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WAC Championships...The 2002 WAC Indoor Track & Field Championships are scheduled for February 21-23 at the Livestock Events Center in Reno, Nev. The pentathlon will be held on Thursday, Feb. 21. On Jan. 22, preliminary heats in the short running events will be followed by the finals of the 5,000 meters and the distance medley relay. The WAC will conduct a 55-meter dash and 55-meter hurdles competition. Finals for field events to take place on Friday are: high jump, long jump, weight throw and mens pole vault. Jan. 23 will continue field competition in the shot put, triple jump and womens pole vault. The remaining finals in all running events, including the 3,000 meters, take place on Saturday as well, with the 4x400 capping off the championships.
Teams Prepare for Indoor Conference Chmpionships...With the departure of TCU, the WAC looks to crown a new mens champion, while on the womens side, Rice is looking for their third straight. For the women, Nevada fell just short of the Owls last season to place second, while for the men, UTEP edged Fresno State by three points for second.
UTEP sprinters Aaron Agbele, Taiwo Ajibade and Vitaly Medvedev, who have the best three times this season in both the 55 and 60 meters, will lead the mens field. Ajibade has a provisional qualifying time in both events and is one of Trackwires Dandy Dozen. Agbele qualified for nationals in the 200 meters at the Arkansas Invitational earlier this month. The distance events will be paced by SMUs Martin Allgeyer who has one of the WACs top three times in both the mile and the 3,000 meters. He has a provisional qualifying time in both events. Rice will be led by their middle-distance runners Adam Davis, Daniel Pessing and Erik Mazza. They combine for this seasons top three conference-marks in the 800m, all set in their last event, the Iowa State Classic. The Owls are also looking for good jumps for long jumper, high jumper Vaughn Walwyn. He jumped a provisional qualifying mark of 25-1 (7.50m) in the long jump at the Iowa State Classic, the best in the WAC this season. Fresno State will lean heavily on their field athletes to come through. Shlomi Ben-Shushan and Joe Vasquez are two of the Bulldogs hopefuls.
The women are looking to stop Rice from getting their third championship in a row. Nevada hopes to continue their pace after winning their last three meets. Last seasons runners-up are led by 800m runner Tanya Wright and miler Erin Brand. Rice will come in riding the shoulders of 400m WAC record-holder Allison Beckford and sprinter Keitha Moseley. If it comes down to the final event on Saturday the Owls come in with a slight advantage; they have the fastest 4x400m relay time this season by almost two seconds. A pair of Crystals hope to take the gold as Fresno States Crystal Phillips aims at the title in both the 55m and 60m sprints, while teammate Crystal Simmons sets her sights on both hurdle events. SMUs Karen Freburg, Ruta Rakstyle and Trache Quintanal are the only shot putters to throw a provisional qualifying distance.
Results will be posted on the WAC website at www.wacsports.com. Following the WAC Championships, teams will compete at the NCAA Championships on March 8-9.
Trackwires Dandy Dozen
Eight mens, six womens WAC athletes and two womens relay teams appear in Trackwires Feb. 12 Dandy Dozen (D12) rankings. Trackwire uses 10 equally-rated criteria to rank athletes, including performance at major competitions, coaching, peaking ability, freedom from injuries, mental toughness and competitiveness, progression of marks, and the athletes age and personal bests. The remaining three factors are a demonstrated ability to perform in multiple rounds of competition, ability in other events and marks and placing in head-to-head competition with name competitors. A list of those athletes mentioned in the D12 follows:
Poll Position
In the new Trackwire poll, released on Feb. 12, the Rice women returned to the poll at No. 10 with 19 points after being dropped from last weeks ranking. The Owls competed last weekend at the Armory Collegiate Invite, Southwest Indoor Classic. Much of the same criteria used to determine the Dandy Dozen is applied to the rankings. Florida holds strong at number one, while Arizona moves into second, South Carolina to third. For the men, SMU moved back one spot to 17th, tied with South Carolina, Mississippi State and Georgia. UTEP remained in the poll, although falling back two, earning 10 points to tie with Kansas for 21st. Tennessee, again landed as the front runner, leading the poll with 59 points, five more than last week.