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| Adriana Newell helped the women’s 4x400m-relay to a sixth place finish Saturday at the Texas Relays.
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AUSTIN, Texas –A pair of seasonal bests by the Kansas men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relay teams closed out the weekend on a high note at the Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays Saturday afternoon. The KU men claimed a third-place finish in the event with a time that ranks among the top-10 in the NCAA this season.
The Jayhawk relay squad of Ivan Henry, Drew Matthews, Jaime Wilson and Strymar Livingston entered the day following a solid outing in the preliminary heats Friday. The quartet posted the fifth-fastest time to qualify to Saturday’s final after they got the baton around in 3:10.70. The group’s performance in the final would put their prelim outing to shame.
In the final, the foursome competed well with the national championship-caliber field. Henry led things off for the Jayhawks and handed off to Matthews with the team well in striking distance of the lead. Matthews made his lap in 47.2 before Wilson reeled off a 46.7 split on the third leg. With the Jayhawks sitting fifth at the final exchange, Livingston turned in a stellar anchor leg to complete the great KU outing. The junior made up several spots by way of his 45.5 split over the final 400 meters and crossed the finish with his team in third-place and a final time of 3:06.48.
The Jayhawks’ time has the team among the top-10 of the most recent NCAA 4×400-meter relay rankings and is the fastest by a KU mile relay squad since 2013.
On the women’s side, Whitney Adams, Wumi Omare, Adriana Newell and Nicole Montgomery also posted an impressive early-season clocking in the event. Kansas completed the four laps in 3:42.35, good enough for a sixth-place finish. The time has the team ranked fourth among Big 12 relay teams so far this season.
In the morning session, a pair of KU relay squads took the track for the 4×800-meter races. The women’s team, made up of Dorie Dalzell, Hannah Dimmick, Lydia Saggau and Malika Baker, completed the two-mile race in 8:58.77. The time was good enough to earn the team a fourth-place finish in what ended up being the fastest 4×800-meter race of the collegiate season thus far.
On the men’s side, the KU contingent of Livingston, Daniel Koech, Bryce Richards and Matt Anyiwo also found itself up against a strong field of half-milers. The junior, Livingston, got the Jayhawks out to a strong start with a sub-1:51 split, and was the first to hand off the baton. However, the next three legs were unable to hold onto the lead, with KU completing the race in eighth-overall with its time of 7:37.16.
Kansas will again hit the road next weekend when the Jayhawks journey to Tempe, Arizona for a pair of meets April 8-9. KU will first take part in the Mesa Classic on Friday, April 8, before taking on a stellar field for the Sun Angel Classic on Saturday, April 9. For complete results and recaps of the Jayhawk performances, log on to KUAthletics.com and follow on Twitter at @KUTrack.
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