It starts Friday and wraps up Saturday. The men are going for their 6th straight and the women are looking to go back to back. The men should easily take it, probably a toss up on the women’s side but we are still the favorites. I will be out of the country so wont be able to follow it that closely.
Another important part will be individual scores. Ruiz in the pole vault is the only athlete on the men’s side who is currently in a top 16 position which is needed to go to nationals (no prelims in indoors). Taylor Scaife in the weight throw is the only one on the women’s side. Even our 4x400 is not in a qualifying position yet.
Ben Percefull wins the Pole Vault, Antonio Ruiz takes 2nd, Jacob Adair 4th, Christyan Sampy 5th, and Tyler Stafford tied for 6th.
Men’s PV the first event to be scored. After one event the scoreboard looks like this:
Houston 29.5
South Florida 6
Cincinnati 2.5
UConn 1
They should just call it now… But seriously, not bad considering the Coogs only scored 17 points total on Day 1 last year.
Women qualify 2 in the 60m dash.
Men take the top 4 spots and 5 of 8 total slots in 60m dash.
Looks like we’ve been holding back a secret weapon in Dayo Akindele. Best I can tell, he’s never entered the Long Jump event in college. He entered the Conference Championships with “no distance” in the event. He made one legal jump today, and won the conference championship! Not to mention, the 31st ranked distance in NCAA this year. Not too bad for a first try.
Anyhow, Coogs take 1-4 in the Long Jump. Definitely becoming #H-Town Field City.
Men, after Day 1: 1 Houston 72.5
2 Tulsa 25
3 Cincinnati 24.5
4 Connecticut 21
5 East Carolina 14
5 South Florida 14
5 Wichita State 14
8 Memphis 10
Women finish the day in 3rd, 4.5 points behind the leader, ECU.
SWEEP! I didn’t get to follow, I spent a few hours today driving across the Yucatan to get to the airport.
Sounds like a dramatic finish for the women. From my reading of the stats, Coogs were up by a half point in the standings going into the final event… Won the race but DQ’d in 4x400. Could have easily cost the conference championship, but Cincinnati came in last in 4x400, getting no points and cementing themselves in second place by a half point!
It was a wild ending. As soon as cinn did as poorly in their heat as they did, the ladies had it clinched. They ran a very good 4x400 to win, but it looked like one of our runners ran into the runner in front of here and clipped her back leg resulting in the dq. Haven’t see the official explanation.
But seriously, not bad considering the Coogs only scored 17 points total on Day 1 last year.