Kansas to Compete in Scored Meet at Arkansas Saturday

April 11, 2013

Meet Notes in PDF format

John McDonnell Invitational Date Saturday, April 13 Location Fayetteville, Ark. Venue John McDonnell Stadium Schedule John McDonnell Invitational Results Flash Results Notes KU Meet Notes Twitter KU_Track

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas men’s and women’s track & field teams will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the third time in 2013 as they compete in the John McDonnell Invitational Saturday, April 13. The meet will have a National Championship feel to it as six of the top men’s and women’s programs in the nation will compete for score. Four teams ranked in the NCAA’s top-25 will be in action on both sides, including the No. 1-ranked Kansas women. Track events are slated to begin at 5 p.m. inside John McDonnell Stadium.

KU_TRACK QUICK HITS

• This weekend, KU will send athletes to compete in Fayetteville for the third time this season. Kansas features two Jayhawks who will make their homecoming this weekend; Sydney Conley, who calls Fayetteville home, and Gabe Gonzalez, who hails from Springdale.
• The Kansas women find themselves ranked No. 1 by the USTFCCCA for the third-straight week, the longest the program has ever sat in the nation’s top spot.
• Andrea Geubelle‘s third-place finish in the long jump at last week’s Sun Angel Classic marked just the second competition in 2013 the senior has not walked away the victory. She has won nine of her 11 long jump and triple jump outings this year.
• Senior Natalia Bartnovskaya broke KU’s outdoor pole vault record for the second-straight week at the Sun Angel Classic. Her mark of 4.41 meters (14’5.5″) was just two inches from making her one of the top-10 vaulters in NCAA history.
• The men’s 4×400-meter relay team of Kyle Clemons, Michael Stigler, Michael Hester and Kenneth McCuin combined for a 3:05.95 race to win at the Sun Angel Classic, the fifth-fastest in school history.
• The No. 1-ranked KU women have nine athletes and a relay sitting in the NCAA’s top-10 after the first two weekends of action, including Andrea Guebelle who currently holds the nation’s top triple jump mark.
• Sophomore Lindsay Vollmer‘s most recent heptathlon performance was the second-best in Kansas history. She amassed a personal-best 4,478 points to finish second at the Texas Relays. Her mark is also No. 4 in the NCAA this year.
• KU’s All-American women’s 4×400-meter relay team moved to near the top of the national list after clocking with a winning time of 3:32.26 at the Sun Angel Classic. Last season, Denesha Morris, Paris Daniels, Taylor Washington and Diamond Dixon posted the best NCAA-qualifying time, running 3:28.10 en route to the Big 12 title in the event.

KU_TRACK ATHLETE TO WATCH

Kenneth McCuin // Sprints // Sophomore // Baltimore, Md.
McCuin has been one of the many promising signs of the success that is heading the KU men’s way in the coming years. The sophomore was moved to the anchor of KU’s 4×400-meter relay team during the indoor season and has led the team to new highs, running to a winning time of 3:05.95 last week at the Sun Angel Classic, the No. 5 time in KU history. McCuin’s prowess has also shown in the open 400 meters as he holds the team’s fastest time this year at 47.58.

LAST TIME OUT
For the second-consecutive week, junior pole vaulter Natalia Bartnovskaya rewrote the school record books as she and the rest of the Kansas men’s and women’s track & field teams competed at the Sun Angel Classic April 6. Kansas saw NCAA-top 10 performances in five events on the day as it took part in its second meet of the outdoor season.

Heather Bergmann hit a top mark of 52.23 meters (171’4″) in the javelin to move the two-time All-American to fourth in the NCAA rankings. On the track the KU women’s top performance came from the 4×400-meter relay team. All-Americans Denesha Morris, Diamond Dixon, Taylor Washington and Paris Daniels finished in a time of 3:32.26 to beat the runner-up Arkansas team by nearly five seconds.

Junior Josh Munsch ran the fastest 1,500-meter race of his career, finishing in a personal-best 3:43.03 to finish fourth overall. Munsch’s time ranks at No. 5 on this season’s NCAA list.

STILL NO. 1
After being named the NCAA’s No. 1 team in the preseason rankings, the Kansas women’s track & field team has validated its position after being named to the top spot by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) the first two weeks of the regular season. The team has now been No. 1 on the last three lists released, marking the longest stay atop the NCAA rankings in program history.

The ranking also marks the 17th-consecutive top-25 list in which the women’s team has been slotted in the top-five of the NCAA, which includes both indoor and outdoor seasons. KU’s streak is the longest active in the nation.

LEAGUE LEADERS
Just two weeks in to the 2013 outdoor season, the Kansas women have already displayed their superiority by way of the Big 12 rankings. The team, which claimed the program’s first conference title at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in February, has 12 Jayhawks boasting marks ranking in the top-three of the league’s yearly performance list. That list also includes six KU women who lead the conference in their respective events.

On May 3-5, Kansas will look to win its first outdoor conference championship at the Big 12 meet to be held in Waco, Texas. Last season the women’s team finished as the runner-up to Texas by just 9.5 points.

The Jayhawk men also have several members who have climbed their way near the top of the early-season conference standings. Sophomore Michael Stigler has posted the conference’s fastest 400-meter hurdle time at 50.00. In addition to Stigler, four other KU men currently hold marks that rank second in the Big 12.

NATION’S BEST FLOCKING TO FAYETTEVILLE
Saturday’s competition is bound to be an exciting one as the Jayhawks will go up against some of the nation’s top teams. In addition to the No. 1-ranked KU women, the women’s field also features the No. 3 Texas A&M women, the No. 12 Arkansas women and the No. 24 Oklahoma women as well as Big 12 foe Oklahoma State will each compete in Fayetteville. The men’s side will have squads from No. 15 Oklahoma and the 22nd-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers in addition to the top-two teams in the nation, No. 1 Texas A&M and the host, No. 2 Arkansas.

OUTDOOR RECORD HOLDERS
Nine school records are currently held by active Jayhawks, each of which have been broken within the last 12 months. The women’s squad saw seven of its records broken a year ago, while the men’s team had a 30-year-old record broken in 2012. Below is a list of KU’s current school record holders:

GEUBELLE GOING FOR GOLD
Senior Andrea Geubelle is making sure her career in Lawrence ends on a high note. The University Place, Wash., product has collected a litany of accolades during the indoor and outdoor seasons that have her among top-collegiate athletes this year. Here are some of her accomplishments thus far:

• One of 10 athletes listed on April’s ‘The Bowerman’ Watch List.
• Currently holds NCAA’s top outdoor triple jump mark, 13.76m (41’1.75″).
• USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year.
• First Female since 2003 to win both indoor long jump and triple jump NCAA titles.
• Winning NCAA triple jump mark (46’6″) was second-best indoor mark ever by an American.
• National Indoor Champion in both long jump and triple jump.
• Jayhawks’ top scorer (18 pts.) at the Big 12 Indoor Championships with her victory in the triple jump and runner-up finish in the long jump.
• Has won 14 of the last 16 triple jump competitions versus collegians, including all four this season.
• Moved into top-10 of NCAA all-time triple jump list after breaking her own school record with a leap of 13.91 meters (45’7.75″).
• Broke long jump school record in her win at the Armory Collegiate Invitational with her nation-leading leap of 6.69 meters (21’11.5″).
• Broke Anschutz facility record in the long jump with mark of 6.25 meters (20’6.25″).
• Named the National Female Athlete of the Week by the USTFCCCA Feb. 4.

PRELIM PREDICTIONS
Even with six weeks still to go before the NCAA preliminary meets begin, it’s never too early to see how the qualifying picture is beginning to come together. If the season were to end today, the women would see 20 of its athletes travel to Austin for the West Region Preliminary meet. A year ago the team, which went on to notch a fourth-place team finish at the NCAA Championships, saw 16 women earn spots at the prelim meet.

On the men’s side, 14 Jayhawks hold marks that would earn them a spot to Austin if the season ended today.

AN INDOOR CAMPAIGN TO REMEMBER
The women’s team’s 2013 indoor season was the best in program history. The team was ranked in the top-five of the NCAA rankings for the entire season and moved to No. 1 for the first time since the current rankings system began in 2008. The team went on to claim its first-ever conference title in late February behind a program best six individual Big 12 champions.

The team saw a program-best 11 student-athletes qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships and went on to earn its second-consecutive runner-up team finish. Three national titles were won by Jayhawks with Andrea Geubelle winning both the long and triple jumps and Natalia Bartnovskaya claiming the pole vault championships. In all, eight First Team All-America honors were earned by Jayhawks, also a program best.

UP NEXT
Kansas will return home to host the 86th running of the Kansas Relays inside Memorial Stadium April 17-20. Action from Lawrence will begin Wednesday with the men’s and women’s combined events and will go on to feature some of the top high school, collegiate and professional athletes over the next three days.

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