A week after Kansas University pole vaulter Britany Parker topped the NCAA provisional-qualifying marks at the Illini Invitational along with throwers Egor Agafonov and Stephanie Horton – receiving her second provisional in the shot put – the KU track and field team will play host for the Jayhawk Invitational – an indoor meet today at Anschutz Pavilion.
Although the competition won’t be all that stiff – mostly community colleges from the state are slated to attend – the Jayhawks are treating it like any other meet.
“We’re not really going against a lot of Div. I competition so we’re really trying to get confidence at this point, especially for freshmen and underclassmen,” middle distance runner Matt Baysinger said.
“The goal is always to win, but this is the first time that we’re running on a track that’s more than just a 200-meter flat track. It’s the best track we’ve run so far, so time is always an objective as far as prelims and stuff for Big 12 for you to qualify by times. So it’s definitely time to start dropping times and getting stuff like that done. But winning’s always important as well.”
With a personal-best time of 1:09.83, Baysinger will attempt to break the Anschutz Pavilion 600-meter record of 1:09.91 set back in 1986 by Texas’ John Patterson.
“I broke both of the records for the first two meets that we’ve gone to (this season),” said Baysinger, who also hopes to break the school record in the 600, set by Mike Ricks in 1980 with a time of 1:08.9. “So it’d be a nice trend to continue that, obviously. I don’t know how much I can keep that going. But I figure it’s there, and it’s within reach. There’s no point in not going for it.”
Parker could also set a Jayhawk Invitational record in the pole vault if she’s able to put up a similar performance from Illinois, where she cleared 12-11.50 feet. The Anschutz record is 12-6.25 by Libby Harmon in 2004.
Baysinger’s teammate from high school and current roommate, Paul Hefferon, will look to improve on his third-place finish in the mile at last year’s Jayhawk Invitational.
“I’ve been trying more so this year to try not to look past anything,” Hefferon said. “My performances that really mean anything to a lot of other people won’t come for a few weeks, but I feel I’m more prepared to run faster later on if I’ve had efforts where I race as if it’s a championship race early.
“I go to every day with the thought, ‘I haven’t done anything, worth anything.’ And I’ve got to keep proving myself again, every day.”
