash (6.82 seconds) while Kirk had a trio of fourth place finishes in the 60-meter dash (7.27), the shot put (38-8 ¾) and the high jump (6-2 ¾). The standings after the first day have Kirk in third place with 2,792 points and Thompson in 10th place with 2,083 points.
Seniors Charisse Bacchus and Tiffany Cherry had qualifying times in their events and will move on to the finals in their respective competitions tomorrow. Bacchus ran an 8.65 in the 60-meter hurdles while Cherry ran a 7.54 in the 60-meter dash to advance.
Thompson and sophomore Julius Jiles will move on to tomorrow’s finals in the 60-meter hurdles as well after running qualifying times of 8.01 and 8.13, respectively.
In the last race of the evening, senior Matt French picked up a fourth place finish in the 5,000-meter run in a time of 15:09.66.
Day two of the Husker Invitational gets underway tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. and finishes up at approximately 6:30 p.m. from the Bob Devaney Sports Complex.
