Eight Jayhawks victorious in first outdoor meet
Kansas Track & Field met high expectations for the Missouri Relays
Eight Jayhawks won event titles and three regionally qualified in first outdoor meet of the semester. The Jayhawks head to Austin, Texas for the Texas Relays today.
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Freshman Iain Trimble came into his first college meet with high expectations. The javelin thrower won his first meet and broke the meet record at the Missouri Relays last weekend. One throw also gave him the fourth best javelin throw in school history.
Trimble is just getting started.
“I’m not satisfied,” he said. “I have some pretty lofty goals this season.”
The rest of the University of Kansas Track and Field team has some big goals as well. Last weekend at a frigid and windy Missouri Relays, eight Jayhawks took home titles and three regionally qualified to start off the outdoor season.
“As a coaching staff, our goal is to make each individual reach their potential,” head coach Stanley Redwine said. “I think we’ve been doing that.”
Julius Jiles, senior sprinter and hurdler, keeps pace with other runners during the mens' 100 meter dash on April 21, 2007.
Senior sprinter Julius Jiles had impressive showings in both the 400-meter and 110-meter hurdles. He won both events, regionally qualifying in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.03 seconds.
“It felt pretty good to still regional qualify even though the conditions were bad,” he said.
Jiles commented on the positive start to the outdoor season.
“After all that, it says that our team really should do something this outdoor season,” he said. “It’s been said one too many times that in indoor we didn’t do what we were supposed to do, but I think now everybody is focused on what we need to do.”
Redwine agrees with Jiles and feels that the outdoor season gives the Jayhawks a fresh start after a somewhat disappointing finish for the men in the indoor season.
“I think they are two different seasons and we have to approach them totally differently,” he said.
Redwine elaborated on this, saying that the outdoor season brings new events with it and allows more people to contribute to the team. One such event is the javelin. Trimble’s impressive victory in the event is exactly what the Jayhawks are looking for this outdoor season.
Trimble’s 68.04-meter meet throw shattered the previous record by about five feet. He commented on his feelings going into his first college meet.
“Coming into this meet I knew nobody, so I was like ‘Oh my God’ does that kid throw farther than me,” he said. “During my first throw I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest.”
In addition to Trimble and Jiles’ domination, junior Zlata Tarasova regionally qualified for the women’s hammer toss with her throw of 54.44 meters. She placed fourth in the event.
Also claiming victories for the Jayhawks were junior long jumper Eric Fattig, sophomore pole-vaulter Kirk Cooper, junior shot putter Emily Reimer, sophomore sprinter Lauren Bonds and junior sprinters Victoria Howard and Sha’Ray Butler.
Toady, the Jayhawks travel to Austin Texas for the very competitive Texas Relays. Jiles is excited about the momentum last weekend’s meet will give the team.
“It gave us a lot of momentum,” he said. “To see everybody’s times throughout the past two weeks and then for our team to go out in those bad conditions and still compete on the level that we did, it really brings a lot to our team.”
—Edited by Russell Davies
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