Big 12 Track

O

overseasbbfan1

1,000+ Posts
Day One complete at the Big 12 Championships. Some great action and the Ags look tough on both sides, but I think (hope) the men have a shot at taking the title. It won't be easy but we're currently 15.5 pts. ahead of the Ags. A&M has double the track qualifiers we do for today (14 vs. 7), but we have the ability to rack up a lot of points in the remaining field events. It's actually 13 and 6 qualifiers respectively, exluding the 3000, and I've added just one for each squad in the event, based on seed times.

Regarding the filed events, Ags and Horns have roughly the same number of competitors, but we should score considerably more than A&M given our dominance in several events. The Ags best event shold be TJ where they have one of the top seeds, and two that could easily finish top 5. Fortunately, we have a couple who are also capable of scoring in the event. But we have a very good chance of having four guys finish near the top in the SP, and three should score in the Heptathalon as well. We actually had the top three spots in the Hep after three events, but after four currently sit in 1st, 2nd and 6th. But the scoring is close so we need to finish strong in todays last three events. If we can maintain our current placements, or even improve slightly, we're going to score a lot of points. If seeds in the SP and current standings in the Hep hold up, we could score as many as 45 points between these two events alone. That, along with our current 15.5 pt. lead, could be enough to overcome the Ags obvious dominance in the sprints and middle distance events. It doesn't help that Ags are seeded 2nd and we're seeded 6th in the meet's final event, the 4x400. And I fully expect the Ags to win the relay. It should be an exciting day no matter what!

The road looks tougher for the women, even though we have the same number of track qualifiers as the Ags (15 each - this includes one for each squad in the 3000, based on seed times). The Ags are currently 20 points ahead if us, and their seedings/projected finishes are stronger in the sprints. We should score more in the 400, and also 600 where we have two in the finals and the Ags have none. Our only chance, and it's a (very) slight one at best, is to do better than expected in a couple of the sprints, and to totally dominate the HJ. Seedings show us with 4 of the top 10, and three of the top four in this event (Ags also have two in the top 10, at 7th and 8th). We would need all four jumpers to finish near the top, improve a little on our sprint seedings, and win the relay to even have an outside chance. You could also say we need to win 4-5 events to have a chance - best opportunties for that are in the relay, HJ and 600 (where Chambers is defending champ and seeded 2nd in the final). If we could also pull off a surprise, with one of our three finalists winning the 400 (and the other two finishing top 5), and Hall coming through in the mile (seeded fourth in final), we should at least finish strong, even if the Ags take the title. That's a lot of "ifs", I know, but it's always fun to specualte about best and worst case scenarios. And there are other good squads as well, inc KS who is currently in first, 19 ahead of the Ags. It really hurts not having Cooper, Behm and Masterson. They actually put Cooper in the 600 yesterday and she finished dead last in her heat, way off the pace; it was very obvious that she is still injured (which means we probably won't see her in the 4x400 either). And Behm and Masterson didn't compete at all. That's a lot of potential points lost to injuries.
 
Well, you asked for an update, so here's the best I can do at this point. The 60m and 60m hurdles are over, where the Ag women are strong, and the HJ has been posted too, which is our best event. The current score is Aggie women 86 and the Horns 79. But I can't tell if this includes the mile run - it is long since over and many events after it have already been posted, but this is still showing as unavailable. That usually means something has been contested and the points aren't included in team scoring yet, but no way to know for sure. We have Hall seeded fourth in the final, and the Ags don't have a runner, so we could be even closer than the 7 point difference posted above. Unfortunately the Aggies have quite a few good events left, incuding the 200 where they have 4 in the final. We have three in the same event but they are seeded higher than us. And our best events have already been completed and added to team scores. We still have potential points in the 200, mile (if not already included in scoring), 3000, Shot put and 4x400. I think Brannon is also scheduled to go in the triple jump but this isn't an event she usually competes in, so not sure if we can expect anything there. Overall if looks like the Aggies have more potential points coming home, so almost everyone would need to have the meet of their life to keep us in contention.

The Aggie men are currently 42 points ahead of the Horns but neither the Shot Put or Heptahalon have posted so that's 40-50 points for us there. I still think the Ags have the edge given other events remaining, but we're definitely in the mix!

I guess we'll know how it all turns out in about in a couple of hours.
 
Thanks for the informative updates.

I have never understood why Thornton has such a tough time signing a good sprint corps. The state produces plenty of good sprinters, but ATM, Baylor and Tech seem to pick off most of the better ones.
 
Men and women both finish strong and place second. The women finish second 140 - 112. Highlights for the women were finishing 2nd, 2nd, 6th and 7th in the HJ, Chambers and Dowie going 1st and 4th in the 600, Hall second in mile, and Peter dropping her personal best by 2/10 to place 2nd in the 200 (which will also be the second fastest in the country entering the NCAA meet). Brannon finished 3rd in the LJ and I think we also had top four finishes in the triple jumo, SP and 3000. And KS pulled a surprise and beat both the Ags and Horns in the 4x400, but these three squads will enter the NCAA meet with the top three times in the country. No question we would have won the 4x400, and easily IMO (at both Big12 and NCAA meets) if Cooper had been healthy and in the lineup. Overall a lot of good performances for the women and I really think we could have won this meet if not for the injuries to Cooper, Behm and Masterson.

The men. Wow! They were 65 points behind the Ags with only four events left to post, and after the SP, Heptahalon and 3000, we were just 13.5 points down entering the final event, the 4x400. We scored 51 points in just two events!!! 1st, 2nd and 4th in the Heptathalon and 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th in the Shot Put. Great stuff. The Ags win the 4x400 and we take 6th to close out the meet. Final score for men, Ags 154 and Texas 2nd with 133.5

Congrats to both squads on a strong meet and some great individual performances.
 
Thanks for the updates. I wasn't aware of the injuries on the women's team which would have most likely resulted in a much needed point for us. Now the score is

UT 7 1/2 A&M 3

The next event is on March 4 at Austin in Women's Basketball at 1 P.M. I am sure the Ladies will have a lot of support for this 1/2 point. More analysis later.
 
Whats wrong with Stacey Smith, she's not running the way she use too. Much slower now a 55
 
Both teams had great first days at the NCAA championships, with the women currently in 1st and the men 2nd. Unfortunately, both squads are almost done for the meet. The women have only the 4x400 on day two, and the men have two competitors in the Heptathalon - but they're currently in 10th and 11th places with three of the seven disciplines still to go. We might manage another point or two if either moves up a bit today, but our total should end pretty close to where it is currently. For the women, we have one of the top four 4x400's in the final - pretty amazing when you consider Cooper isn't even in the lineup - so our overall point total could creep into into the mid 20's. That's usually good enough for a top 10 finish so we'll have to see how the day plays out.

Some great performances yesterday though. The men had six competitors in four events and finished 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 10th and 11th. The women also had six competing in four events and finished 2nd 4th, 5th, 10th, 12th and 16th.
 
A.Peters ran a Outstanding leg on the Mile Relay 52.09 split.
If we could just get, a good 1st leg!
 
Cooper is injured but I think all four legs did an outstanding job, including the first who wasn't even scheduled to compete as of yesterday. Seeded 4th based on a pre-injury time and finsihing 2nd with two of the regulars out of the lineup - I'll take that any day.
 
The men finished in 7th place with 25 points, one point better than A&M.

The women finished in 4th place with 22.5 points, a half point better than A&M.
 
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