Men's Track & Field finishes second at Big 12 Championships
May 13, 2012 MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Texas Men's Track & Field team scored 130 points to finish second at the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Manhattan, Kan. "I am really excited for the women's program and congratulate them for winning the conference meet," said head coach Bubba Thornton. "I am proud of my team but disappointed we couldn't do the same. We had guys like Goodwin, Murphy, Thormaehlen and Jackson have great winning performances and that is what Texas is all about but we are not quite where we need to be as a team. We have the NCAA Regionals coming up and we will be ready to compete." The Longhorns were one of only two teams to score over 100 points as they claimed second place behind the Big 12 Champions, Texas A&M (150). Sophomore Mark Jackson became the fourth individual to win a Big 12 title on the weekend. He completed the indoor/outdoor sweep of the triple jump with his winning jump of 15.93m ( 52-03.25). The mark was a personal best for Jackson as he is the fifth UT athlete to win the event at the Big 12 Championships and first since Chris Hercules won his third title in 2001. "It feels really good to know that all the work I put in was for a good cause," said Jackson. "I am really excited to have won both the indoor and outdoor conference titles. I am getting better each meet and my jump today was a season best. I am not at my peak but feel good going into regionals." Texas had four athletes place in the top eight of the pole vault. Sophomore Hayden Clark set a personal best at 5.31m (17-5) to tie for second place. Casey Wicker also had a personal best for fourth place at 5.16m (16-11). Mark Thomas (5th) and Maston Wallace (6th) joined Wicker with the height of 5.16m. Sophomore Austin Roth ran his season best in the 3,000m steeplechase, finishing in 8:53.09 for third place overall. He improved his time by four seconds from his top mark in the UCLA dual meet. The 4x100m relay team posted its top time of the season at 39.43. Mark Jackson, Marquise Goodwin, Emerson Sanders and Trevante Rhodes combined to get third place overall. Their time was faster than the previous stadium record. Four throwers were able to place in the discus. Redshirt freshman Will Spence led the group with a fourth-place throw of 56.43m (185-02). It gave him a personal best in both of his events on the weekend. Freshman Ryan Crouser was next in the standings with a mark of 56.01 (183-09). Redshirt freshman Blake Jakobsson came in seventh (54.52, 178-10) and Hayden Baillio was eighth (53.03m, 174-0). Jacob Thormaehlen also competed and ended in 15th. Junior Keiron Stewart placed fourth in the 110m hurdles, improving his time from the prelims by 1/10 of a second to finish in 13.74. Freshman Kyle Thompson improved upon his prelims time to run a personal best 1:48.14 for fifth place in the 800m run. Goodwin crushed his personal best in the 100m dash. He sprinted his way to a 10.24 for sixth place. Trevante Rhodes also ran the 100m and recorded a 10.44 for eighth. In the 5,000m run, Texas' Ryan Dohner scored with a seventh-place time of 14:08.02. He gained points in two events on the weekend, also scoring in the 10k. He was joined in the race by Brock Simmons (9th), Will Nation (12th), Mark Pinales (16th), Patrick McGregor (21st) and Rory Tunningley (25th). The 4x400m relay group of Isaac Murphy, Sheroid Evans, Thompson and Dereck Dreyer posted a time of 3:10.57 to close out the weekend with a sixth place performance. UT will now shift its focus to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds which will take place in Austin May 24-26.
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