Skujyte Wins Big 12 Long Jump; High Qualifies for NCAAs
May 18, 2002 | Track & Field
May 18, 2002
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Austra Skujyte of Kansas State cleared 20 feet, 2.25 inches to win the women's long jump on Saturday's second day of the 2002 Big 12 Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships being held at the Audrey J. Walton Track-Soccer Stadium at the University of Missouri.
Also Saturday, Wildcat sophomore Morgan High cleared 6 feet in the women's high jump, finishing second and hitting an automatic-qualifying mark for the NCAA Outdoor Nationals. It was a career-best outdoors for High, who had surpassed that mark en route to winning the conference high jump indoors.
Gina Curtis of Iowa State, with whom High dueled for the indoor title, won the outdoor championship at 6-1.25.
Kansas State was in second place in its attempt to defend its women's team title. The Wildcats scored 46 points through six of the 21 events to be contested, trailing Nebraska, which had 61.5.
On the men's side, the Wildcats were in eighth place with 10 points, getting five from Josef Karas' fourth-place finish in the decathlon. Missouri had 49 points to lead after the second day, with Nebraska second at 43 and Iowa State in third with 25.
"Point-wise, both teams are ahead of where we projected ourselves on paper," said K-State head coach Cliff Rovelto. "The women are 10 or 11 points up on what we projected. We're on pace to score in the neighborhood of what we did last year. I just don't know if that's going to be good enough to win this year."
Kansas State's women scored 128.25 points to beat Nebraska by 10 points for last year's outdoor team championship.
Skujyte led the women's long jump through four rounds, but Vesna Kostic of Nebraska took the lead on the fifth round with a leap of 19-11.50. Skujyte followed immediately with her winning jump of 20-2.25, and won the event when Kostic fouled on her final attempt.
"I thought that might happen," Skujyte said of losing the lead. "There was kind of some pressure, so I went out and got the lead right back. That mark was good, I didn't think the runway was very fast."
Skujyte had an hour before the start of both the high jump and the discus, both of which she was competing in. She had three throws in the discus and qualified for the final before returning to the high jump. She cleared 5-5, but failed at 5-7 and did not finish in the top eight to score a team point.
She moved on to the discus finals and improved her mark to 156-9, good enough for eighth place and missing seventh by a centimeter.
"I didn't jump well," Skujyte said of the high jump. "My third attempt at 5-7 I felt OK, but I was too close to the bar.
"I threw well in practice in the discus, but everybody threw well. I'll go home, get a good dinner and try not to think about today, but will think about tomorrow."
The Wildcat senior from Lithuania will compete in the javelin and the shot put on Sunday.
Leslie Mikos had a season-best of 177-4 in the women's hammer to finish third. The Wildcats picked up 13 team points in the hammer as Rebekah Green was fourth (174-8) and Amanda Riffel was seventh (159-8). Team scoring is on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Green later added a third-place finish in the discus at 160-0.
K-State also got 13 points in the women's long jump as Queeneth Evurunobi placed sixth at 19-3.50 behind Skujyte's 10 points for the win.
Karas finished with 7,076 points to finish fourth in the decathlon. He won both the discus (138-11) and the 1,500 (4:34.80) during Saturday's second day.The Big 12 Championships will be completed on Sunday.
MEET NOTES
* Josef Karas won the decathlon discus at 138-11, earning 712 points. Both Karas and Pat Pyle had fouls on their first two attempts in the discus. Karas used his third and final attempt to win the event, but Pyle had a toss of 95-9, earning just 448 points to fall from fifth to eighth. Karas moved from fourth to third after the discus.
* Karas outkicked Casey Thom of Nebraska to win the decathlon 1,500 by 0.03 seconds. His time of 4:34.80 was a season-best and moved him up one spot from fifth to fourth. Pat Pyle, who had a season-best 132-2 in the javelin, did not start the 1,500.
* Joseph Lee and Erik Sproll of K-State each won their heats of the men's 800 on Saturday. Sproll won the fourth heat in 1:51.27, passing Troy Weiland of Iowa State at the top of the straightaway to earn the win. Lee led the fifth heat from start to finish, posting a time of 1:51.28. They qualified third and fourth for Sunday's eight-man final, earning the automatic berths as heat-winners. Their times were seventh and eighth, respectively, among those who ran the 800 in prelims.
* Senior Shadrack Kimeli advanced to Sunday's final in the men's 1,500 by placing second in his heat at 3:51.80. His time was eighth among the 10 qualifiers for the final.* Wildcat junior Amy Mortimer continued her career-long duel with Sara Gorton of Colorado in the prelims of the women's 1,500. Mortimer edged Gorton in the first heat, with Mortimer finishing in 4:24.70, just 0.07 seconds ahead of her rival. Those two held the fastest qualifying times in the 1,500.
* K-State junior Jared MacLeod hit a provisional qualifying mark by winning his heat in the men's 110-meter hurdles. MacLeod finished in 13.89 seconds and moved up to third on the Wildcats' all-time list. Roberto Carvajal had a career-best 14.40 to earn the final qualifying position and move into ninth on the school's career list.
* Thesiaus Robinson had a season-best in the men's 400 prelims, finishing fourth in his heat at 48.85 seconds. He was 17th and missed qualifying for the final.
* Terence Newman won his heat in 10.46 seconds, finishing as the fastest qualifier on Saturday in the men's 100-meter dash.
* Carmen Wright, a Wildcat senior, qualified for Sunday's final in the women's 400 hurdles by placing second in her heat in a time of 1:01.19. Her mark was seventh among the qualifiers.
* Roberto Carvajal came back to qualify fourth for the men's 400-meter hurdles, finishing second in his heat at 52.25.
WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES (Through 6 of 21 finals)
1. Nebraska 61.5, 2. KANSAS STATE 46, 3. Iowa State 33, 4. Baylor 28, 5. Missouri 20, 6. Colorado 10.5, 7. (tie) Oklahoma, Texas A&M 8, 9. Kansas 7, 10. (tie) Oklahoma State, Texas Tech 6.
MEN'S TEAM SCORES (Through 6 of 21 finals)
1. Missouri 49, 2. Nebraska 43, 3. Iowa State 25, 4. Texas A&M 22, 5. Oklahoma 20, 6. Kansas 19, 7. Texas 17, 8. KANSAS STATE 10, 9. Baylor 9, 10. Colorado 8, 11. Texas Tech 7, 12. Oklahoma State 5.
WOMEN'S EVENTS (First-place and Kansas State results)
HAMMER FINAL - 1. Melissa Price, Nebraska, 219-2; 2. Amanda Moreley, Nebraska, 193-11; 3. Leslie Mikos, K-State, 177-4; 4. Rebekah Green, K-State, 174-8... 7. Amanda Riffel, K-State, 159-8; 12. Tabra Alpers, K-State, 148-11; 13. Tara Hacker, K-State, 146-10.
HEPTATHLON SECOND DAY - 1. Katherine Livesey, Nebraska, 5,577; 2. Barbara Szlendakova, Iowa State, 5,370.
LONG JUMP FINAL - 1. Austra Skujyte, K-State, 20-2.25; 2. Vesna Kostic, Nebraska, 19-11.50... 6. Queeneth Evurunobi, K-State, 19-3.50.
DISCUS FINAL - 1. Becky Breisch, Nebraska, 182-8; 2. Susan Sherman, Iowa State, 168-10; 3. Rebekah Green, K-State, 160-0... 8. Austra Skujyte, K-State, 156-9; 15. Leslie Mikos, K-State, 136-5.
HIGH JUMP FINAL - 1. Gina Curtis, Iowa State, 6-1.25; 2. Morgan High, K-State, 6-0... T9. Brie Madden, K-State, and Austra Skujyte, K-State, 5-5.
800 PRELIMS - 1. Lenka Kalabova, Iowa State, 2:08.45... 16. Nicole Grose, K-State, 2:14.72.
1,500 PRELIMS - 1. Amy Mortimer, K-State, 4:24.70; 2. Sara Gorton, Colorado, 4:24.77... 19. Shauna Burrell, K-State, 4:49.12.
100 HURDLES PRELIMS - 1. Nichole Denby, Texas, 13.28... 9. Teena Clincy, K-State, 13.77.
400 PRELIMS - 1. Moushaumi Robinson, Texas, 52.84... 17. Gaven Jones, K-State, 58.49.
400 HURDLES PRELIMS - 1. Danielle Myricks, Baylor, 58.48... 7. Carmen Wright, K-State, 1:01.19.
MEN'S EVENTS
SHOT PUT FINAL - 1. Carl Myerscough, Nebraska, 67-6.75.
LONG JUMP FINAL - 1. Frank Tolen, Nebraska, 25-2.75... C.J. Jamison, K-State, fouled out.
POLE VAULT FINAL - 1. Brian Hunter, Texas, 18-0.50... 9. Jim Gruenbacher, K-State, 16-6.75; 12. Dustin Schmidt, K-State, 16-0.75; T13. Dylan Schmidt, K-State, 16-0.75.
DECATHLON SECOND DAY - 1. Knut Sommerfeldt, Missouri, 7,318 points... 4. Josef Karas, K-State, 7,076; Pat Pyle, K-State, DNF.
KARAS' MARKS - 110H: 16.44 (684), DT: 138-11 (712), PV: 14-9 (760), JT: 141-9, 1,500m: 4:34.80.
PYLE'S MARKS - 110H: 16.38 (691), DT: 95-9 (448), PV: 13-5.25, JT: 132-2, 1,500: DNS.
800 PRELIMS - 1. Matt Queen, Colorado, 1:49.07... 7. Erik Sproll, K-State, 1:51.27; 8. Joseph Lee, K-State, 1:51.28; 28. Kelly Chance, K-State, 1:54.76.
1,500 PRELIMS - 1. James Bowler, Nebraska, 3:48.67... 8. Shadrack Kimeli, K-State, 3:51.80.
110 HURDLES PRELIMS - 1. Jermaine Cooper, Texas, 13.88; 2. Jared MacLeod, K-State, 13.89... 8. Roberto Carvajal, K-State, 14.40.
400 PRELIMS - 1. Darold Williamson, Baylor, 46.42... 17. Thesiaus Robinson, K-State, 48.85.
100m PRELIMS - 1. Terence Newman, K-State, 10.46; 2. Adam Wooten, Texas A&M, 10.49.
400 HURDLES PRELIMS - 1. Michael Smith, Baylor, 51.09... 4. Roberto Carvajal, K-State, 52.25.
200 PRELIMS - 1. Jimmy Pino, Nebraska, 20.88... 15. Dustin McDonald, K-State, 21.86; 19. Koli Hurst, K-State, 22.23.
--ksu--
