Men's Track & Field gets clutch performances at end of several events
Feb. 25, 2012
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Several clutch performances down the stretch helped the Texas Men's Track & Field capture first place following the first day of the Big 12 Championships. UT tallied 39.5 points on the first of the two-day meet as they hold a 13.5 point lead over Oklahoma State. "I think we demonstrated Texas fight," said head coach Bubba Thornton. "We have been talking about this all year. About taking the next step and finding what it takes to win. We are excited about it and tomorrow will be a big day." Junior Maston Wallace won his first indoor Big 12 Championship, matching a career best with a height of 17-8.50. It was the second time this season he cleared that height and did it after narrowly knocking off the bar his first two tries at it. On his final try he went over the top and Texas Tech's Kyal Meyers failed his final try to seal the victory for Wallace. "On the second attempt I knocked it off with my chin as I was going over the bar but even though I knocked it off I got a big boost of confidence from it," said Wallace. "After that I knew I could it and I just had to stay calm and not get out of control." Also scoring for the Longhorns in the pole vault were Mark Thomas and Hayden Clark. Thomas tied for fourth with a height of 16-4.75 and Clark hit 15-11 to tie for seventh. Marquise Goodwin repeated as the indoor long jump champion. He was in second place behind Kansas State's Mantas Silkauskas going into his final jump when he came through in the clutch with the winning leap of 7.74m. "The last jump is when you find out what you're made of," said Goodwin. "I just had to win. It takes one jump and that is what happened today as I didn't do well on my first few attempts." The day ending with another exciting finish as C.J. Jessett passed several runners on the last lap including Oklahoma's Riley Masters just before the finish line to vault Texas into second in the event. Jessett combined with John McNamara, Dereck Dreyer and Kevin Rayes for a time of 9:46.03. "I got the stick with a big group of guys and I just concentrated on each runner one-by-one," said Jessett. "I was a little behind the Oklahoma runner but I could hear everyone cheering and just kept grinding until I got him at the end." Junior Hayden Baillio added on to UT's leading point total with sixth place in the weight throw. On his first throw in the finals, Baillio let it fly for a personal best 60-1. The mark is the seventh best in school history as Baillio joined Dylan Armstrong as the only two Longhorns to clear 60-0 in the weight throw. "My first throw in finals was the 60-footer and I was surprised the way I had thrown this year," said "It is pretty cool to be in the same company as him (Dylan Armstrong) because The Longhorns also got off to a great start in the heptathlon as they hold the top two spots through four events. Freshman Petter Olson leads the way with 3,072 points and Isaac Murphy is second with 2,985 points. Olson won the long jump portion with a 7.08m leap and Murphy took first in the 60m dash with a time of 6.97. Of note from the preliminaries, Keiron Stewart was second in the 60m hurdles (7.79), Patrick McGregor qualified for the finals in both the 1000m run and the mile, Kyle Thompson reached the finals in the 800m and Goodwin was fifth in the 60m dash with a time of 6.76. Saturday's action will start at 3 p.m. with the conclusion of the heptathlon and the start of field events as the women's shot put and men's and women's high jump takes place.
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