Since winning the Big 12 men's indoor track and field championship back to back in 2018 and 2019, Texas Tech has come in second three years in a row. The past two years, the Red Raiders had to watch Texas celebrate the men's team title.
Does that add some motivation?
"For the coach, it does; I can tell you that," Tech coach Wes Kittley said this week. "Of course. It was a bitter pill to take. We got really close last year. We had some injuries. We had the meet won and lost three people right at the last of the meet (or) we should have had the meet won in my opinion.
"So there's motivation on my part. But I just think we need to go in and do our job. ... If we will do that, we will be fighting for the championship."
Tech is hosting the Big 12 indoor meet this weekend for the third time in five years. Events get under way Friday at the Sports Performance Center with combined events beginning at 10 a.m. and field events and running events at 3 p.m. On Saturday, combined events resume at 10 a.m., field events at 1 p.m. and running events at 2 p.m.
Texas women have won the Big 12 indoor title five years in a row, eight of the past nine and are ranked No. 1 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The Tech women, ranked No. 14, have finished second three of the past four years.
The Tech men are ranked No. 3 and Texas No. 5, but for the Red Raiders to take back the trophy, they'll need a strong showing from a sprints group that's had key personnel on the shelf recently. Three-time Big 12 sprints champion Jacolby Shelton and Don'Dre Swint, a first-team all-American in the 60 last year at Florida State, haven't competed since they suffered grade 1 hamstring strains four weeks ago.
Terrence Jones has yet to open up this season because of a bursa sac inflammation in the pelvic area. He matched the NCAA record last year in the 60 meters.
Kittley said all three have been practicing, but he declined to say how they would be used this weekend.
"I'm real encouraged by where they all are," he said. "What we run, I haven't totally decided yet."
Shelton was the high-point scorer of the meet in last year's Big 12 indoor at Iowa State, sweeping the 60 meters and the 200. At the 2021 Big 12 indoor in Lubbock, he won the 60 and pulled up injured in the 200.
Last month, in an anticipated 200 field that featured NCAA champions Matthew Boling from Georgia and Micah Williams from Oregon, both Williams and Shelton pulled up with injuries.
"Jacolby's feeling pretty good," Kittley said. "We haven't raced him, but he's practicing hard and really looking good in practice."
In addition to the titles at stake, conference meets double as a last opportunity to qualify for the NCAA indoor championships. After this weekend, athletes with the top 16 times and marks in individual events and the top 12 in relays earn berths March 10-11 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Six Tech men with top-10 rankings seem safe: Zach Bradford, second in the pole vault; Antoine Andrews, third in the 60-meter hurdles; Courtney Lindsey, fourth in the 200 meters; Omamuyovwi Erhire, fourth in the high jump; Caleb Dean, sixth in the 60-meter hurdles; and Denim Rogers, 10th in the heptathlon. Chris Welch, 11th in the triple jump, is probably in, too.
Three Tech women are cinches for Albuquerque: Rosemary Chukwuma, second in the 60 and sixth in the 200; Demisha Roswell, third in the 60-meter hurdles; and Onaara Obamuwagun, sixth in the triple jump.
However, a number of Tech's top performers need season bests this weekend to advance to the NCAA meet, the sprinters among them. In the 60, Dean ranks 16th, Swint 20th, Lindsey 23rd and Nylo Clarke 27th. The 1,600-meter relay team with Dean, Lindsey, Shaemar Uter and Clarke are 13th.
They'll have to run faster.
"And I think you'll see that several will," Kittley said. "I just think this is going to be a fast track. It's going to be fast competition. I fully expect people to lower their times and to be pretty solid in the national meet after this weekend."
One of the interesting late-season developments for the Tech women is the possibility of Roswell competing in both the 60-meter hurdles, her specialty, and the 60 meters. This month, she ran the 60 in competition for the first time in three years and now has a season best of 7.24 seconds that ranks sixth in the Big 12 and 22nd in NCAA Division I.
The good news for Tech: She could score points in both events. The caveat: They're staged back to back, 20 minutes apart.
"It is tough," Kittley said. "It's a tough thing to do, and we don't want to hurt her for the NCAA (meet), but we want to do as best we can, so we're still debating that."
Kittley said Ruta Lasmane, a four-time first-team all-American in the triple jump in 2021 at Florida State and in 2022 for Texas Tech, has not been cleared medically to return from a stress reaction in her back. She's yet to compete this winter and will redshirt for the indoor season.
During the 2022 indoor season, Lasmane won the triple jump at the Big 12 meet and took fourth at the NCAAs. She placed third at last year's NCAA outdoor.
What:Big 12 indoor championships
When:Friday-Saturday
Where:Sports Performance Center
Men's teams ranked in top 25:No. 3 Texas Tech, No. 5 Texas, No. 6 Oklahoma State, No. 23 Oklahoma
Women's teams ranked in top 25:No. 1 Texas, No. 14 Texas Tech, No. 23 Oklahoma State
Friday's schedule:Combined-events start times, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Field-event start times, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Running-event start times, 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday's schedule:Combined-events start times, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Field-event start times, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Running-event start times, 2 p.m. to 5:55 p.m.
Live results:pttiming.com
Online streaming:ESPN+
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech aims to take down Texas in Big 12 indoor championships
