RCW: Faces in the Crowd 3.25
Each week in Rock Chalk Weekly, the top Kansas Jayhawk performances are recognized as Faces in the Crowd. Get to know last week’s stars, including information on their latest accomplishments and a link to their full bio.
HALEY DOWNEY
Swimming & Diving | Freshman | Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Bio Full Bio
In individual events, Haley Downey led the team in scoring, racking up a combined 45 points by placing in the top-six in her three individual events – the 200-yard individual medley, 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard breaststroke. The freshman pulled off the incredible feat of recording a lifetime-best swim each time she raced, setting a personal record in the morning preliminaries of her events only to swim even faster in the finals session. In addition to her accomplishments as an individual, Downey contributed on the second-place 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard medley relay teams. In total, Downey had a hand in 113 of Kansas’ program-best 683.5 points at the Big 12 Championship.
HANNAH RICHARDSON
W. Track & Field | Senior | Kirkwood, Missouri
Bio Full Bio
For the second time this season, Hannah Richardson made edits to the school record book in the 3,000 meters and came within two seconds from claiming KU’s first Big 12 title in the event. Having already turned in an impressive anchor leg and a runner-up finish in the women’s distance medley relay the night before, Richardson showed no signs of wear in the 3K race less than a day later. Richardson’s performance turned out to be the fastest in the program’s history, as her time of 9:16.02 was a new school record. Richardson was shoulder-to-shoulder heading into the final 100 meters, but after being outkicked she had to settle for silver.
NICOLAI CEBAN
M. Track & Field | Junior | Camenca, Moldova
Bio Full Bio
Junior Nicolai Ceban collected his first conference championship in the shot put to give the Kansas men an impressive sweep of the league throwing events. The competition gave Ceban little resistance on his way to the top of the medal stand. His first attempt of the day, a toss of 18.80 meters (61-8½), would end up being more than enough to win the event, however the Moldova native didn’t stop there. On his third trip into the ring he uncorked a throw of 18.97 meters (62-3), which topped the entire field by three feet to become the third Jayhawk to claim a shot put victory at the Big 12 Indoor Championship.
STRYMAR LIVINGSTON
M. Track & Field | Senior | Brooklyn, New York
Bio Full Bio
After coming up just short in the 800-meter final at the Big 12 Outdoor meet last May, Strymar Livingston finally broke through to the winner’s circle in what proved to be one of the most exciting races on the final day of the Big 12 Championship. Seemingly neck-and-neck over the final strides with Baylor’s Zacharias Curran, Livingston managed to lunge at the finish to put himself just fractions of a second ahead of the BU senior. Livingston’s lean earned him the 800-meter title in a time of 1:48.40, the second-fastest time of his Kansas career. His win gave Kansas its first 800-meter title in the 21-year history of the Big 12 Indoor Championship and made Livingston the first Jayhawk to win a league title in the event since 1992.
