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10B
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KANSAN.COM
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KU track and field picks up two wins over winter break, including Sunflower State Triangular
KELCIE MATOUSEK/KANSAN
Freshman Sharon Lokedi hurries downhill as she leads the last leg of the women's race at the Rim Rock Classic.
GRIFFIN HUGHES
@GriffinJHughes
Kansas track and field's first meet of the 2015-16 indoor season in early December kicked off a season
of high expectations for coach Stanley Redwine's team.
After one month off, the Jayhawks returned to Anschutz Sports Pavilion with the same high expectations;
high expectations that they met with flying colors in the two meets of early 2016. On Jan. 8, Kansas returned to competition in the Bill Easton Classic.
The Jayhawks won 22
events, including 15 out of 19 on the women's side. The women won 11 out of 12 events on the track, anchored by the All-American Sydney Conley and breakout runner Zainab Sanni.
Conley won the long jump in one attempt after she jumped 6.02 meters. Then the two faced off in the final of the 60 meter, an event which Sanni won by one-hundredth of a second. Sanni also ran the second leg in the 4x400-meter relay, which Kansas won.
On the men's side, Tre Daniels set a personal best in the 200 meters for the second time this season. The sophomore is one of the athletes who will have to step up on the track in the absence of Michael Stigler, who essentially provided an automatic win every time he competed. Daniels' senior teammate Drew Matthews also set a personal best in the event.
Anastasiya Muchkayev also picked up a victory in
the meet. The senior from Israel dominated the shot put once again with a throw distance of 14.49 meters.
Kansas saw its first true Division I competition of the season a week later, competing in the KU-KSUW-SU Triangular at the Anschutz Sports Pavilion. The Jayhawks picked up another win in the second annual Sunflower State Triangular, helped along by a truly dominating performance by Daina Levy.
Levy set a career best and NCAA-leading mark in the weight throw. She was one of six athletes or relay teams to set a mark in the top 10 in the country this year. On top of that, she has three of the ten best weight throws in Kansas history. Nicolai Ceban, a sophomore from Moldova, also set his personal best in the shot put, out throwing the field by over eight feet.
Daniels and Drew Matthews continued their early season success in the
4x400-meter relay, helping Kansas to a big win in the event. Brandon Bernal picked up an individual win in his second straight competition, this time in the 1,000 meters.
Sharon Lokedi, Kansas' strongest cross country runner, picked up a win in her first event of the indoor season, finishing the mile in under five minutes. Nashia Baker and Jacob Morgan also picked up individual distance wins.
The big performance in the Sunflower State Triangular marked the first time Kansas saw a field of Division I competition after the Jayhawks' previous two meets featured small schools and community colleges. After one of its more successful seasons in recent memory last year, Kansas track and field seems to be getting off on the right foot to start the 2015-16 campaign.
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