Four Jayhawks, all from the Kansas men’s track and field team and primarily in field events, won titles at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship, which was held from Thursday to Saturday in Waco, Texas.
KU’s best showing of all came in the men’s pole vault, when not only did sophomore Anthony Meacham win the league championship by clearing 5.40 meters, but teammate and classmate Ashton Barkdull was right behind in second place at 5.30, with junior Clayton Simms (fifth, 5.30) and senior Andrew Saloga (tied for sixth, 5.20) closely following.
Junior Alexander Jung smashed a 27-year-old school record with 7,706 points in the decathlon, aided by a first-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles portion of the event and a tie for top marks in the pole vault, plus a second-place showing in the discus and third in the shot put and javelin. He was also one of three competitors to break the stadium’s prior record as the top decathlon performer.
Junior Devin Loudermilk, a Howard native, was the lone high jumper to reach 2.24 and thus repeated his conference title from February’s indoor championship.
Fellow junior Dimitrios Pavlidis managed to throw the discus 61.52 meters to win that event by a margin of nearly one full meter.
Arkansas transfer Yoveinny Mota’s time of 13.04 seconds in the women’s 100-meter hurdles was good for second place, making her the top finisher from the KU women’s squad. The women’s 4×400-meter relay team of Madison Campbell, Sidney Smith, Aaliyah Moore and Deshana Skeete earned a bronze medal with its time of 3:35.29.
KU finished sixth of 12 teams in the overall men’s standings and 10th of 14 on the women’s side.
NCAA preliminary competition begins on May 22 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World
