KU Outdoor Track and Field Year-in-Review
June 26, 2008
LAWRENCE, Kan. – With the highest finishes in team history at all five postseason meets in 2008, the team success of the KU women was certainly one of the top highlights of the 2008 outdoor track and field season for the University of Kansas. The Jayhawk men and women concluded their respective outdoor seasons at the NCAA Championships with a combined six All-America honors, fourteen All-Region honorees, five school records and two conference champions.
Including the indoor season the women finished higher than any other team in the program’s history at each postseason meet in which they competed. At the outdoor NCAA championships, senior Crystal Manning (long jump and triple jump) and junior Nickesha Anderson (100 meters and 200 meters) each won two All-America honors. Only one other woman had accomplished the feat in KU history.
Junior Stephanie Horton became the first woman to win All-America honors in the shot put for KU since 1987. Horton and Anderson each set school records in 2008 with Horton surpassing Denise Buchanan’s 21-year-old mark in the outdoor shot put (she also did so in the indoor shot put) and Anderson broke a 30-year-old record in the 100 meters and 27-year-old mark in the 200 meters.
There was only one meet in 2008 in which senior Egor Agafonov did not place first – the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Championships where he placed third and left with All-America honors. Agafonov became the first Jayhawk in 35 years to win outdoor All-America honors in the same event for three consecutive years. The Togiatti, Russia, native also won his third straight Big 12 title and regional title – the first Jayhawk to accomplish either feat in the hammer throw.
Sophomore Jordan Scott equaled Agafonov’s regional championship with a meet record in the men’s pole vault. Scott jumped to fourth all-time in the event at KU with an Olympic qualifying effort in June.
Senior Julius Jiles was the only male to find his way to the top of the Jayhawks illustrious outdoor record book in 2008. His time of 13.57 at the NCAA Championships broke his own record from the same meet in 2007.
The Jayhawks also excelled in the classroom with 27 being honored on the Academic All-Big 12 lists. It was the second-most recipients of any Big 12 school. Junior Eric Fattig earned CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honors shortly after he and senior Ashley Brown were awarded with CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honors. Fattig has maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout his career.
Kansas will have several athletes reporting to Eugene, Ore. for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials June 27-July 6. Seniors Ashley Brown and Manning and sophomore Scott are the first three Jayhawks to guarantee themselves a trip to Hayward Field.
