Jayhawk 4x400 relay breaks school record at Husker Invite
LINCOLN, Neb. – A trio of school records fell as the Kansas Track & Field teams competed on the final day of the Husker Invitational Saturday inside the Bob Devaney Center. The Jayhawk men’s 4×400-meter relay took down the KU record in a victorious effort over Big 12 rival Texas, while seniors Strymar Livingston and Whitney Adams also entered the KU history books with record runs in the 600 meters.
PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY
In the final event of the meet, the Kansas men ended the day on a high note as the Jayhawks put together a sensational performance to win the 4×400-meter relay in school-record fashion. The team, comprised of sophomore Ivan Henry, junior Tre Daniels, Livingston and junior Jaron Hartley, put Kansas in the conversation of Big 12 title contender with one of the top times in the collegiate ranks this season.
The lead leg, Henry, got the Jayhawks out to a fast start as the Spanish Town, Jamaica native posted a 46.91 split as he handed the baton to Daniels with the Jayhawks in a comfortable lead. Daniels held the KU lead with the help of his 47.02 leg before passing off to Livingston. The senior had to navigate a charge from the Texas squad after the Longhorns briefly took the lead during his third leg. Livingston managed to overtake the UT runner over his final 100 meters before he handed off to the anchor, Hartley, with the Jayhawks back in front.
Senior Strymar LivingstonHartley then completed the fastest leg of the Jayhawks’ race, as he got the baton around in 46.81 and held off a late charge from the anchor for the Longhorns. Hartley out-leaned the UT runner by just .01 seconds to give Kansas the victory. Moments later the scoreboard signaled the Jayhawks had rewritten both the school and meet record books with their winning time of 3:07.82.
The quartet’s performance topped the nearly four-year-old program record set by the Jayhawk team from the 2013 Big 12 Indoor Championship. It also has Kansas up near the top of the national rankings, with the team now sitting 14th on the latest NCAA 4×400-meter chart.
STANLEY SAID IT
“That was a great race that was really fun to watch. I thought our guys competed well. We know that we need to keep improving and that we still have some goals ahead of us though. In order to get to the national meet and to do well there, we still have things we’ll need to work on.”
- Head coach Stanley Redwine on the men’s 4×400-meter relay
“It was just a reflection of how they’ve been training and they’ve been training really well. We’ll see how this 600 meters helps them when they run the 800 meters next week. They’re both running well right now so I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll do from here on out.”
- Redwine on Strymar Livingston and Whitney Adams’ school records in the 600 meters
NOTABLES
* Livingston had his hand in another school record earlier in the day, this time though it was an individual affair. Competing in the not-often run 600 meters, Livingston was never challenged as a won the event in runaway fashion. He finished his three laps in 1:16.93, smashing the previous school record by more than three seconds. Even through the 600 meters is not an event held at the Big 12 or the NCAA Championships, Livingston’s record clocking is the fifth-fastest posted by a collegiate runner this season.
* Like Livingston, senior Whitney Adams also enjoyed a school-record breaking outing in the 600 meters, however it was her own record that she was able to rewrite. Adams broke the tape in 1:30.05, shaving more than a second off her previous record. Adams’ time gave her the top collegiate finish in the event and is the No. 8 mark in the collegiate ranks this year.
* Junior Laura Taylor found herself on the top step of the podium at day’s end following another premier showing in the pole vault. As has become somewhat of a routine for Taylor, she failed to record a single foul through the early heights of the competition, needing the minimum amount of attempts on the first five bars. Her final clearance of the afternoon came on a new career-best height of 4.15 meters (13-7¼). That vault went on to earn her the third victory of her 2017 campaign and moved her name into the top-20 of the national rankings.
* Jedah Caldwell continues to impress in her freshman campaign after another stellar showing in the 200 meters. Caldwell made program history in the event as she ran to a fourth-place finish against some of the country’s top sprinters. The Chanhassen, Minnesota product completed her lap in 23.69 seconds, the fastest indoor-200 meters ever posted by a Jayhawk freshman. Caldwell’s performance also moved her to No. 5 on Kansas’ all-time list and puts her third among Big 12 sprinters in 2017.
* Just like their male counterparts, the women’s 4×400-meter relay tacked on a season-best at the end of the day, with the Jayhawks posting a runner-up finish. The squad of senior Adriana Newell, freshman Maria Kuykendoll, sophomore Nicole Montgomery and Adams combined for the best time by a KU women’s relay since 2013 after the foursome passed the baton around in 3:38.05. The time has the Jayhawks as the third-fastest relay team in the Big 12 and 15th in the NCAA DI standings.
UP NEXT
Next weekend the Jayhawks will split for a pair of meets Feb. 10-11. One Kansas contingent will journey to Fayetteville, Arkansas to compete in the Tyson Invitational, while the other Jayhawk squad will travel north to Ames, Iowa where it will take part in the ISU Classic. Get live updates and results from the Jayhawks’ performances by following on Twitter and Instagram at @KUTrack.
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