A little home-field advantage made for quite an entertaining day for Kansas University’s track and field team Saturday at Anshutz Pavilion.
KU athletes gushed over the pumped-up crowd of Jayhawk faithful at the Kansas Invitational.
“There’s a few places we go to run and you can actually hear the crowd, and this is one of them,” KU middle-distance runner Matt Baysinger said. “It’s really cool because you can actually hear your name and pick out your friends out of the crowd. It gives it a special touch.”
Baysinger, who won the 600-yard run with a time of 1:11.71, said the crowd was needed because the competition was stiff.
“We’re doing two home meets this year, and this one we’re going against all Division-I schools, and they’re good Division I schools,” Baysinger said. “So this isn’t just a slap-hazard meet. You have to get ready different, mentally, when you’re going against Division I schools as opposed to junior colleges because you know the people you’re going to be competing against are at the best level.”
Sophomore pole vaulter Jordan Scott tried to get a boost from the crowd before his final try at clearing 5.41 meters and earning an automatic bid for nationals, but he came up short. Scott still finished in first place by clearing the bar at 5.26 meters – good enough for a provisional mark.
“I do feel like you have to get the crowd involved and root for the home team, of course,” Scott said. “But I love jumping here because this is where I practice every day, and so it feels more like practice, and you usually don’t have to worry about the bar as much. But I’m going to get that bar next time.”
The large crowd did bring a bit of bad luck for one KU pole vaulter. Senior Kate Sultanova was attempting to clear the women’s automatic-qualifying mark but was thrown off by the crowd.
“In my first attempt, I started running and somebody started clapping, and that just threw me a little bit,” Sultanova said. “But I just have to learn that, when things like that come up, I just have to deal with them.”
KU senior Libby Harmon cleared the bar at 3.68 meters to finish behind Sultanova, and sophomore Kirk Cooper vaulted over 5.11 meters in his third and final try to take second place behind Scott.
“Pole vault’s always been pretty dominant here, especially back in the ’70s and ’80s,” Scott said. “So the pole vault is something we pride ourselves in. Everyone knows KU pole vault, and that’s the way we want to keep it.”
In the women’s 60-meter dash, KU junior Nickeshia Anderson gave the spectators a little more to cheer about with her first-place time of 7.43.
The time set an Anschutz Pavilion record, breaking the previous record of 7.48 set in 2003.
“Basically, I was just running against the clock,” Anderson said. “That was me being more aggressive coming out of the blocks.”
Sophomore middle-distance runner Lauren Bonds added to the excitement with an impressive finish to the women’s 3,000-meter run. After trailing All-American Mica Land from Wichita State in the final laps, Bonds made her move out of the final turn to win in a time of 10:03.21 – a mere 0.23 seconds ahead of Land.
“I just tried to have confidence and saw that I was close, so I just went for it,” Bonds said. “Luckily I caught her.”