Kansas University sophomore Mark Menefee was ranked ninth in the league in the 5,000 meters entering last weekend’s Big 12 track and field championships.
Surprise, surprise, surprise … Menefee won the event Sunday in a personal-best 14:20.3.
The Buhler native easily bested runner-up Ed Torrez of Colorado, who was clocked in 14:34.11.
“There is no way I’d have predicted that or had the gall to say Mark Menefee would place in the top three,” KU coach Gary Schwartz said.
“It’s one of those special moments in a coach’s life where somebody you work with does an unbelievable job at the right moment.
“Like I told Mark, ‘You can set records, win a (Kansas) Relays title, but if you win a conference championship, it stays with you forever. It was an incredible performance. To see a young man have that kind of confidence to win it out of nowhere … it’s awfully impressive.”
Menefee he won the 5,000 at the Kansas Relays in April in a time of 14:30 was one of three Jayhawks to claim titles Sunday at the Big 12s.
Scott Russell, who won the hammer on Friday, won the javelin in 240-3. He also won the event as a freshman. And Charlie Gruber became a repeat champ in the 1,500 with a winning time of 3:46.33.
Gruber, a junior from Arvada, Colo., held on to beat Daniel Kinyua of Iowa State by .06 of a second. Gruber, who has won four straight conference titles, edged Kinyua by .02 of a second in the Big 12 indoor meet.
“I guess I’m widening the gap, slowly but surely,” said Gruber, who took the lead with little over a lap to go.
“He ran 54 seconds on his last quarter,” Schwartz said. “His confidence is back. He’s back to his old form.”
Russell placed 10th in the discus. He threw in a steady rain during the first flight. The sun came out for the final three flights, Russell not advancing to the finals.
“Scott had great performances in the hammer and javelin,” Schwartz said of the Windsor, Ontario junior who ranks first in the country in the javelin. “One Big 12 championship is good; two is pretty darn good.”
Several other Jayhawks scored on Sunday.
Sophomore Andrea Bulat placed third in the javelin in 157-9.
Fifths were claimed by Benaud Shirley in the triple jump (48-7), Andy Tate in the steeplechase (8:57.63) and the 1,600 relay team of Kevin Lewis, Dorian Jordan, Gruber and Jabari Wamble (3:11.88).
Sevenths went to Wamble in the 400 (46.66) and Jennifer Wonder in the 100 hurdles (14.18).
Sarah Schraeder placed eighth in the high jump in 5-73/4.
The 400 relay team, consisting of freshmen Mike Walker, Anson Jackson and Kevin Lewis, plus Wamble, placed eighth in 41.58. Also, KU’s women’s 400 relay of Eniola Ajayi, Wonder, Shanetta March, and Sherre-Khan Blackmon placed eighth as did the 1,600 relay team of Amanda Reves, Ajayi, March and Blackmon.
KU’s men’s team placed sixth overall with 76 points, 20 points more than the Jayhawks scored at last year’s league meet. The KU women placed 11th with 26 points.
Highlighting non-Kansas performances at the Big 12s …
Missouri’s Derrick Peterson made it a clean career sweep in the 800. Peterson, a senior and the defending NCAA champion, has won all eight conference titles, counting indoor and outdoor competition, since the conference was formed. He held off Floyd Thompson of Baylor to win in 1:48.42, with Thompson three-tenths of a second back.
Texas A&M’s Bashir Ramzy, who was edged by Texas’ Chris Hercules in the long jump Saturday, posted a 52-63/4 in the triple jump for victory Sunday two inches better than Hercules.
“That was a lot of motivation,” Ramzy said. “It really got to me and I stayed up a little bit late thinking about.”
Ramzy won the 110 low hurdles in 13.67 seconds. He also ran on the Aggies’ 1600 relay team and produced a meet-high 291/2 points.
Nebraska won both the men’s and women’s titles, sweeping just as it did indoors. Freshman pole vaulter Eric Eshbach and women’s triple jumper Dahlia Ingram were the school’s winners Sunday. Janet Dutton, a Mormon who usually doesn’t compete on Sundays, helped out with a second-place finish in the high jump.
Oklahoma’s Michael Blackwood won the 400 in 44.69, holding off defending champ Brandon Couts of Baylor. Kara Wheeler of Colorado won the 1,500 in 4:21.12.
Aleah Williams of Texas was a double winner in the 100 and 200, qualifying for the Olympic Trials in both events, and Ashley Wysong’s 2:03.60 showing in the 800 for Missouri is the second-best in the NCAA.
