May 24, 2017

RCW: Inside Track & Field 3.35

Get a quick look inside your favorite Kansas Jayhawk programs each week with Rock Chalk Weekly’s Inside Sports pages. Notable statistics, quick hits and the top social media posts get every Jayhawk fan up-to-speed and ready for another week of thrilling competition.
Track By the Number Number BY THE NUMBERS
The Jayhawks boast 38 entries between the men’s and women’s squads that will compete at the NCAA West Preliminary this weekend in Austin, Texas. Those Kansas athletes will look to advance past the preliminary rounds and qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships to be held in Eugene, Oregon June 7-10.

FOLLOW FOLLOW
Facebook /KUTrackandField
Twitter @KUTrack
Instagram KUTrack

Notes QUICK HITS

For the second-straight year, the Kansas men posted a runner-up finish in the team standings at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship hosted at Rock Chalk Park May 12-14. The Jayhawk men collected a program-record 143 points. The women finished the weekend fifth overall after amassing 84 points.
The Jayhawks boasted seven individual champions (4 men, 3 women) over the course of the three-day league meet: Hussain Al Hizam (pole vault), Mitch Cooper (discus), Gleb Dudarev (hammer throw), Strymar Livingston (800 meters), Sydney Conley (long jump) and Sharon Lokedi (5,000m and 10,000m).
For her winning efforts in both the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, junior Sharon Lokedi was named the Big 12’s Outstanding Female Performer of the Year by the league’s coaches last Thursday. The honor marked the first yearly conference award for Lokedi and the third Outstanding Performer honor claimed by a Jayhawk after Paris Daniels garnered the award in 2013 and Candace Mason did so in 1998.
Both Mitch Cooper and Hussain Al Hizam broke meet records en route to their Big 12 victories. Cooper turned in a winning throw of 63.98 meters (209-11), which also took down his own school record, while Al Hizam posted a winning vault of 5.56 meters (18-2½) to put his name in the meet record book.
Senior Sydney Conley collected her second Big 12 long jump title with the best mark of her career. She tallied a winning jump of 6.76 meters (22-2½), a mark that would have been a school and a meet record had it not been for the aiding-wind that was above the allowable limit for records.
Freshman Gleb Dudarev won the hammer throw in dominant fashion after he turned in a new school record and NCAA-leading toss of 74.20 meters (243-5). Dudarev’s win marked the eighth time a Jayhawk has claimed the Big 12 hammer throw title in the 21-year history of the meet.
Sixteen Jayhawks enter this week’s NCAA West Preliminary ranked among the top-20 in the latest West Regional standings in their respective events. Those who finish among the top-12 in their events this week in Austin will earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championship meet in two weeks.