Men's Track & Field starts season strong at Arkansas
Jan. 13, 2012 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The Texas Men's Track & Field team opened its 2012 indoor season on Friday with a dual meet at the University of Arkansas. The Longhorns won six events and put together a strong start to the season despite Arkansas winning the meet, 89-81. "It was a solid opening meet especially when you add in all the people who didn't compete for us today," said head coach Bubba Thornton. "I am impressed with how our throwers started us off today and I thought Keiron (Stewart) in the hurdles, Mark Jackson and Isaac Murphy all had good days. You never like to lose but we did a lot of good things today and are looking down the road." Texas entered the season with a strong core of throwers and that group showed its potential by winning both throwing events. UT had the top four individuals in the shot put with 2011 high school athlete of the year Ryan Crouser leading the way with a top throw of 19.72m for a mark of 64-08.50. Following Crouser were Jacob Thormaehlen (19.35m), Hayden Baillio (18.36m) and Will Spence (17.01m). Thormaehlen won the weight throw with a toss of 17.34m while Baillio was third and Blake Jakobsson fourth.
Mark Jackson won the triple jump, recording a mark of 15.41m. He was also second in the 60m dash and fourth in the long jump. Keiron Stewart finished first in the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.77 while Petter Olson was third and Isaac Murphy fourth in the event. Other individual event winners for the Longhorns included Patrick McGregor in the 1000m run (2:24.14) and Marquise Goodwin in the 60m dash (6.72). UT also won the distance medley with a group of John McNamara, Derek Dreyer, Kevin Rayes and McGregor as they teamed up for a time of 10:09.26. Murphy had a solid all-around day finishing third in the long jump, fourth in the 60m hurdles, fifth in the high jump and was on the second place 4x400m relay team. Texas also had three of the top four finishers in the mile, led by sophomore Ryan Dohner with a time of 4:12.95 for second place. Mark Thomas ended up second in the pole vault (5.15m) and freshman Sheroid Evans transitioned from the football field to the track smoothly claiming second in the 200m with a time of 21.54. "We can see improvement in every event and got off to a lot better start this year than we did last year," said Thornton. "We will have to evaluate each person and make sure we are getting ready for the Big 12 Championships." The Longhorns will continue to train for two weeks before returning to competition Saturday, Jan. 28 back in Fayetteville, Ark. for the Arkansas Invitational. |
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