Bacchus, Schwehr Earn All-America Honors

June 8, 2006

SACRAMENTO, Calif. –

Senior Charisse Bacchus capped an outstanding career as a Jayhawk with an All-America performance in the long jump on the second day of competition from the NCAA Championships in Sacramento. <?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>

After jumping a career-best 21-6 1/4 in the prelims on Wednesday, the Cascade, POS, Trinidad, native had a leap of 20-8 on Thursday to give her a seventh-place finish and the All-America honors. She injured her leg on her third jump and was forced to take a pass on her final three attempts, but her performance still gave the Jayhawks their first team points of the meet. Bacchus broke the school’s indoor long jump record en route to garnering All-America honors at this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships as well.

Though senior Cameron Schwehr missed qualifying for the 1,500-meter finals by .08 seconds, he still earned All-America honors in the race by virtue of being one of the top-eight American runners. His time of 3:45.16 in the prelims on Thursday put him in 13th place in the race and just out of qualification. He is the first Jayhawk to earn the disctinction in the 1,500m since Charlie Gruber did so in 2002.

Senior Sheldon Battle qualified for the finals in the shot put after posting a second-place result in the prelims. Battle, who was the runner-up in the event last year, had a toss of 63-6 1/4 on Thursday to put him in Saturday’s finals when he will go for All-America honors for the second-straight year.

Junior Josh Kirk withdrew from the men’s decathlon after aggravating an injury in his foot in the first event of the day, the 100-meter hurdles. Kirk went on to record a personal best in the discus (123-2) in the next event, but dropped from the competition afterwards.

Freshman Zlata Tarasova missed qualifying for the finals in the hammer throw after notching a 15th-place result in the prelims. Competing in her first NCAA Outdoor Championships, the Togliatti, Russia, native had a best toss of 191-4 on the afternoon.

The penultimate day of competition from the NCAA Championships begins with sophomore Egor Agafonov in the finals of the hammer, followed by senior Denita Young in the javelin. Sophomore Paul Hefferon will run in the finals of the 5,000-meter run to round out the day for Kansas.