Monday, April 23, 2007
Fans saw several great performances at the final day of the 80th Kansas Relays.
Sha'Ray Butler, Lancaster, Texas sophomore, jumps the last hurdle during the womens' finals 400 meter hurdles on Saturday afternoon. Butler's time of 59.54 was 1.09 seconds faster than her best qualifying time on Friday.
The main attraction, Bershawn “Batman” Jackson, put up the best time in the world this year in the 400-meter hurdles, crossing the line in 48.75 seconds.
“I feel had there not been so much wind, I would have easily ran sub-0:48,” Jackson said. “I had to (adjust my strategy) because the wind threw me off.”
Nichole Denby narrowly beat 2004 Olympic champion Joanna Hayes in the 100-meter hurdles, winning the race by .06 seconds.
Also, in the men’s invitational pole vault Jeff Hartwig soared above the competition to win the event with a clearing height of 18-09.
Kansas had plenty of success on Saturday as well, with sophomores Sha’Ray Butler and Victoria Howard each getting victories on the track and senior Eric Babb winning the long jump.
Howard finished the 100-meter dash in 11.58 seconds while Butler ran a personal-best time of 59.44 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles.
“Now that the weather is nice, I felt like I could come out and run a nice race,” Butler said.
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It was pretty crazy to see my winning mark. I wasn’t expecting my first jump in the finals to do so well. When I saw that mark, I knew I was going to be able to jump well today.
-senior Eric Babb
Babb was the real surprise story for the Jayhawks, jumping from the middle of the pack to the top of the podium.
“It was pretty crazy to see my winning mark,” Babb said. “I wasn’t expecting my first jump in the finals to do so well. When I saw that mark, I knew I was going to be able to jump well today.”
Junior Ashley Brown competed in the invitational 100 and 400-meter hurdle races, getting close to the Kansas record in the 100-meter hurdles. Brown finished with a sixth place time of 13.33 seconds in the 100 hurdles and then came in fourth in the 400 hurdles with a season-best time of 58.48 seconds.
Kansan sportswriter Taylor Bern can be contacted at Tbern@kansan.com.
— Edited by Lisa Tilson
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