LUBBOCK, Texas – After day one of the 2019 Big 12 Indoor Championships, The University of Texas Track & Field program sits in good shape to accomplish its goals on Saturday. The highlight of the day was senior Ashtin Zamzow winning her second consecutive conference title in the indoor pentathlon, setting the school record in the process with 4,183 points. Elena Bruckner also shattered the school record in the weight throw (19.60m/64-2.75) to finish second.
THE WOMEN
• The Longhorn women sit in third place with 34 points after day one. Kansas State leads the way with 46 points, while the hosts, Texas Tech, have 36.5.
• Ashtin Zamzow led the way with a Big 12 title and 10 points in the pentathlon. Zamzow broke her own school record, scoring 4,183 points on Friday, including PRs in the high jump, shot put and long jump. Teammate Virginia Preiss finished sixth to score three points.
• Elena Bruckner scored eight points with a second-place finish courtesy of her school-record-shattering weight throw. She had a ridiculous series with four throws that would’ve broken the school record. Her series was 18.69m, 18.94m, 18.26 m, 19.08m, 19.46m, 19.60m. She is the first Longhorn women to ever throw the weight farther than 19m.
• Georgia Wahl scored eight points as well with a second-place finish in the long jump. Wahl, whose previous PR was 6.08m, jumped 6.27m/20-7 on her final attempt to leap from sixth to second place. Teammate Sophia Falco finished eight to score a point.
• The women’s distance medley relay team finished sixth in 12:07.89 to score three points.
• Senior pole vaulter Shay Petty finished eighth to score a point with a clearance of 4.13m/13-6.50.
• The women sit in good shape heading into Saturday, as a plethora of Longhorns qualified for the finals.
• In the 60m, Kynnedy Flannel and Teahna Daniels both advanced with nearly identical times of 7.29 (Flannel, 7.282; Daniels, 7.286). Freshman Julien Alfred, competing in her first collegiate meet, also qualified for the final with a time of 7.36.
• Two Longhorns qualified in the 200m as Flannel (22.92) and Serenity Douglas (23.30) moved on.
• In the 400m, Kennedy Simon finished second to advance with a time of 53.55 while Douglas also advanced in fourth with a time of 53.78.
• Megan Rourke ran 1:22.43 in the 600 yards to finish eighth in prelims and advance to Saturday’s finals.
• Gabby Crank (2:08.66) and freshman Valery Tobias (2:13.47) both advanced to the finals in the 800m.
• Alex Cruz advanced in both the 1000m (2:50.69) and the mile (4:54.30).
• Senior Mariam Abdul-Rashid ran 8.22, just .01 second off her PR, to advance to the finals on Saturday in the 60m Hurdles.
THE MEN
• The Longhorn men sit in sixth place after day one of action with 13.5 points. Kansas leads the way with 43 points, followed by Iowa State (38 points) and the hosts, Texas Tech (37).
• The men’s distance medley relay team finished in fourth with a time of 10:00.43 to earn five points.
• Steffin McCarter finished fifth in the long jump (7.67m/25-5) to earn four points.
• Garek Bielaczyc ran 14:46.77 in the 5000m to finish sixth and take home three points.
• Barrett Poth tied for seventh in the pole vault (5.23m/17-1.75) to earn 1.5 points.
• A plethora of men qualified for Saturday’s finals, however, as the Longhorns still sit in good shape heading into the final day of competition.
• Terry Brown, Jr. qualified in the 200m by running a 20.89, a personal best and tied for the sixth-fastest time in school history.
• Both Jonathan Jones and Brown, Jr. qualified in the 400m. Jones will be the No. 1 seed after running 45.84, the third-fastest time in school history.
• Sam Worley, Alex Rogers and Brendan Hebert all qualified in the 1000m, while Worley, Rogers and Charles Mills qualified in the mile.
• John Burt won his heat of the 60m hurdles to qualify for Saturday’s finals with a time of 7.90.
• The men’s heptathlon will wrap up on Saturday, as freshman Alex Loving currently sits in fourth with 3,067 points.
UP NEXT
The Longhorns will be back in action at the Sports Performance Center in Lubbock on Saturday for the final day of the Big 12 Conference Indoor Championships. The women look for their second title in a row, and fifth in the last six years, while the men are vying for their fourth title in seven seasons.
THEY SAID IT
Edrick Floréal: “I thought we had some people that came out and really competed hard today, including a few surprises. Being a championship team, though, takes everyone making up their mind that they want to be committed to laying it all out there. Some people are beginning to catch fire, and tomorrow is going to be a dog fight. We have to be almost perfect tomorrow on the women’s side to win it. We have a lot of bullets, but so do they (Texas Tech). We have to go out there and want it tomorrow. We have to decide that we are going to take it, they aren’t going to give it to us on their home facility. It has to start early tomorrow and the momentum has to grow for it to come out in our favor.”
Ashtin Zamzow: “It was my first multi of the year, first of everything really. So I’m obviously pretty happy. This year I came in a bit more prepared. I’ve been training well with the new coaching staff and we are definitely a more mentally tough team this year which really helped me throughout today.”
Elena Bruckner on her school record: “It was awesome. Last night during our meeting, we were setting goals and my goal was to take second. I went in seeded fourth, so I went in with that goal knowing that I could take second. It was a consistent build – I really felt like I clicked on what Coach (Sion) and I have been working on. It’s sad that it’s the last time doing the weight this season, but I’m really excited with how it ended and I’m excited to do shot put tomorrow.”
