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Related Material
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Championship Release.pdf
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The Rice men and women took home titles on their home track, winning the 2004 WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The Lady Owls took the title in the final events, edging Louisiana Tech 161.5-155. The Owls moved ahead by 10.5 points with the final event, the 4x400 meter relay, still togo. With a sure victory, the Owls took third in the event. On the men's side, Rice took an early lead and never looked back. The Owls posted a score of 200, knocking off last year's champions, UTEP, by 53.
Schedule of Events
Complete Results
On the women's side, following Rice and Louisiana Tech, was Nevada, grabbing 128.5 points. In fourth was Boise State with 91, Fresno State was fifth with 68 and UTEP sixth at 67. Tulsa helped round out the field taking seventh (63), while SMU earned 48 points and Hawaii tallied 34.
With the Owls grabbing 200 points, they didn't leave many for the rest of the field. UTEP finished with 147, while in third was Boise State with 123. Fresno State came in fourth with 122 points, with Louisiana Tech taking home 89 for fifth. In sixth was SMU with 82 points, while rounding out the men's side was Tulsa with 47.
The annual individual awards were handed out at the meet's conclusion.
For the Men:
The High Point Award went to Rice's Funmi Jimoh who tallied 24.5 points. Fellow Owl Allison Beckford was named the year's Top Athlete, while the WAC's Freshman of the Year went to Miruna Mataoanu of Boise State. Coach of the Year went to Louisiana Tech's Gary Stanley.
For the Men:
The High Point Award went to Rice's Ryan Harlan who ammassed 41 points in the meet. The senior also picked up the WAC's Athlete of the Year honor, while the Freshman of the Year went to Daniel Ward of UTEP. Coach of the Year went to Rice's Jon Warren.
Friday
Through the first full day of individual competition, there were 11 champions crowned. First on the day was the women's hammer throw. Boise State senior All-American grabbed her first of two medals, taking gold with a heave of 58.45m (191-9). In the men's shot put, SMU's All-American Hannes Hopley, posted a regional mark of 19.20m (63-0) to take the title. In the women's javelin throw, Neely Falgout of Boise State earned a mark of 51.65m (169-5), taking gold. Fresno State's Russell Weaver took home another pole vault gold, clearing a height of 5.05m (16-6.75).
The women's shot put saw the first gold for Louisiana Tech on the day, as Kaia Durrant-Nairne won the shot put with a heave of 14.65m (48-0.75). In the women's high jump, Miruna Mataoanu grabbed the third gold of the night for Boise State, as she cleared 1.85m (6-0.75). The men's long jump was settled in the final jumps, as Boise State's Keron Francis jumped 7.41m (24-3.75) to take home gold. Boise State's Gabriel Wallen's second heave in the javelin proved to be enough, as he passed on his final two throws after a toss of 69.98m (229-7). The distance earned him gold.
In one of two final running events of the day, Mircea Bogden brought home gold for UTEP, taking the 3,000-meter steeplechase title. His time of 9:06.26 is a regional time and was .99 faster than Owain Matthews' second-place finish. For the women in the event, Kara June set a new WAC Championship record, posting a time of 10:23.61. She passed her old WAC mark of 10:26.17, set in Houston two years ago.
In the day's final event, the 10k, Boise State's Forest Braden used a 60 second final lap to take home the title. His gold-medal time was 31:17.16. For the women, Kate Gorry led from 75 meters out to finish. Gorry's time of 35:38.63, although she didn't regionally qualify, was one and half minutes better than second place. Pirtea grabbed gold as she held off Nevada's Jenna Huber in the final 50 meters.