Men's Track & Field ties for ninth at NCAA Championships
June 9, 2012
DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Texas Men's Track & Field team finished tied for ninth place at the 2012 NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa as they scored 22 points over the course of four days. The Longhorns earned three points on the final day of competition as Jacob Thormaehlen took seventh place in the shot put and Keiron Stewart was eighth in the 110m hurdles. Three UT athletes kicked off the day in the shot put. Texas was the only school that had multiple competitors in the event. Thormaehlen, Hayden Baillio and Ryan Crouser were all in the first of two flights of prelims. Thormaehlen, a senior from Taft, Texas, was competing in the last collegiate event of his career. On his second throw, he went 19.43m (63-9) for sixth place to advance to the prelims. Baillio, a two-time All-American outdoors, was in seventh after the first flight with a throw of 19.24m (63-1.50) and held on for the last spot to go into the finals. Freshman Ryan Crouser tossed it 18.50m (60-8.50) on his first try, but fouled the next two attempts to finish 16th overall. In the shot put finals, both Thormaehlen and Baillio improved their throws but it was not enough to move up the charts. Thormaehlen had his best attempt on his final throw, going 19.45m (63-9.75) to come in seventh and earn two points. Baillio threw 19.26m (63-2.25) on his first throw of finals and would place ninth overall. "I had high hopes going in and all the way through the competition I was just waiting on it," said Thormaehlen. "Usually I'm pretty confident, pretty consistent. I wasn't too jacked up I guess, but I just couldn't line it up. We practice well, we train hard and it's for times like these and whenever you can't capitalize on it, it really hurts a lot." In the running events, times were affected across the boards as the runners were running into strong winds as they headed into the finish line. Junior Keiron Stewart faced the wind in his 110m hurdles final. The wind factor was -3.5 as Stewart ran a 14.08 to finish eighth overall for one point. He earns his third straight All-America honor in the event as he ended up fifth last year and seventh as a freshman in 2010. "It was an off day pretty bad, but I can't hang my head on that," said Stewart. "I just have to pick it up and move on. It is just one race. It feels good (to be an All-American). I wish I were a couple steps higher. Given my best race, I know I would be, but as I said, I can't hang my head on that." The Longhorns close out the 2012 season. Several members of the team will head to Eugene, Ore. for the U.S. Olympic Trials that will take place June 21-July 1. Saturday, June 9 Results Shot Put Hayden Baillio 110m Hurdles
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