Kansas Athletics will get another chance to show off the newly refreshed Rock Chalk Park, this time for one of the most significant meets of the year as the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship takes place in Lawrence for the first time since 2017.
Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech have all played host to the event in the intervening years, but now KU will serve as the center of league competition Thursday through Saturday as the conference’s top athletes vie for league titles.
Last year, the Jayhawks took four individual championships in Waco, Texas. Alex Jung broke a 27-year-old school record to win the decathlon, while Dimitrios Pavlidis won the discus and Devin Loudermilk the long jump. Then-sophomore Anthony Meacham took first place in the pole vault among a group of four KU athletes in the top six.
Jung, now a senior, has since broken his own record at last month’s Jim Click Shootout in Arizona and could have the chance to defend his title. Pavlidis, the national bronze medalist last year, did not compete during KU’s indoor season but already has three victories in the outdoor portion. Loudermilk has since transferred to rival K-State and is sitting out the season.
As for the pole vault, the women’s event on Friday at 4 p.m. and men’s event on Saturday at 2 p.m. could feature some significant KU representation.
The women rank No. 1 in the country, led by sophomore Mason Meinershagen, who recently reset a record she had previously shared with graduate student teammate Erica Ellis. Other contributors include redshirt senior Gabby Hoke, junior Kade Joslin and freshman Madi Snody.
The men, meanwhile, are No. 2 nationally. Last year’s national runner-up Clayton Simms has battled injury during his senior season, though he managed to win the title at the Big 12 indoor competition back in February. Junior Ashton Barkdull recently won the Ward Haylett Invitational in Manhattan with a personal-best mark of 5.52 meters. His brother Bryce has had a strong freshman year and was runner-up to Simms at the indoor meet. Also in the mix are Meacham, Jake Freidel and Brady Koolen (winner at the John Jacobs Collegiate Invitational and Jayhawk Spring Fling earlier this season).
Another of KU’s highest-ranking events is the men’s shot put (No. 8). Sophomore Jacob Cookinham and redshirt senior multi-sport athlete Bryce Foster have turned in a series of strong finishes in recent months, including Foster’s first-place throw of 19.02 meters at the Rock Chalk Classic in late April.
The Jayhawks have also reached No. 10 in the women’s triple jump. Freshman Kori Randle, a former North Carolina state champion in the event, finished fifth at her first indoor championship and has momentum entering the outdoor competition after winning with a result of 12.87 meters at the Desert Heat Classic.
Sofia Sluchaninova won back-to-back events in the women’s discus in March and has finished first, second or third in all but one event this outdoor season. Sidney Smith did one better in the 400-meter hurdles three weeks in a row, culminating at the Kansas Relays. Her career-best mark of 57.93 seconds came when she finished sixth at last year’s Big 12 Outdoor Championship.
In all, a variety of Jayhawks will be in action over the course of three days, beginning with combined events at 11:30 a.m. Thursday and concluding with the women’s 4×400-meter relay on Saturday at 8:40 p.m.
Then, NCAA preliminary competition begins on May 28 in College Station, Texas.
Sarah Buchanan/Special to the Journal-World
