LUBBOCK, TEXAS, May 13-15—Texas came to town ready to defend its Big 12 Men’s title, and left with a trophy guaranteed by a 34-point winning margin. Big points came from the sprint crew, which dropped some dazzling times in the often windy, 981m-high competition.
On the final day, Longhorn senior Micaiah Harris started out with a loss when he anchored Texas to a 38.73 behind the 38.50 of TCU in the 4×1. The 100, however, was another story. With a just-over-the-allowable 2.4 breeze blowing, Harris outleaned Baylor’s Isaiah Cunningham, 9.93w–9.97w. “I’m satisfied,” he said. “I came a long way.”
An hour later, Harris came from behind in the final strides to catch fast-starting Courtney Lindsey of Texas Tech, as they ran 19.72w and 19.81w with a big 3.8 wind behind them. “My finish is the best part of my race so I wasn’t really too worried,” said Harris.
“We’ve talked about how good he could be for a long time, and I don’t think he’s believed it,” overjoyed Texas coach Edrick Floréal told the Austin American-Statesman. “It’s probably poetic justice that whole dang ‘Flo knows’ thing comes out, because most of those kids never believe me. They think I’m insane.”
More points came from Jonathan Jones. The Longhorn junior dominated the one-lapper with a collegiate-leading 44.43 win. “I did exactly what [coach] Flo wanted me to do,” Jones said. The winners also picked up the 800 (Yusuf Bizinmana 1:48.55), 10,000 (Haftu Knight 29:21.90) and shot (Tripp Piperi 69-9¾/21.28).
Other key marks came from Baylor’s frosh hurdler from Nigeria, Nathaniel Ezekiel, who covered the 400H in a collegiate leader 48.42; and TCU triple jumper Du Mapaya, who hit an outdoor-leading 55-3 (16.84).
BIG 12 MEN’S RESULTS
(altitude 981m)
(5/13—10K, HT, JT; 5/14—St, HJ, LJ, SP)
Teams: 1. Texas 161; 2. Oklahoma 127; 3. Texas Tech 118; 4. Baylor 86; 5. Kansas 74; 6. Oklahoma State 72; 7. Iowa State 67; 8. Kansas State 56; 9. TCU 49.
100(2.4): 1. Micaiah Harris (Tx) 9.93w; 2. Isaiah Cunningham (Bay) 9.97w; 3. Demarius Smith (Ok) 10.12w; 4. ***Josh Bour (Ok) 10.16w; 5. Karson Kowalchuk’ (Ok-Can) 10.16w; 6. **Daniel Garland (Tx) 10.17w.
200(3.8): 1. Harris 19.72w (a-c CL);
2. *Courtney Lindsey (TxT) 19.81w; 3. **Robert Gregory (TCU) 20.00w; 4. Smith 20.04w; 5. Bour 20.10w;
6. ***Laurenz Colbert (Bay) 20.27w; 7. Tinotenda Matiyenga’ (TCU-Zim) 20.30w; 8. ***De’montray Callis (Bay) 20.38w.
400: 1. *Jonathan Jones’ (Tx-Bar) 44.43 (CL);
2. **Richard Kuykendoll (Ok) 45.25; 3. *Willington Wright (Tx) 45.34; 4. **Michael Joseph’ (Ks-StL) 45.68; 5. ***Dillon Bedell (Bay) 45.72; 6. **Kyle Gale’ (KsSt-Bar) 45.77; 7. **Brian Herron (Tx) 45.92.
800: 1. **Yusuf Bizimana’ (Tx-GB) 1:48.55; 2. ***Darius Kipyego (IaSt) 1:48.83; 3. **Peter Smith (IaSt) 1:48.85.
1500: 1. ***Fouad Messaoudi’ (OkSt-Mor) 3:42.00; 2. **Ryan Schoppe (OkSt) 3:42.87; 3. **Crayton Carrozza (Tx) 3:44.66; 4. Nehemia Too’ (IaSt-Ken) 3:46.10.
St: 1. Ryan Smeeton’ (OkSt-Can) 8:47.87; 2. **Will Muirhead (OkSt) 8:53.36; 3. *Victor Shitsama’ (OkSt-Ken) 8:57.62.
5000: 1. **Alex Maier (OkSt) 14:03.74; 2. **Yaseen Abdalla (Tx) 14:07.60; 3. **Chad Johnson (IaSt) 14:08.62.
10,000: 1. **Haftu Knight (Tx) 29:21.90; 2. Ryan Ford (IaSt) 29:22.99; 3. Thomas Pollard (IaSt) 29:28.11.
110H(1.9): 1. Maliek Kendall (TxT) 13.45; 2. ***Elijah Morris (Bay) 13.51; 3. ***Johnny Brackins (Bay) 13.62; 4. *Taylor Rooney (TxT) 13.63.
400H: 1. ***Nathaniel Ezekiel’ (Bay-Ngr) 48.42 (CL); 2. Isaiah Levingston (Ok) 48.82 (AmCL);
3. Malik Metivier’ (TxT-Can) 49.53; 4. Jayson Baldridge (Bay) 50.08; 5. ***Oskar Edlund’ (TxT-Swe) 50.60.
4 x 100: 1. TCU 38.50 (Stubblefield, Matiyenga’, Maguranyanga’, Gregory); 2. Texas 38.73; 3. Texas Tech 38.76; 4. Oklahoma 38.95; 5. Baylor 38.96.
4 x 400: 1. Baylor 3:02.73 (Barr, Moorer, Baldridge 45.09, Bedell 44.89); 2. Kansas State 3:04.27 (Gale 44.99); 3. TCU 3:05.02 (Brown 46.35); 4. Oklahoma 3:09.99.
Field Events
HJ: 1. Vernon Turner (Ok) 7-3¼ (2.21); 2. ***Kason O’Riley (Ok) 7-2¼ (2.19); 3. **Caleb Wilborn (TxT) 7-½ (2.15); 4. Chris Banks (Ok) 7-½; 5. ***Kamyren Garrett (KsSt) 7-½.
PV: 1. *Zach Bradford (Ks) 18-1 (5.51); 2. ***Clayton Simms (Ks) 17-9 (5.41); 3. Kyle Rogers (Ks) 17-5 (5.31); 4. *Warren Miller (Tx) 17-1 (5.21).
LJ: 1. ***Johnny Brackins (Bay) 26-5½ (8.06); 2. Jalen Seals (TxT) 25-8 (7.82); 3. **Stacy Brown (Tx) 25-5½ (7.76);
4. Rayvon Allen (Ok) 25-3¼ (7.70); 5. **Leo Neugebauer’ (Tx-Ger) 25-1¼ (7.65).
TJ: 1. Du Mapaya’ (TCU-Zim) 55-3 (16.84) (out CL);
2. *Chris Welch (TxT) 53-11w (16.43); 3. Seals 53-7w (16.33); 4. *Jelaani Davis (Ok) 53-3 (16.23); 5. *Jaren Holmes (TCU) 52-9½ (16.09).
SP: 1. Tripp Piperi (Tx) 69-9¾ (21.28); 2. Jalil Brewer (Tx) 62-8¾ (19.12); 3. Cooper Campbell (Ok) 62-5¾ (19.04).
DT: 1. **Devin Roberson (TCU) 188-2 (57.36); 2. **Sean Stavinoha (Tx) 187-6 (57.16); 3. *Patrick Larrison (Ks) 181-7 (55.36); 4. Gabriel Oladipo (TxT) 180-7 (55.05); 5. Neugebauer’ 176-1 (53.69).
HT: 1. *Bayley Campbell’ (Ok-GB) 230-2 (70.15); 2. **Kade McCall (KsSt) 220-10 (67.31); 3. Edward Jeans’ (Ok-GB) 219-9 (66.99).
JT: 1. ***Chinecherem Prosper Nnamdi’ (Bay-Ngr) 255-10 (77.98); 2. Markim Felix’ (TxT-Grn) 232-0 (70.72).
Dec(5/13-14): 1. *Kristo Simulask’ (Ok-Est) 7926; 2. ***Alexander Jung’ (Ks-Ger) 7606; 3. Tejaswin Shankar’ (KsSt-Ind) 7592; 4. ***Emil Uhlin’ (KsSt-Swe) 7587; 5. Denim Rogers (TxT) 7520. ◻︎