Story by
Texas Tech men's track and field caps Big 12 title with a flourish
- Story by
- Texas Tech men's track and field caps Big 12 title with a flourish
By the time the last race arrived, members of the Texas Tech men's track and field team already had assured themselves of repeating as Big 12 indoor champions.
They didn't need another 10 points to make it a blowout, and they didn't have to break the school record in the 1,600-meter relay by nearly two seconds.
Advertisement
But they sure enjoyed it when they did, and so did a jampacked crowd at the Sports Performance Center .
Caleb Dean , Carl Hicks, Josh Bour and Shaemar Uter flew around the track in 3 minutes, 2.76 seconds Saturday with teammates lining the banked oval and seemingly no one having left the building.
"The atmosphere was crazy," said Dean, the meet's high-point scorer with second-place finishes in the 60-meter hurdles and the 60 meters. "All my teammates lined up right there, cheering us on, that made me go faster. That made me more motivated, more determined to run my best time, and that's what I did."
The victory in the relay gave the Tech men 152 points, outpacing Oklahoma State with 92 and Texas with 89. The Red Raiders won the Big 12 indoor championship for the second year in a row and the fourth time in seven years.
Advertisement
Results: Don'Dre Swint, Terrence Jones wins help Texas Tech repeat Big 12 title: Final results
Putting themselves into position: Texas Tech men making another run at Big 12 track and field championship
After freshman Ernest Cheruiyot won the 5,000 meters on Friday, Tech got first-place points Saturday from Don'Dre Swint in the 60 and Terrence Jones in the 200 before the rousing 1,600 relay. Over two days, they also racked up five second-place finishes and a couple of thirds.
"It was a fantastic, exciting day for real," Swint said. "We came out here and stood on what we were preaching all year and just had fun.
Advertisement
"The crowd played a tremendous part of why were successful today. Without the crowd, I feel like we would have never did everything we did today, and we love them. We love our school and our school spirit."
Temitope Adeshina, Rosemary Chukwuma win Big 12 titles, leading Texas Tech women to second place
Texas, with 135 points, won the women's championship for the ninth time in 11 years. Tech finished second with 104 points, just ahead of Oklahoma State.
Temitope Adeshina in the high jump and Rosemary Chukwuma in the 60 won individual titles. Chukwuma, Alyssa Colbert and Success Umukoro finished 1-2-3 in the 60, and Ruta Lasmane and Anne-Suzanna Fosther-Katta were second and third in the triple jump, two of four scorers for Tech in that event.
Advertisement
"It was a total team effort on our men's part today," Tech coach Wes Kittley said, "and I'm so proud of our women getting second. It's really shown a lot of progress, how we've come so far this year."
The Tech men topped Oklahoma State 159-111 last year, setting the tone early on the last day with 83 points in the 60-meter hurdles, the 60 meters and the triple jump in quick succession. The Red Raiders put the hammer down during the same juncture Saturday, scoring 59 points in those three events and building a 95-48 lead, even with a mini-disaster.
Texas Tech sprinter Don'Dre Swint, center, holds the Big 12 men's indoor track and field championship trophy Saturday at the Sports Performance Center. Swint won the 60 meters, and the Red Raiders won the team title for the fourth time in seven years.
Texas Tech sprinter Terrence Jones false starts in 60, takes NCAA Division I lead in 200
Jones, one of three men who shares the collegiate record in the 60 meters, was disqualified from the final for a false start. With a chance to make up for it, he crushed the field in the 200, running 20.21 and winning by two tenths of a second.
Advertisement
With Jones relegated to watching the 60, Swint, Dean, Antoine Andrews, Shawn Brown and Jalen Drayden delivered 29 points, finishing 1-2-4-5-6. Houston's Shawn Maswanganyi tied Dean for second, but the strength in numbers made up for Jones's slip-up.
"He made a mistake in the 60," Kittley said, "but after that, you saw what he did in the 200. And really, he needed to get a better mark in the 200. He has a great mark in the 60, so it probably played into our hands. We only lost two points in that (60-meter) race. The other guys stood up and did what we needed to do."
Texas Tech's Terrence Jones celebrates his first place time in the 200 meters at the Big 12 indoor track and field meet, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at the Sports Performance Center.
Also scoring second-place points for the Red Raiders were Jacob Mechler in the weight throw, Omamuyovwi Erhire in the high jump and Uter in the 400 meters.
Advertisement
Jones's 20.21 was the 11th fastest 200 in collegiate history and moved him to No. 1 in Division I this year. The 1,600 relay team moved from 10th in Division I going into the weekend to fifth, pending results elsewhere on Saturday.
After conference meets, the top 16 in individual events and the top 12 relays qualify for the NCAA championships next month in Boston. Trimming their season best Saturday moved the Red Raiders' relay out of vulnerable territory.
"I knew we were trying to chase a good time, which is one of the main reasons why we ran today," said Hicks, the Arizona transfer who runs Tech's second leg. "We came out there and executed on every single segment of the race, so it's good to have that win."
Texas Tech sprinter Rosemary Chukwuma won the 60 meters and finished third in the 200 on Saturday at the Big 12 indoor track and field championships. The Tech women were runners-up in the team competition to Texas.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech track and field finishes Big 12 title with a relay record
