Big 12 Names Stigler Track & Field Athlete of the Week
IRVING, Texas – Just over 24 hours after being named NCAA track & field’s athlete of the week, Kansas senior Michael Stigler also garnered recognition from the league office when he was named the Big 12’s Co-Athlete of the Week Wednesday afternoon. The award, which Stigler shared with Baylor’s Travon Bromell and Texas Tech’s JaCorian Duffield, is the second weekly conference honor of his KU career.
Last Friday, Stigler picked up his third-consecutive Texas Relays 400-meter hurdle title in grand fashion as the hurdler posted a school record and world-leading time in the event. His time of 48.44 smashed his own school record by more than half a second and made him just the second athlete in meet history to garner 400-meter hurdle titles in three-straight years.
The clocking marked the fastest 400-meter hurdle time run by a collegian during the NCAA season in nearly four years and was the eighth-fastest 400-meter hurdle time ever run in the month of March. Stigler also made conference history with the performance that made him the second-fastest Big 12 athlete in the league’s 18-year lifespan, only .01 seconds behind Baylor’s Bayano Kamani, who ran 48.43 at the 2000 NCAA Championships.
Stigler’s performance broke his own school record of 49.19 set at the NCAA Championships in 2013, as well as the Mike A. Myers stadium and the Texas Relays meet records. The performance was also fractions of a second from moving the three-time All-American among the NCAA’s all-time fastest 400-meter hurdlers. His mark was a mere .03 seconds from making him the No. 10 performer in collegiate history.
Stigler’s time easily moved him to the top of the world rankings for 2015, bettering the previous leader by well over a second. Comparing to recent seasons, the time would have made him the fourth-fastest in the world in 2014 and would have ranked No. 10 in the world in 2013.
Stigler and the rest of his Kansas teammates will journey to Waco, Texas for the Baylor Invitational this Friday, April 3. Action from the Bears’ new facility, Clyde Hart Stadium, will kick off at 11 a.m.
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