Feb. 15, 2009
Ames, IA -
After a positive first day of action, the Missouri Tigers track squad looked to finish the ISU Classic on a good note with many of the running and solo field events left to finish.
With throwing events receiving much of the attention the day before, the Tiger runners would steal the spotlight on Saturday, as many Missouri athletes placed in a good number of the events throughout the afternoon.
Probably, one of the most exciting races came in the men's 3,000-meter run, as the Tigers had four runners finish in the top ten. Between two heats, Tim Cornell and Garett Jeffries would finish one and two in the heat, and first and second overall with times of 8:14.26 and 8:15.97 respectively. Phillip King would finish eighth overall with a time of 8:21.94 while Dan Quigley finished tenth with a time of 8:23.85.
For the women, Shannon Leinert came up first for yet another week, setting an NCAA-provisional mark with a time of 2:05.99 in the 800-meter run, followed by former Tiger Trisa Nickoley who finished second with a time of 2:06.11. Finishing in the race would also be Layne Moore who finished 12th and Ellen Ries who finished 29th. For the men, Aaron Dixon would place 15th with a time of 1:51.59.
In the 600-yard run, Missouri's Chris Davis not only won his heat, but also had the best time of all the heats, running a 1:10.96 besting Minnesota's Logan Strongman who came in second place. Tyrell Everett and Ryan Blackwell also finished in the top five with Everett finishing fourth and Blackwell finishing fifth, while Kellyn Fogarty and Clifton Leake finished tenth and 11th.
On the women's side, Leslie Farmer took the top spot with a time of 1:22.35 beating out Iowa State's Kianna Elahi. Nwaneri Blossom finished in sixth place, with Laura Brown rounding out the Tigers finishing 20th.
The Tigers would have a trifecta in the top ten in the men's mile, with Bryan Graybill finishing third overall with a time of 4:06.84, Michael Barrows finishing seventh with a time of 4:08.91 and Ben Wade finishing ninth with a time of 4:12.11. For the women, Emily Baker finished tenth with a time of 4:46.11, an NCAA provisional qualifying mark, while Ellen Ries finishes 14th.
Keyonna Smith finished third overall in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.33, along with taking her heat in the process. Nick Adcock would be the only Tiger to make it to the finals of the 60-meter hurdles, finishing tenth with a time of 8.11 seconds.
In the field events, Krishna Lee would place seventh in the women's shot put, tossing an NCAA provisional 15.23 meters, while pole vaulter Brian Hancock took the top spot in a jump off with a vault of 5.05 meters. In the non-seeded pole vault, Steve Shimkus took third place with a vault of 4.40 meters.
The Tigers return home for the Missouri Challenge on Friday and the Missouri All-Comers on Saturday.
