TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2006
KANSAS RELAYS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 5B
Battle 'disappointed' with finishes
BY EVAN KAFARAKIS
ekafarakis@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITE
Outside of Memorial Stadium, Sheldon Battle struggled for his best performance against some of the country's best athletes.
Competing in the shot put and discus throw, the senior thrower skipped competing in the hammer to focus his attention on those two events.
The shot put event was a part of
Gold Zone II on Saturday. Battle competed in the throwing event.
He had a tough time keeping up initially.
He competed against Christian Cantwell, who was No. 5 in the World Championships in 2005 at the shot put, and Dan Taylor, who placed sixth at the Olympic trials.
Battle put the blame on technique, a key element of shot put.
Battle finished third at 63 feet, 10 and 1/2 inches. This result was more than six feet short of Cantwell, who won the event.
Cantwell said Battle was better than he showed on Saturday and just needed to keep training cleanly.
Battle next took the field to throw in the men's college discus.
"I was a little disappointed with my distances." Battle said.
Cantwell had the technique on Saturday.
Battle's personal best in the shot put is 68 feet, 8 and 1/2 inches.
Battle took first place with a toss of 179 feet, 2 inches, but still seemed unhappy with his distances.
His first-place throw of 70 feet, 3 and 3/4 inches was a Kansas Relays record and the best throw in the world this year.
matter how strong you are," Cantwell said.
Battle's personal best in the disc is 188 feet, 10 inches.
nique and progress," Battle said.
"If you don't get into a good rhythm with your throws, it doesn't
"I just got to work on my tech-
atMe of 52.8
"It will come," Battle said. "Just have to be patient and keep working hard."
Along with Battle on the winners podium at second place stood junior Cody Roberts.
Roberts' second-place throw traveled a distance of 171 feet, 8 inches.
Freshman Victoria Howard, running in lane four, passes the baton to senior Charisse Bacchus during the women's a100-meter relay Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. The Kansas team, which also included sophomore Crystal Manning and senior Tiffany Cherry, won the relay with a time of 45.73 seconds.
Women capture 4x100 relay victory
Edited by Hayley Travis
Crowd plays part in team's success
BY EVAN KAFARAKIS
ekafarakis@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
The women's relay teams—more specifically the women's distance medley team and the women's 4x100-meter team, took home victories at the Kansas Relays in their respective events.
Joshua Bickel/KANSAN
Amorial Stadium. Jiles
4 seconds.
"The women have been impressive this weekend," Kansas track and field coach Stanley Redwine said.
The event was part of Gold Zone II.
The women's 4x100-meter relay team was victorious with a time of 45.73 seconds in its effort Saturday.
The team consisted of freshman Victoria Howard, sophomore Crystal Manning and seniors Charisse Bacchus and Tiffany Cherry.
"I think our times were good," Manning said.
The team pulled out a close victory in one of the better races throughout the day.
"Everybody worked up to their ability and God helped us through it," Manning said.
"If it wasn't for the crowd. our
times would not have been as fast, and we may not have even won," Manning said.
Bacchus also took part in the women's long jump. She placed second with a leap of 20 feet, 1/2 inches.
The women's distance medley
team was also victorious on Friday. In fact, it wasn't even close.
The squad beat the field by 15 seconds, winning with a time of 12:04.96.
Sophomore Cortney Jacobs, junior Melissa O'Rourke and seniors Angela
"I thought we did pretty decent with our times," Pichardo said. "Our goal was to come out here to win and we did that."
Pichardo and Dena Seibel ran on the women's distance medley team.
phasize how important winning the event was for the team.
Pichardo said she wanted to em-
"We won it last year and we were trying to come out and repeat as champions," she said.
Edited bv Ianiece Gatson
Joshua Rickel/KANSAN
Sophomore Ashley Brown cleares the next-to-last hurdle during the women's 100-meter hurdles final Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. Brown finished first in her preliminary with a time of 14.3 seconds and fourth in the finals with a time of 14.16 seconds.
Hurdles tight to finish
BY ASHER - FUSCO
afusco@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
As Ladji Doucourie made his way off the track after winning the 110-meter men's invitational hurdles race, he was at a loss for both words and breath.
"A great race," Doucoure said as he took a deep breath and began to cool off.
The event's participants were not the only ones left gasping for air after the race. The top three runners finished within mere inches of one another, giving the 26,000-plus fans in attendance a reason to hold their breath.
Doucoure, a former Olympic competitor and 2005 World Champion in the 110-meter hurdles, finished the event in 13.53 seconds to capture the title for Team Nike.
Doucoure blasted out of the gate and
David Payne and Team Nike's Joel Brown nearly matched Doucoure pace-for-pace down the length of the track, but came up just short, finishing second and third with times of 13.577 and 13.580 seconds, respectively.
Julius Jiles, Kansas City sophomore, was the only current Jayhawk to compete in the event. Jiles did not get off to a strong start, and was never able to catch up with the more seasoned members of the field.
showed remarkable staying power, never surrendering his lead.
"My start wasn't the best in the world, but I started to close in the end," Jiles said. "Overall, it wasn't a bad race."
Jiles finished in fourth place with a time of 14.23 seconds, just a bit slower than his best performance of 2006 at last month's Tulsa Duels.
Former Kansas runner Anson Jackson brought up the rear and came dangerously close to knocking down the
hurdles on several occasions. Jackson, who last ran as a Jayhawk in 2003, managed to finish in 14.48 seconds.
Both Jackson and David Payne competed unattached to any particular sponsor. Kansas senior Aaron Thompson was slated to run in the event, but instead participated in the college-only 110-meter hurdles race.
The significance of being able to compete against such stellar runners was not lost on Jiles, who said he was honored to be participating in the Kansas Relais.
The French-born Doucoure was one of the biggest stars to participate in this year's Kansas Relays. At the 2004 Olympics, Doucoure finished eighth in the 110-meter hurdles.
"The atmosphere is great here," Jiles said. "It's definitely one of the best meets I've been to in a long time."
Edited by Lindsey Gold
Joshua Bickel/KANSAN
Crowd members laugh during a video excerpt from the movie "Kicking and Screaming" on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. The crowd of 26,211 was the second-largest in Kansas Relays' history.
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