Flyin' Frogs Run to First Outdoor Conference Title
5/19/2001 12:00:00 AM
May 19, 2001
The TCU Flyin' Frogs won every race in which they competed on the men's side in capturing the Western Athletic Conference outdoor track and field championship, the first outdoor conference title in school history. It was also the eighth WAC title recorded by TCU this year.
The Frogs showed their strength and depth in the short sprints, as Lindel Frater (10.11), Kim Collins (10.13) and Darvis Patton (10.18) went 1-2-3 in the 100. Collins (20.34), Patton (20.46) and Kendrick Campbell (20.84) followed up with a 1-2-4 showing in the 200. David Spencer made it a clean sweep of the individual sprint events with a first place clocking of 46.29 in the 400 meters.
Eliud Njubi dominated the middle distances, sweeping the 800 (1:50.30), 1,500 (3:47.19) and 5,000 (14:45.47), to score 30 points, earning him high-point scorer of the meet honors.
Freshman Reggie Harrell, who won the indoor 60-meter high hurdles, recorded a school record and was just one one-hundreth of a second off an NCAA automatic qualifying time in the capturing the 110 meter high hurdles in 13.73 seconds. He was named the co-Freshman of the Year at the meet.
The Frogs went 1-2-4 in the triple jump with Abdul Rasheed bringing home the gold medal with a leap of 16.19m (53-01.50), just ahead of teammates Jason Howard (16.04m-52-07.50) and Brandal Lawrence (15.59m-51-01.75).
The 4x100 meter relay team of Frater, Anthony Amantine, Patton and Collins, ran to a first place finish with a time of 39.13.
TCU finished the meet with 162 points, just ahead of UTEP, which finished with 151. Fresno State placed third with 117, while SMU (103), Rice (82) and Tulsa (33) rounded out the field.
As dominating as the men's performance was, the TCU women were nearly as impressive. The Frogs, who finished last in the 2000 WAC outdoor championships, finished in a tie for third place, just one point out of second. Rice took top honors with 142.5 points. In a dogfight for second, Nevada recorded 111 points to edge TCU (110), Fresno State (110) and SMU (109). Tulsa was sixth with 96, while UTEP (91.5) and Hawaii (46) completed the field.
Monica Twum led the Frogs' contingent with a first place finish in the 100 (11.31) and 200 (23.27) and ran the anchor leg on the winning 4x100 meter relay team that recorded an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 44.19. Both of her marks in the 100 and 200 were stadium records. Sonia Williams finished third in the 100 (11.53) and second in the200 (23.74).
Carla Poole finished second in the 400 meter hurdles with a personal best time of 59.42. Glady's Keitany (4:29.42) and Cindy Dietrich (4:29.86) finished second and third respectively in the 1,500. Keitany also notched a fourth place finish in the 5,000.
"It was an awesome day," said TCU head coach Monte Stratton, who was named the men's outdoor track Coach of the Year. "Our team effort on both the men's and women's sides was exceptional. UTEP really pushed us, but we just ran phenomenally. Eliud (Njubi) made it look easy. Reggie Harrell came up big in the hurdles. And what can you say about Lindel (Frater), Kim (Collins) and Darvis (Patton)? The only negative was that Roy Williams got hurt in the open 400 and, with the injury to Steve Slowly on Friday, we were not able to get the 4x4 team qualified. Anthony Amantine did a nice job of stepping into Slowly's spot in the 4x1," Stratton added. "On the women's side, Monica (Twum) and Sonia (Williams) ran very well. The 4x1 team really came through with their best performance of the season."
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