Men’s track sixth at Big 12

J-W Staff Reports

Posted Sunday, February 26, 2006

LINCOLN, NEB. — Kansas University’s men placed sixth and its women ninth Saturday at the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships.

A highlight for KU on the final day was Josh Kirk’s provisionally qualifying in the heptathlon. The Olathe native entered the day in seventh place, but put together strong performances in the pole vault and 1,000-meter run to give him a two-day total of 5,373 points, good for fifth overall.

KU also got its second individual champion of the meet Saturday. Senior Sheldon Battle completed a Jayhawk sweep in the men’s throwing events by winning the shot put with a mark of 65 feet, 31⁄4 inches.

Two KU triple jumpers turned in All-Big 12 performances by finishing in the top eight of their event. Crystal Manning was fourth at 41-11⁄2, while Shatoya Hill's jump of 39-93⁄4 was good for seventh.

Sophomore Matt Baysinger was second in the 600 in 1 minute, 9.85 seconds.

Cortney Jacobs and Janiece Gatson both had personal-best performances as well. Jacobs' time of 1:22.50 placed her fifth and put her in fourth on KU's all-time performance list. Gatson’s time of 1:23.43 was good for seventh. Jarrell Rollins was seventh in the 400-meter dash.

Senior Angela Pichardo finished sixth in the 800, while Melissa O’Rourke was eighth (2:16.79). In the men’s 800, Michael Rost was eighth in 1:55.86.

The Jayhawks had two top-eight finishers in the men’s 3,000. Senior Benson Chesang was sixth in 8:08.81, and Colby Wissel was eighth in 8:13.55.

Joshy Madathil was seventh in the 1,000.

In the men’s 60-meter hurdles finals, Aaron Thompson was seventh in 7.95, giving him seventh place.

Tiffany Cherry was eighth in the 60-meter finals in 7.53.

Freshman Stephanie Horton was fifth in the shot put.

The Kansas men’s team finished the Big 12 Indoor Championship with a two-day point total of 63 points, putting them in sixth place in the conference.

The women finished ninth with 45 points.

Texas swept the men’s and women’s team championships, the men with 127 points and the women with 125 points.