Bacchus Automatically Qualifies in Long Jump
March 4, 2006
SOUTH BEND, Ind. –
Student-athletes from the University of Kansas men’s and women’s track teams were in South Bend, Ind., and Ames, Iowa, this weekend competing in their last opportunities to qualify for next weekend’s NCAA Indoor Championships. Several Jayhawks turned in strong performances in their respective events to boost their chances of getting to Fayetteville. <?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Competing in the Alex Wilson Invitational hosted by Notre Dame, senior Charisse Bacchus put together an NCAA automatically qualifying performance in the long jump and in the process broke her own school record. Her leap of 21 feet, 3/4 inches, was good for first place at the meet and bested her previous record of 20-9 that she had originally set at this same meet a year ago. The jump was also good for sixth overall on the national performance list.
Sophomore Paul Hefferon had a provisionally qualifying performance of his own in the men’s 3000-meter run, finishing seventh overall in a time of 8 minutes, 1.51 seconds. Sophomore Colby Wissel, who had already provisionally qualified in this event at the ISU Classic on Feb. 11, finished 12th overall in a time of 8:04.41.
The men’s distance medley relay team missed an automatically qualifying time by just under two seconds, and instead provisionally qualified in the race. The team’s time of 9:34.91 put them in fifth place overall in the competition.
Sophomore Crystal Manning finished second in the triple jump, missing a provisional mark by a quarter of an inch. Her leap of 41-5 3/4 put her in second place overall on KU’s all-time performance list.
At the Cyclone National Qualifier in Ames, senior Aaron Thompson improved upon his provisional time of 7.90 in the 60-meter hurdles by running a 7.84 in his preliminary heat. The time was good for 15th on the national performance list. He eventually finished seventh in the finals of that event in a time of 8.04 while sophomore Julius Jiles finished fifth (7.96).
Senior Cameron Schwehr turned in a provisionally qualifying time of 4:04.40 in the mile run. His time was good for seventh overall. In the women’s 60-meter dash, senior Tiffany Cherry finished fourth (7.49).
Bacchus joins senior Sheldon Battle (weight throw and shot put) and sophomore Egor Agafonov (weight throw) as Kansas’ automatic qualifiers into the NCAA Indoor Championships. The provisional qualifiers will now have to wait until the rest of the nation’s meet information is compiled to see if their times will hold up. The NCAA Championships are being held March 10-11 in Fayetteville, Ark.
