Jayhawks can’t jump the hurdle to the Olympic team

By Jesse Temple

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Last week, four Kansas track and field athletes, Jordan Scott, Julius Jiles, Crystal Manning and Ashley Brown, traveled to Eugene, Ore., to try qualifying for the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.

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Of the current Jayhawk track and field athletes, only Nickesha Anderson has qualified for the Olympics. She was selected as a member of the Jamaican team to run in the 4X100 relay based on her performances at the Jamaican Olympic trials last week.

Anderson finished seventh overall in the 100-meter race with a time of 11.25 seconds, just two-hundredths off her school record. She then qualified for the finals in the 200-meter race, finishing sixth with a time of 22.68 seconds. She is scheduled to report to Beijing on July 31 with her Jamaican teammates.

KU track and field head coach Stanley Redwine traveled to Jamaica to watch Anderson run.

“She’s quite the competitor,” Redwine said. “What Nickesha means for the program is really huge. She was one of the main factors for us being 10th indoors and 15th outdoors. It was fun for us as coaches to see it happen. I don’t know when the last time was that KU had an active team member that has made the Olympic team.”

KU teammate Crystal Manning said, “I think that’s great. She worked hard all season, and she deserved to be on that team.”

The only other Jayhawk from last year’s roster who still needs to qualify is Egor Agafonov. The senior will attempt to make the Russian Olympic team next week in the hammer throw.

None of the four punched a ticket to the Olympics. But they enjoyed one raucous atmosphere while competing.

More than 20,000 spectators filled Hayward Field, home to the University of Oregon’s track team, for the trials. The trials hadn’t been in Hayward Field in 28 years. Fans showed their support for track and field in America in the preeminent city. People in Eugene, Ore., care about track the way people in Green Bay do for football, Toronto do for hockey and Boston do for baseball.

There is even a local pizza place that sits in town, aptly named Track Town Pizza.

“It was like one big festival party,” said Scott, who competed in the men’s pole vault. “It was really cool. There were tons of fans. The fans out there really know how to attend a track meet.”

KU track and field coach Stanley Redwine called the meet unbelievable.

“Some meets you go to, you just have fans sitting there,” Redwine said. “These fans were definitely very supportive. It was really fun to have those athletes there competing.”

Scott seemed to have a chance at reaching the Olympics in Beijing, China. The sophomore cleared 18 feet 1/2 inch and needed two more inches on his next jump to qualify. But as he was preparing for the men’s pole vault finals, he felt a pain in his left hamstring.

“It felt like it was eventually going to pop,” Scott said.

With the support of his father and high school track coach, who made the trip, Scott decided it was best to withdraw.

“It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” Scott said.

In the women’s triple jump finals, Manning’s first jump of 43 feet, 10 inches was her best. But she fell short of her expectations, finishing eighth out of 12 in the finals. Only the top three in each event can represent the U.S. at the Olympics.

“It was pretty sad,” Manning said of not making the team. “I would’ve said four years ago, I didn’t think about the Olympics. Just being here, it was like ‘Oh my God, I’m actually here.’ I feel like it was just a blessing being there.”

Jiles and Brown did not advance out of their preliminary rounds. Jiles ran the men’s 110-meter hurdles in 13.98 seconds, finishing seventh in the heat and missing a spot in the quarterfinals by .16 seconds.

Jiles could not match his school-record time of 13.57 seconds, which he posted earlier this season.

Brown finished 24th in the country in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. Brown, the KU record holder in the event, finished her trials in 1:01.21.

While many who fail to qualify for the Olympics take some time off, Scott and Manning aren’t done with their seasons just yet. Both will compete in the NACAC (North America, Central America and Caribbean) Under 23 Track and Field Championships in Toluca, Mexico from July 18 to 20.

—Edited by Ramsey Cox

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