Led by one of the top long distance runners in the U.S., the Kansas men’s team took third place in the Big 12 Track and Field Championships in Oklahoma this weekend.
Kansas junior Chandler Gibbens won league championships in both the 5000 meter and 10,000 meter races at the Big 12 meet, which was held Friday through Sunday at the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman.
Gibbens — who earlier in the year broke Jim Ryun’s KU record in the 5,000 meters — came into the meet as the No. 7 runner in the NCAA Division I ranks in the 5,000 meters. He was the top-ranked runner in the Big 12 and delivered on that ranking with the victory. Gibbens, though, was not nationally ranked in the top 50 in the 10,000 meter race, but beat several ranked runners from powerhouse programs at Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Texas.
Gibbens was the only league champion for the men’s team, but several other Jayhawks had big meet performances during the weekend. Junior Michael Joseph finished second in the 400 meters, and became the first Jayhawk to ever run the race in less than 45 seconds. His time of 44.77 in the preliminaries was good enough to qualify for the NCAA national championship preliminaries. The mark also set the St. Lucian national record, Joseph’s home country. Joseph also hit a national qualifying mark in the 200 meters, where he finished seventh.
KU did the majority of its scoring in the field events. Sophomore Dimitrios Pavlidis took second in the discus, while fellow sophomore Devin Loudermilk was the runner-up in the high jump, and junior Andrew Saloga finished second in the pole vault. KU also had four athletes take bronze medal positions in events at the Big 12 meet. Third place finishers were: Junior Oleg Klykov, hammer throw; Jake Freidel, pole vault; Patrick Larrison in the shot put; and Alexander Jung in the decathlon.
For awhile, KU was in the running to win the team championship at the meet. KU led the team standings after day No. 1 of the event and was in second place after day No. 2. KU entered the meet ranked as the No. 3 team in the Big 12, and those rankings held true for the meet. Texas Tech, which entered the meet as the No. 2 ranked team in the country, won the men’s championship. Texas, which was ranked No. 8 nationally, finished second.
The KU women’s team finished eighth in the 10-team league competition. Rylee Anderson won the league championship in the high jump, and Lona Latema finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase event.
Up next for the Jayhawks is the NCAA West Regional meet. Athletes who qualified for the meet will participate May 24-27 at Sacramento, Calif. The top performers in events at that meet will qualify for the NCAA National Championships at the University of Texas on June 7-10.
Courtesy: Kansas Athletics
