Myriad of former KU track & field athletes set to compete at 92nd Kansas Relays presented by RCB Bank
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The 92nd Kansas Relays presented by RCB Bank, set for April 17-20 at Rock Chalk Park, will not only bring in some of the top high school talent from across the state of Kansas and beyond, and some of the top collegiate teams from across the nation, but it will also welcome a number of former Kansas track & field athletes back to Lawrence to compete.
Fresh off her collegiate career and her first professional race, where she won the Carlsbad 5000 in Carlsbad, California on April 7, Sharon Lokedi (2015-19) will compete in the 1,500-meter run on Saturday, April 20. Lokedi, the 2018 NCAA outdoor national champion in the 10,000-meter run, concluded her KU career with the 2019 indoor season, where she broke her own school record in the 5,000-meter run at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in Boston, Massachusetts on December 2, won two Big 12 titles (3,000m, 5,000m) and earned second team All-America honors in the 5,000-meter run at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Alabama with an 11th-place finish. Lokedi lays claim to five school records—the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 meters and the distance medley relay as well as the outdoor 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
Sydney Conley (2013-17) will return to Lawrence and Rock Chalk Park, where she enjoyed success as a KU track & field athlete, to compete in both the 100 and 200 meters. Conley, a native of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was a five-time All-American for the Jayhawks, the 2015 Big 12 outdoor long jump champion and a two-time Kansas Relays champion. Competing professionally this season, Conley most recently competed at the Florida Relays in Gainesville, Florida, where she was a member of the USATF High Performance 4×200-meter relay team that placed sixth overall with a time of 1:33.52. She is currently No. 2 on the outdoor performers list in the long jump at KU, No. 3 on the indoor long jump list, No. 6 in the 60-meter dash, No. 7 in the 100 meters and was a member of the eighth, ninth and 10th-fastest 4×100-meter relay teams in program history.
Three-time NCAA national champion and 2016 Olympian Andrea Geubelle will make her outdoor season debut at the Kansas Relays, where she is slated to compete in the long jump. Geubelle won the 2012 NCAA indoor triple jump title, completed the long jump/triple jump double at the 2013 NCAA Indoor Championships, and was a major contributor to the Jayhawks’ first-ever women’s team national championship at the 2013 NCAA Outdoor Championships. She still owns three Kansas school records (indoor long jump, indoor triple jump, outdoor triple jump) and is the No. 5 performer in the outdoor long jump in school history. Geubelle was inducted to the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame at the 2018 Kansas Relays.
Recent KU track & field alum Zainab Sanni (2014-18) is slated to compete in the 100 and 200 meters at the Relays. During her KU career, Sanni earned All-America honorable mention in the 200 meters at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a 24th-place finish and was a member of the school record-breaking sprint medley relay team at the 2018 Texas Relays. Sanni is currently a volunteer coach at KU, and ranks as the No. 3 performer in KU history in the indoor 60-meter dash, the No. 5 performer in the indoor 200 meters, the No. 4 performer in the outdoor 100-meter dash and the No. 4 performer in the outdoor 200 meters.
Jessica Maroszek (2011-14), a two-time Big 12 champion (2013-14) and a three-time All-American (2011, 2013-14) in the discus, will be competing in her signature event at the Kansas Relays. Maroszek was a member of the 2013 NCAA championship team and finished fourth in the discus to help aid the team to the national title, and was the Kansas school record holder in the event with her Big 12-winning mark of 60.18 meters (197-5 ft.) at the 2014 championships until just last season when current Jayhawk Alexandra Emilianov broke it on her way to the conference title. Maroszek is currently the No. 4 performer in both the indoor and outdoor shot put in KU history.
Another former Kansas thrower, Mason Finley (2010-12), will be competing in the discus at the Relays. During his three-year KU career, Finley won three Big 12 Championships and was a four-time NCAA All-American. Since his Kansas career, he has enjoyed a successful professional career that has included a third-place finish at the 2017 World Championships and an 11th-place finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Finley currently ranks as the No. 4 performer in the discus in Kansas history.
Fellow Olympian and Jayhawk alum Kyle Clemons (2010-13) is also slated to compete at the Kansas Relays. Clemons won gold as a member of the 4×400-meter relay team at the 2016 Summer Olympics and will make his 400-meter dash outdoor season debut. Clemons’ professional career has been wildly successful, with not only the 2016 Olympic gold medal, but also gold medals at the 2014 USATF Indoor Championships (400m), the 2017 IAAF World Relays (4x400m) and the 2014 and 2016 World Indoor Championships (4x400m). En route to gold at the 2014 World Indoor Championships, Clemons helped Team USA break the indoor world record in the 4×400-meter relay with a combined time of 3:02.13, a time that held until the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships. While at Kansas, Clemons won two Big 12 titles and was a six-time NCAA All-American, and is still the school record holder in both the indoor and outdoor 400-meter dash. At the 2018 Kansas Relays, Kyle Clemons joined Geubelle, Natalia Bartnovskaya and Diamond Dixon as inductees into the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame.
2015 NCAA 400-meter hurdles national champion, Michael Stigler (2012-15), will return to Lawrence to compete in the 200-meter dash and the 4×400-meter relay. Stigler was a six-time Big 12 Champion for the Jayhawks and earned six All-America honors during his collegiate career, and still holds the school record in the 400-meter hurdles.
The men’s pole vault competition at the Kansas Relays is chock-full of former Kansas vaulters. Nick Meyer (2014-18), Nick Maestretti (2013-17) and Jake Albright (2013-17) are all slated to compete. Meyer was a second team All-American in 2015 in the pole vault and earned All-America honorable mention at the 2018 outdoor championships. Maestretti earned second team All-America honors with a 14th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2017 and Albright earned second team All-America honors in 2015 with a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and was the 2016 Big 12 outdoor champion in the pole vault. Albright also earned second team All-America honors in both the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2017.
Although not a former Jayhawk athlete, current throws volunteer coach Whitney Ashley will compete in the discus as well at the Kansas Relays. Ashley competed collegiately at San Diego State where she won five Mountain West Conference titles, the 2012 NCAA discus title and earned a total of four All-America honors. She also qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics by placed first in the discus at the 2016 United States Olympic Trials.
The Kansas Relays action is slated to begin on Wednesday, April 17 at 10 a.m. with collegiate decathlon action. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are all scheduled to get underway at 9 a.m. Tickets for Friday and Saturday can be purchased at KUathletics.com/tickets or by calling the Kansas Athletics ticket office at 1-800-34-HAWKS. Admission to Wednesday and Thursday’s action is free to the public.
