Monday, April 27, 2009
It had been almost six years since senior Nickesha Anderson had competed at the oldest track meet in the country, the Penn Relays.
The Hanover, Jamaica, sprinter used to compete there in her high school days and usually finished in the top three.
Junior Lauren Bonds regionally qualified, running her best time in the 1500-meter run at 4:27.16, taking third at the Drake Relays.
Freshman jumper Corey Fuller took second in the triple jump, jumping 15.20 meters. It’s the third meet in a row that the freshman has taken second in the triple jump including at home at the Kansas Relays.
Senior Jonathan Edwards took 22nd overall in the men’s javelin throwing 47.91 meters. In men’s pole vault, junior Kirk Cooper took 17th, jumping 4.90 meters while junior Jordan Scott, who is redshirting this outdoor season, took sixth in the men’s pole vault, jumping 5.32 meters.
Both seniors Stephanie Horton and Emily Reimer placed in the top 15 in the women’s shot put. Horton took 13th (14.47 meters) and Reimer in 15th (14.37)
Kansas also competed in the Penn relays and the Nebraska Open this weekend.
This week marked her return, though the relays went a little differently. This time, she donned KU colors and didn’t see the same success. Anderson didn’t qualify for regionals in the 100-meter dash or the 4x400 team relay.
Her fellow Jayhawks didn’t fare much better. This weekend the Jayhawks competed at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, with a goal to regionally qualify for the 4x400 meter relay events. Unfortunately neither men’s or women’s squads were able to reach that goal.
The women’s 4x400 team comprised of Anderson and seniors Charity Stowers and Sha’Ray Butler and freshman Shayla Wilson came the closest to competing in the collegiate finals.
Their preliminary time of 3:47.44 had placed them as first alternate for the women’s final making it possible for the Jayhawks to run again if one of teams failed to show.
“We were ready to run,” Anderson said.
Unfortunately, all the teams did come, leaving the Jayhawks out of the finals. Anderson said she was disappointed.
“This was a chance so you could run again, even though we didn’t run well the first time.” Anderson said.
Anderson had more than the relay event to focus on. She was also competing in the 100-meter dash event.
There were three preliminary heats in which the top three of each heat would advance to the finals. Anderson finished fourth, running at 11.72 seconds.
Anderson said that she slipped out of the starting blocks at the beginning of the race.
“There wasn’t much I could do,” Anderson said.
Anderson said it was the first time she had not made the finals in an event. But having already qualified for regionals at the Jim Click Shootout early in the outdoor season, she viewed this race as preparation for regionals later in May.
“For me it was just to improve on my speed and time,” Anderson said. “Get more feeling and get back into race mode.”
Like Anderson, freshman hurdler Keith Hayes ran two events: the 4x400 and the 110-meter hurdle event.
“It was a good environment, good atmosphere. I just ran like crap,” Hayes said.
First came the 110-meter hurdles event in which he finished fifth in his heat and 16th overall, running 14.23 seconds.
“I ran pretty bad. I ran out like I had no idea what I was doing,” Hayes said.
Hayes said that he didn’t remember the race all too well because it happened so quickly, but did know that he didn’t execute the race the way he’d wanted to.
“Right now I’m not living up to my potential,” Hayes said. “My day is coming; I just can’t wait until it comes.”
Hayes said that literally right finishing the 110-meter hurdle event, he had to prepare to run the anchor leg of the 4x400 relay with senior Jarrell Rollins, junior Reggie Carter and sophomore Keron Toussaint.
“We felt very prepared,” Hayes said. “For myself, I had the drive, but it wasn’t good enough.”
The men’s squad finished third in the preliminary heat, but didn’t qualify for the finals. Hayes said that the weekend was overall a disappointment.
“We came in with an eye on the prize and we came up empty-handed,” Hayes said.
Hayes said he was using this experience along with not making the indoor championships as motivation for next year.
“It’s gas to the fire,” Hayes said.
Even though the Jayhawks didn’t come away with anything at the Penn Relays, competing at the oldest track meet in the U.S. was something they were glad to experience.
“I’m glad I got the opportunity,” Hayes said. “Not everybody gets to run at Penn.”
— — Edited by Sonya English
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