FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2006
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 3B
TRACK AND FIELD
8 Jayhawks to cap season at NCAA championships
BY JACK WEINSTEIN
sports@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWRIVER
Starting today eight Kansas track and field athletes will compete for the opportunity to become national champions and All-Americans at the NCAA Indoor Track Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.
Four individuals and four runners in the distance medley relay team will vie to have their names enshrined in the Kansas record books.
To achieve All-American status, foreign athletes need to finish in the top eight of their field. Americans need to finish
within the top eight Americans. Relay teams must finish in the top eight.
Kansas has three international athletes: sophomore thrower Egor Agafonov is from Russia, senior runner Benson Chesang is from Kenya and senior long-jumper Charisse Bacchus is from Trinidad.
The meet ends Saturday.
Today, senior Sheldon Battle and Agafonov will participate in the 35-pound weight throw.
Agafonov, currently No. 4 in the weight throw on this year's national performance list, will attempt to win a national
championship after sweeping all three of his meets this season including the Big 12 Championships.
On Saturday, Battle will also compete in the shot put. Battle will try to repeat as an All-American after finishing seventh in the shot put at last year's championships. His throw of 20.02 meters ranks second this year in the NCAA.
Senior Aaron Thompson will run the 60-meter hurdles, qualifying with a school-record time of 7.84 seconds.
Bacchus will represent the women in the long jump. Bacchus broke the KU women's
record in long jump this season with a jump of 642 meters. That jump is currently sixth on this year's national performance list.
Bacchus returns to the national championships after finishing in 10th place in both the indoor and outdoor meets in 2005.
In the distance medley relay, senior Joshy Madathil runs the 1200-meter leg, sophomore Matt Baysinger runs the 400-meter leg, senior Brandon Hodges runs the 800-meter leg, and Chesang runs the 1600-meter leg.
The men's distance medley relay team qualified for nationals with a KU record time of 9:34.91, the eighth-fastest in the NCAA.
Kansas coach Stanley Redwine said he looked forward to watching his athletes compete and saw this meet as the culmination of a year of hard work, especially for the seniors.
"They're just great people and for this to be their last indoor meet, we think a lot of them, and we want them to do extremely well," Redwine said. "Those people have only done well for us, been extremely good for us and have been great leaders on and off the track for us."
According to the Trackwire Top 25 rankings, the men's indoor team is tied for 11th nationally. Each individual and the relay team is ranked 17th or higher on this year's national performance list based on their best times or throws of the season.
The U.S. track and field and cross country coaches poll currently has the Jayhawk men at 13th in the nation.
"I want the athletes to go in and compete to the best of their potential," Redwine said. "If they can do that, they'll do well."
- Edited by John Jordan
TENNIS
Coach: A-game needed against this weekend's competition
BY ANTONIO MENDOZA
amendoza@kansan.com
KANSAN SCOUTWRITER
The Kansas tennis team (5-3) will try to regroup against No. 47 Iowa on Saturday and against Oklahoma State on Sunday at Robinson Courts.
Both matches are scheduled for 11 a.m.
"Iowa is a pretty solid team and we are going to have to have our A-game coming in here," Kansas coach Amy Hall-Holt said.
The Jayhawks suffered a biting 4-3 loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders in their Big 12 opener on March 5.
Lauren Hommell, sophmore, said, "I thought it was a heartbreaker. It came down to a tie breaker in the second set."
Iowa will come into the match against Kansas with a record of 7-2. The Hawkeyes are only 1-2 against ranked opponents, though. Iowa's two losses came
against No. 48 Denver and No.
11 Baylor.
Kansas, ranked 74 in the ITA rankings, will come into the match losing two of its past three matches. Both losses were against higher-ranked teams.
Iowa will be the second-highest ranked team Kansas has faced this season; the highest was No. 36 Indiana. Indiana defeated Kansas 5-2 on Jan. 22.
The tough schedule will be nothing new to the Jayhawks. This season, Kansas has faced five teams with a higher rank and has come out of those matches with a record of 2-3.
"I think Iowa is going to be a tough, tough match," Hommell said. "It would be a good win if we could pull it out."
Kansas will follow the match against Iowa with a Big 12 Conference match on Sunday against Oklahoma State, which will come into the match with a record of 4-4.
Oklahoma State has lost three matches in a row, and four of its past six.
"With Oklahoma State being a conference match, we've got to step up and create opportunities for ourselves and take advantage of them," Hall-Holt said.
Oklahoma State and Kansas are 0-1 in Big 12 play.
Starting this season, inclement weather has kept KU matches in Lawrence. First Serve Tennis, 5200 Clinton Parkway, is a new indoor facility that opened this season. Before this season, the Jayhawks had to move to Topeka when bad weather was in the forecast.
Foul ball fall
Bad weather has already moved one match to First Serve this season against Texas Tech.
Edited by Jodi Ann Holopirek
"We don't have to get up as early, eat as early, and then waste 45 minutes driving both ways," Hommell said.
Pablo Martinez Munsivista/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Florida Marlins infielder Jon Fulton, right, falls into the dugout after chasing a foul ball during the sixth inning of a spring training baseball game against the Washington Nationals on Thursday in Viera, Fla. Rushing to help is Marlins Mike Jacobs, left. The Marlins won 5-4.
Pablo Martinez Munsivais/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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