Skujyte, Green, Mortimer Lead Wildcats to Fifth at NCAAs
Jun 01, 2002 | Track & Field
June 1, 2002
BATON ROUGE, La. - Austra Skujyte of Kansas State was second and teammate Rebekah Green finished fifth in the women's shot put Saturday, leading the Wildcats to a fifth-place finish at the 2002 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships being hosted by LSU.
Wildcat junior Amy Mortimer also earned All-America status with a fourth-place finish in the women's 1,500 meters.
Kansas State scored 30 points in the women's team standings, with both the point total and the finish being the best ever for the K-State women at the NCAA outdoor meet. K-State scored 25 points at the 1984 Outdoor Nationals, with its previous-best finish being an 11th with 22 points at the 2000 meet.
Kansas State did not score in the men's team standings at this meet.
Skujyte had a throw of 55 feet, 1 inch to finish second in the event, which was won by UCLA freshman Jessica Cosby at 57-0.25. Green finished at 54-10.75, just one centimeter behind fourth-place finisher Ashely Dorsey of Texas-Arlington (54-11.25) and six centimeters behind Skujyte and Jillian Camarena of Stanford, who tied at 55-1.
Both Skujyte and Green threw in the second flight of preliminaries. Skujyte, who won the national championship in the heptathlon in the first two days of the meet, had her best throw of the competition on her first attempt. Green had her best mark on her third throw in prelims.
Skujyte earned second place when her mark in the fifth round, 54-8.75, was better than Camarena's second-best attempt of 54-6. Only Skujyte improved her position among the top five during the finals.
Green improved on her eighth-place finish at last year's outdoor meet, joining Skujyte as Wildcats who earned All-America honors in back-to-back seasons.
Mortimer went 4:16.48 to place fourth, running the best 1,500 of her career. She went 4:16.78 in the 2000 Big 12 Championships. Only Deb Pihl (4:12.94 at the 1984 TAC Championships) has a better mark in the 1,500 in Wildcat history. Mortimer also earned All-America status for the ninth time in her career, including the second at the NCAA Outdoor Nationals. Mortimer was third at 5,000 meters outdoors in 2000.
UCLA sophomore Lena Nilsson won the women's 1,500 in 4:12.60. Mortimer outkicked two other runners for fourth, with Mortimer, Maurica Carlucci of Stanford and Lauren King of Notre Dame finishing within 0.37 seconds.
K-State freshman Chaytan Hill placed 16th in the women's triple jump at 40-10.25.
In the decathlon, Josef Karas of K-State finished 12th with 7,306 points. His best event of the final day came in the final event of the competition, when he went a season-best 4:32.88 to place fifth in the 1,500 meters. Karas fell just short of his career-best 7,360 points set in mid-March at Texas A&M.
Karas opened the second day of competition in 12th place, but finished 18th in the 110-meter hurdles at 16.24 seconds. He fell into 13th place overall and remained there until the 1,500 despite finishing fourth in the discus at 145-2. Karas also had marks of 14-7.25 in the pole vault and 148-4 in the javelin.
South Carolina scored 82 points to win the women's team championship over UCLA with 72 and USC with 57. The Wildcats finished one point ahead of Florida.
Host LSU won the men's team championship with 64 points. Tennessee was second with 57 points, followed by SMU (42), Florida and Clemson (32 each).
WOMEN'S TEAM STANDINGS
1. South Carolina 82; 2. UCLA 72; 3. USC 57; 4. LSU 43; 5. KANSAS STATE 30; 6. Florida 29; 7. Stanford 25; 8. North Carolina 22; 9. Nebraska 21; T10. Illinois, Texas, BYU 19... Other Big 12 Schools: T17. Colorado 15; 19. Iowa State 12.5; T29. Oklahoma State 8; T41. Baylor 5; T56. Missouri, Oklahoma 3.
MEN'S TEAM STANDINGS
1. LSU 64; 2. Tennessee 57; 3. SMU 42; T4. Florida, Clemson 32; 6. South Carolina 30; 7. Arkansas 28; 8. Stanford 26; T9. Colorado, Texas 23... Other Big 12 Schools: 18. Baylor 16; T19. Nebraska 14; T21. Kansas 12; T35. Texas Tech 7; T39. Texas A&M 6; T48. Missouri 4.
WOMEN'S EVENTS
SHOT PUT FINAL - 1. Jessica Cosby, UCLA, 57-0.25; 2. Austra Skujyte, K-State, 55-1; 3. Jillian Camarena, Stanford, 55-1; 4. Ashely Dorsey, Texas-Arlington, 54-11.25; 5. Rebekah Green, K-State, 54-10.75.
1,500 FINAL - 1. Lena Nilsson, UCLA, 4:12.60; 2. Heather Sagan, Liberty, 4:14.71; 3. Shalane Flanagan, North Carolina, 4:15.52; 4. Amy Mortimer, K-State, 4:16.48.
TRIPLE JUMP FINAL - 1. Teresa Bundy, Florida State, 44-0; 2. Ineta Radevica, Wichita State, 43-10; 3. Kareen Clark, Miami, Fla., 43-8.50... 16. Chaytan Hill, K-State, 40-10.25.
MEN'S EVENTS
DECATHLON FINAL - 1. Claston Bernard, LSU, 8,094 points; 2. Paul Terek, Michigan State, 8,041; 3. David Lemen, Georgia, 7,972... 12. Josef Karas, K-State, 7,306.
DECATHLON 110 HURDLES - 1. Ryan Harlan, Rice, 14.23 (945 points); 2. Stephen Harris, Tennessee, 14.52 (908); 3. Bernard, 14.62 (896)... 18. Karas, 16.24 (706).
DECATHLON DISCUS - 1. Adam Bork, Montana, 151-2 (789); 2. Bernard, 148-11 (775); 3. Joel Johnson, Utah State, 147-0 (763); 4. Karas, 145-2 (751).
DECATHLON POLE VAULT - 1. Lemen, Georgia, 17-6.50 (1,020); T2. Terek, Bork, 16-6.75 (926)... T8. Karas, 14-7.25 (746).
DECATHLON JAVELIN - 1. Lemen, 206-7 (782); 2. Knut Sommerfeldt, Missouri, 199-2 (749); 3. Harris, 191-6 (713)... 14. Karas, 148-4 (518).
DECATHLON 1,500 - 1. Harris, 4:24.11 (784); 2. Terek, 4:25.18 (777); 3. Bryan Anderson, Montana, 4:26.98 (765)... 5. Karas, 4:32.88 (726).
--ksu--
