RESULTS: Overall | Kansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. –In their final outing before lacing up the spikes at the Big 12 Indoor Championships next weekend, a handful of Jayhawks got a solid final tune-up at the Arkansas Qualifier Friday afternoon inside the Randal Tyson Track Center. Sophomore Jaron Hartley moved to No. 2 on KU’s all-time 200-meter chart, while sophomore Laura Taylor added a career-best in the pole vault en route to a top-five finish.
Hartley returned to the Tyson Center track less than a week removed from seeing himself disqualified in the same event at the Tyson Invitational. Hartley’s trip around the oval Friday produced a decisively better result, a new career best and one of the top times in the program’s storied history. The Houston native won his heat and finished fourth overall when he broke the tape in 21.42.
Hartley’s time shaved off more than a second from his previous career-best in the indoor event and moved him to second on Kansas’ all-time indoor 200-meter list. Leo Bookman, a three-time NCAA Champion in the event, is the only Jayhawk to turn in a faster clocking. Hartley now ranks 10th among Big 12 sprinters with the league meeting looming in a week.
Taylor also scribed her name into the KU history books with a personal-best clearance in the pole vault. The sophomore was perfect on her first two bars of the day, clearing both in on her first two trips down the runway. She then needed all three tries at the next bar, but slid over the standard set at 4.00 meters (13’1½”) on her third attempt to secure a new career-high in the indoor event. Taylor’s performance, which earned her a fourth-place finish, made her the 12th KU female in program history to vault four meters or higher. She also now ranks eighth on the season’s Big 12 chart.
Jamie Wilson notched the fastest 400-meter time of his Jayhawk career en route to a ninth-place finish. Wilson completed his quarter-mile trip in 47.92 to win his heat and post the fastest 400-meter time by a Jayhawk this season.
Other notable outings in Arkansas Friday came from Junior Strymar Livingston, who finished fifth in the 800 meters in 1:49.86, junior Zainab Sanni, who clocked in at 23.75 in the 200 meters and freshman Paulo Benavides, who finished fourth in the pole vault after clearing 5.22 meters (17’1½”).
There is one more KU contingent in action this weekend. The Jayhawk quartet of Whitney Adams, Lydia Saggau, Sharon Lokedi and Nicole Montgomery will hit the track Saturday morning at the Alex Wilson Invitational in South Bend, Indiana. The foursome will look to post one of the NCAA’s fastest times this season in the distance medley relay. The starting gun for the event is set for 10:50 a.m. (CT).
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