Men First, Women Fifth After Day One of Big 12 Championship
Feb. 24, 2006
LINCOLN, Neb. –
Competing in just his third meet as a Jayhawk, sophomore Egor Agafonov already has a Big 12 crown under his belt. The Togliatti, Russia, native beat out teammate Sheldon Battle in the weight throw to be Kansas’ first individual champion of the 2006 Big 12 Indoor Championship. Agafonov’s toss of 72 feet, 7 ¾ inches, bested Battle’s top throw of 69-10 ¼. Both throws were NCAA automatically qualifying performances. This was Battle’s second year in a row finishing as runner-up in the weight throw.<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Senior Charisse Bacchus also had a great day, turning in solid performances in both the pentathlon as well as the long jump. The Cascade, Trinidad, native finished seventh overall in the pentathlon with a total of 3,644 points. Additionally, her leap of 20-5 ¼ in the long jump was good for second overall and was also her second provisionally qualifying mark of the season in that event. Josh Kirk, KU’s other multi-eventer, is currently in seventh place with 2,934 points through the first four events of the heptathlon.
Senior Tiffany Cherry broke her own school record in the 60-meter dash in her qualifying heat for tomorrow’s finals. Her time of 7.41 seconds on Friday beat her performance of 7.45 at last year’s Big 12 Indoor Championship.
Competing in the weight throw, freshman Zlata Tarasova also beat her Kansas record that she initially broke at the ISU Classic two weeks ago. Today’s toss of 61-11 was good for fourth overall in the competition and beat her previous record by 11 inches.
Running in his first 5000-meter race of the season, sophomore Paul Hefferon turned in a time of 14:13.88. His performance was good for third overall.
Many other Jayhawks qualified for tomorrow’s finals in their respective events, including Aaron Thompson (8.02) in the 60-meter dash, Cortney Jacobs (1:22.70) and Janiece Gatson (1:25.05) in the 600-yard run, Matt Baysinger (1:10.87) in the 600-yard run, Jarrell Rollins (48.93) in the 400-meter dash, Cameron Schwehr (2:26.09) and Joshy Madathil (2:26.05) in 1000-meter run, and Michael Rost (1:54.92) in the 800-meter run.
In what proved to be two of the more exciting races of the day, the men and women finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the distance medley relay. The men’s team, consisting of Cameron Schwehr, Julius Jiles, Brandon Hodges and Joshy Madathil, turned in a time of 9:51.13 while the women’s team of Laura Major, Charity Stowers, Angela Pichardo and Dena Seibel ran an 11:41.64.
After the first day of competition, the University of Kansas men’s team is in first place with 29 points. The women’s squad currently has 21 points, good for fifth.
“We’re definitely excited about where we are,” coach Stanley Redwine said after the first day. “We had a lot of great performances. I’m very excited about Egor winning the weight throw. It was a total team effort. A lot of people stepped up to get to the finals of their races, and we’re looking forward to having a good day tomorrow.”
The Big 12 Indoor Championship concludes tomorrow from the Bob Devaney Sports Complex with competition set to begin at 9:30 a.m.
