KU Track and Field Travels to Two Weekend Meets

Feb. 9, 2006

LAWRENCE, Kan. –

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The University of Kansas men’s and women’s track and field teams are on the road again this weekend as they travel to both the ISU Classic in Ames, Iowa, and the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. Both meets begin tomorrow, Feb. 10, and wrap up on Saturday.

Two New Faces…
A pair of Jayhawks made their debut with the team last weekend at the Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb., and one already booked his ticket for the NCAA Indoor Championships in March. Sophomore Egor Agafonov, a native of Togliatti, Russia, had an automatically qualifying throw of 71-5 1/4 in the weight throw, good to win the competition and put him in second place on KU’s all-time throws list. Additionally, freshman Zlata Tarasova, also from Togliatti, had a solid 13th place performance in the weight throw. Her toss of 53-10 1/2 put her on top of this season’s performance list.

Kansas Men Ranked…
The University of Kansas men’s track and field team is ranked No. 8 in the country in the new Trackwire.com national poll. The team entered the rankings on Jan. 16 at No. 13, dropped to 18th the following week and moved back up to No. 15 in last week’s edition. The Trackwire 25 projects a hypothetical score for the NCAA meet, factoring in injury reports and other variables supported by information gathered from coaches and NCAA-qualifying competitions across the country. Kansas’ projection this week was 24 points for the NCAA Indoor Championships. This projection is generated by scoring the Dandy Dozen, a power ranking of the top 12 athletes and relay squads in each NCAA event.

Qualifying Performances from the Husker Invite…
In addition to Agafonov’s mammoth qualifying performance in the weight throw, senior Sheldon Battle also qualified in the event with a toss of 70-0 1/2. Battle has now automatically qualified in both the shot put and the weight throw. Additionally, in his first race of the season, senior Benson Chesang ran a provisionally qualifying time in the 3000-meter run of 8:00.83.

Jayhawks in the Dandy Dozen…
This week’s edition of the Trackwire Dandy Dozen showcases senior Sheldon Battle and newcomer Egor Agafonov. Battle, who owns the longest throw in the shot put in the nation thus far, stayed on top in the shot and stayed at No. 5 in the weight throw. Agafonov, KU’s other representative, made an immediate splash in the rankings, debuting at No. 1 in the country in the weight throw after having competed in just one meet on the season. He also owns the longest throw in the nation in that event. The Dandy Dozen is a power ranking of the top 12 athletes and relay squads in each NCAA event. The list is used in compiling Trackwire’s weekly top 25 team rankings.

Two More Pavilion Records Fall…
Former Kansas great Charlie Gruber and a Oklahoma Baptist relay team broke Anschutz Pavilion records over the weekend at the Jayhawk Invitational. Gruber, a 2004 Olympian, broke the facility record in the mile run with a time of 4:02.59. The OBU runners broke the 3200-meter relay record with a time of 7:47.44. These two records bring the mark up to a total of eight that fell in just over a week.

Battle Automatically Qualifies in the Shot Put…
Having already provisionally qualified in the event at the Arkansas Invitational (1-13-06), senior Sheldon Battle had a toss of 65-8 1/4 in the shot put on Friday to beat the field and put him in the championship meet in March. He also won the weight throw with a toss of 68-7 3/4, improving on his mark from last week that already had him provisionally qualified for the indoor championships. His two victories on the day made it the second week in a row he won both competitions.