Murphy tabbed Big 12 Athlete of the Week
April 4, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas – Junior Isaac Murphy has been named the Big 12 Men’s Track & Field Athlete of the Week after winning the decathlon at the 85th Annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays last week. Murphy set or tied seven personal bests out of the 10 events on his way to a career-best 8,067 points to win the decathlon. Murphy is the first Longhorn since Trey Hardee in 2006 to win the decathlon at the Texas Relays. Hardee also won the event in 2005 while Aaron Fox won it in 1997 for the only other UT athletes besides Murphy to finish first. Heading into the final event of the decathlon he held a slim 16-point lead over UT-Arlington's Romain Martin. To close out his two days, Murphy ran a 4:28.44 in the 1,500m run to extend his advantage and seal the victory. During the five events on Saturday, Murphy posted several top finishes. He led off with the third best time in the 110m hurdles with a personal-best 14.42. He also took third in the discus throw with a toss of 136-10 (41.71m). In the pole vault, he matched his top career height during the decathlon at 16-00.75 (4.90m) for fourth. After the throwing the javelin 171-0 (52.12m) he ended the day with the 1,500m. On the first day he set or tied personal bests in all five events on the day to finish just two points shy of first place. He started the day by tying his personal best in the 100m dash with a 10.47 for first place. He took the early lead with his 982 points. He followed that up with second place in the long jump as he recorded a personal best jump of 24-8.50 (7.53m) on his final attempt. In the shot put, he notched a personal best with a throw of 42-10.75 (13.07m). In the high jump, he tied his decathlon best with a mark of 6-1.50 (1.87m). Murphy was in a close race with 2012 NCAA Indoor National Champion, Curtis Beach of Duke, in the 400m, coming in second with a personal best time of 48.01.
The Texas Men’s Track & Field team will send a group of distance runners this Friday and Saturday to the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. |
|
