RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.36 (Track & Field)
?? NATIONAL CHAMPION!!! ??
Sharon Lokedi breaks free from the pack to win her first national championship! She runs a school record 32:09.20 to take the title! #KUtrack #ncaaTF pic.twitter.com/SCQZpLQWUj
— Kansas Track & Field (@KUTrack) June 8, 2018
A post shared by Kansas Track & Field (@kutrack) on Jun 11, 2018 at 10:11am PDT
NATIONAL CHAMP! Hussain Al Hizam wins the men’s pole vault with a clearance of 5.65m (18-6.5 ft.)! #KUtrack #ncaaTF pic.twitter.com/VYjODRDpDA
— Kansas Track & Field (@KUTrack) March 10, 2018
2017-18 Season Highlights
- Sharon Lokedi broke her own indoor 5,000-meter school record at the Boston University Season Opener on December 2 to set the tone for a record-breaking year, posting a time of 15:39.05.
- Lokedi later broke the indoor school record in the 3,000-meter run at the Iowa State Classic on February 9, clocking in at 8:59.69 – 17 seconds ahead of the school record set in 2017 by Hannah Richardson.
- Lokedi then helped the distance medley relay team to a school record at the A. Wilson Invitational on February 17. Joining forces with Courtney Coppinger, Nicole Montgomery and Hannah Dimmick, the quartet notched a time of 11:01.19, 66-hundredths of a second earlier than the 2017 distance medley relay team that broke the school record at the same meet.
- Bryce Hoppel won the Big 12 indoor championship in the 800 meters and posted the No. 3 time in KU history in the event, clocking in at 1:47.20.
- Hussain Al Hizam won the Big 12 indoor title in the pole vault with a clearance of 5.49 meters (18-0 ft.).
- Lokedi won the 5,000 and 3,000-meter runs at the Big 12 Indoor Championship.
- Laura Taylor won the Big 12 indoor pole vault title with a clearance of 4.34 meters (14-2.75 ft.).
- The women’s 4×400-meter relay team of Megan Linder, Mariah Kuykendoll, Montgomery and Honour Finley won the Big 12 indoor crown with a time of 3:35.89 and helped seal a second-place finish for the KU women’s team, the highest finish for the Jayhawk women since winning the Big 12 title in 2013.
- Al Hizam won the pole vault at 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas, on March 10. With the win, Al Hizam became just the second Kansas men’s pole vaulter to win the indoor national title and the first since Terry Porter took the crown in 1973.
- Hoppel earned First Team All-America status with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships, clocking in at 1:50.06 in the final of the 800-meter run.
- Barden Adams finished eighth in the triple jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships to earn the third First Team All-America honor of his career.
- Lokedi was a First Team All-American in both the 3,000 and 5,000-meter runs with sixth and third-place finishes, respectively, at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
- Taylor placed sixth in the pole vault at the NCAA Indoor Championships to earn First Team All-America honors. She cleared 4.36 meters (14-3.5 ft.), which was the No. 5 height in KU history.
- Lokedi opened her final collegiate outdoor campaign with a bang, breaking her own 10,000-meter school record at the Stanford Invitational on March 30. Lokedi clocked in at 32:21.19 to break her previous record by 25 seconds.
- The women’s sprint medley relay team of Jedah Caldwell, Zainab Sanni, Montgomery and Marleena Eubanks broke the school record at the Texas Relays (March 29-31) with a time of 3:51.17.
- Sophomore Gleb Dudarev made his season debut at the Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, Arizona, on April 6, where he broke his own school record in the hammer throw with a mark of 74.35 meters (243-11 ft.).
- Lokedi broke her own school record in the 5,000-meter run, clocking in at 15:42.76 at the Kansas Relays on April 19. Along with the school record, Lokedi broke the Rock Chalk Park facility record and a 32-year-old meet record.
- Dudarev broke the school record in the hammer throw again at the KU Relays, notching a throw of 78.04 meters (256-0 ft.). The throw proved to be the best mark recorded during the 2018 NCAA outdoor season and was the No. 5 mark in the world at the time. He also became the No. 5 performer in collegiate history with the throw and broke the Kansas Relays meet record and Rock Chalk Park facility record.
- Freshman Alexandra Emilianov broke the school record in the shot put at the National Relay Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, April 27-28. Emilianov hit a mark of 16.64 meters (54-7.25 ft.) to break the 10-year-old meet record set by Stephanie Horton at the NCAA Championships in 2008.
- The women’s 4×800-meter relay team of Wumi Omare, Riley Cooney, Courtney Griffiths and Dimmick also set a school record at the National Relay Championships, clocking in at 8:41.64.
- Dudarev won his second Big 12 title in the hammer throw by notching a mark of 72.37 meters (237-5 ft.), breaking Baylor’s Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium facility record.
- Al Hizam broke the Big 12 Championship record in the pole vault for the second-straight year on his way to sweeping the conference indoor and outdoor titles. He cleared 5.63 meters (18-5.5 ft.) to win the crown.
- Lokedi became the second athlete in conference history to win championships in both the 5,000 and 10,000-meter runs in back-to-back years.
- Emilianov broke her second school record of the year on her way to the Big 12 title in the discus, posting a mark of 60.24 meters (197-8 ft.) to take down the previous record of 60.18 meters (197-5 ft.) set by Jessica Maroszek in 2014.
- Coppinger qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the first time in her career by earning an auto-qualifying spot and breaking the KU school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA West Preliminary Round (May 24-26) in Sacramento, California. Coppinger finished in 9:51.28, a 16-second personal record, to break Rebeka Stowe’s school record set in 2012.
- Lokedi broke her school record in the 5,000 meters again at the NCAA West Prelims, clocking in at 15:27.09, to shave 15 seconds off her previous best time and earn a qualifying spot in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the first time in her career.
- Al Hizam was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District Men’s Track/Cross Country team and was also named the Big 12 Conference Men’s Track & Field Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year.
- Al Hizam earned First Team All-America honors by tying for fifth in the pole vault with a clearance of 5.45 meters (17-10.5 ft.).
- At the NCAA Championships, Lokedi broke a 30-year-old meet record in the 10,000 meters to win her first NCAA Championship. Lokedi notched a time of 32:09.20.
- Hoppel earned First Team All-America honors in the 800-meter run at the NCAA Outdoor Championships by finishing fourth in the final with a time of 1:45.67. His time proved to be a lifetime best and made him the No. 2 performer in KU history in the event.
- Coppinger re-broke her steeplechase school record at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a time of 9:49.04 to finish seventh and earn First Team All-America honors.
