Heading into the final day of the Kansas Relays, the Kansas University women’s team had yet to win gold in an event on the track.
Thanks to some speedy sophomores, the women took two first-place finishes in their home meet Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Victoria Howard was the first to earn a spot at the top of the medal podium by winning the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.58. Howard dropped 0.2 seconds off her qualifying time from Friday.
“I did OK – I mean you always feel like you can go faster,” Howard said. “I feel like it was a good start for me because I haven’t really been able to run the 100; I’ve been dealing with some injuries and what-not. But it was one of my better times for a long time, so I was just very thankful for that.”
KU’s Sha’Ray Butler won the 400 hurdles in the women’s college race. Her time of 59.44 was an improvement of 1.09 seconds from her best qualifying finish Friday.
“I won’t take all the credit. They took some of the people and put them in the invitational,” Butler said. “So I didn’t know how I would do because you didn’t know who you were running against, so I just ran.”
Butler was also on the fourth-place 1,600 relay team with juniors Ashley Brown and Crystal Manning and freshman Charity Stowers, finishing in a time of 3:44.34.
The Jayhawks also took first place in the women’s hammer throw Thursday when Zlata Tarasova set a new Kansas Relays record with a toss of 203 feet, 2 inches.
But the women weren’t the only gold-medal winners Saturday, as senior Eric Babb won the men’s long jump. His jump of 25-9 1â4 was a new career best and put him in the top 10 in NCAA Division I.
“I had all my family here today, so it was a great accomplishment for me,” Babb said. “It was pretty crazy to see my winning mark. I wasn’t expecting my first jump in the finals to do so well. When I saw that mark, I knew I was going to be able to jump well today.”
¢Fourth-place four-by-fours: Kansas freshman Stowers added another fourth-place finish to her fourth-place medal as part of the 1,600 relay team with her time of 57.03 in the 400.
The men’s 1,600 relay team also finished in fourth. The team of junior Matt Baysinger and seniors Mark Gdowski, Michael Rost and Clif Mitchell was clocked at 3:11.99.
Baysinger and Mitchell also earned top-10 finishes in the 800. Baysinger’s time of 1:51.74 earned him fifth, while Mitchell came in eighth with a time of 1:52.94.
Junior Marisia Pencil ran the 800 for the women and finished in fourth with a time of 2:12.97.
¢Silver lining: KU’s junior Colby Wissel earned a D-I regional qualifying mark with his second-place finish in the 1,500. His time of 3:47.08 was just barely under the qualifying time of 3:47.80.
Senior Abby Emsick also earned a qualifying mark by throwing 170-05 in the discus. Her toss was good enough for second.
Melissa O’Rourke – a senior distance runner – also took on the 1,500 and came in at 4:31.17 for a fifth-place finish.
Jarrell Rollins’ 400 time of 48.20 was also worthy of a fifth-place finish for the sophomore.
¢By invitation only: Senior Janiece Gatson faced some tough competition in the 400 hurdles invitational. Gatson garnered a seventh-place finish with her time of 1:00.06.
Julius Jiles earned a seventh-place finish of his own in the 110 hurdles invitational. The sophomore from Central High School in Kansas City, Mo., ran a time of 14.03.
