Track & Field Ready For Big 12 Meet
2/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Indoor Track
Meet Notes 
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FORT WORTH, Texas - The TCU men's and women's track & field teams are primed and ready for the Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships beginning Friday, Feb. 27, at the Lied Recreation-Athletic Facility in Ames, Iowa.
Meet Schedule
Action begins at 3 p.m. on Friday for the Horned Frogs. On Saturday, events start at noon.
Follow The Frogs
To keep track of the meet live, follow the Horned Frogs on Twitter at @TCUTrackField. Coverage of the meet is available online through the Big 12 Digital Network. Here is the link for the conference championship - http://bit.ly/1hsttLv. Live results can also be accessed at this link - http://results.deltatiming.com/tf/2015-big-12-indoor-championships#.VO9JVfnF-So. A full recap from the invitational will be posted to GoFrogs.com following the end of competition each day.
The Field
With seven men's teams and four women's teams ranked in the top 25, an elite field of student-athletes will be taking center stage this weekend. On the men's side, the No. 14 Horned Frogs will be joined by No. 5 Texas, No. 10 Texas Tech, No. 12 Oklahoma State, No. 17 Kansas State, No. 18 Baylor and No. 25 Iowa State. The Big 12 is one of only two conferences to have seven teams ranked in the top 25. The ranked women's teams include No. 4 Texas, No. 6 Kansas State, No. 8 Baylor and No. 17 Texas Tech. The meet will also feature seven events - four men's and three women's - in which the nation's No. 1 ranked competitor will compete.
Quotables from Director of Track & Field Darryl Anderson
On the Big 12 Championships
"This is the biggest meet we've had this year. That's the way it goes for the next two meets with the NCAA Championships after this. We're as prepared as we possibly can be and we're just going to go in and do the best we can."
On how this track compares to others this season
"This is more like an outdoor track. The only event that will really suffer is the 200, but I think the other events it's better because it's more like being outdoors. Just from the standpoint of it's a little bit easier to navigate a flat track than a banked track.
"At the end of the day, fast is fast. There'll be a lot of good individuals and teams and I think it's going to be an outstanding competition."
Last Time Out
At the Arkansas Open, the men's 4x400 relay recorded a first-place finish behind a time of 3:06.05. The team of freshman Kevin McClanahan, sophomore Raymond Bozmans and juniors Sam Watts and Ronnie Baker paced to the third-best mark in program history, the fastest time in the Big 12 this season and ranks fifth in the NCAA competition this season. On the women's side, sophomore Tiffany Terry won her individual heat and finished fourth overall in the 400 meters at 55.22.
National and World Rankings
On Jan. 31 in Albuquerque, Sam Watts charged down the track in the 200-meter dash to a world-leading time of 20.69 seconds. His time stood for six days and now ranks as the No. 5 time this season.
Ronnie Baker's 60 meters time of 6.56 seconds is ranked fifth in NCAA competition this season and is No. 17 in the world indoor lists for 2015. The top time in the world this season is held by former TCU standout Kim Collins at 6.47.
The men's 4x400 relay squad consisting Watts and Baker, as well as freshman Kevin McClanahan and junior Raymond Bozmans improved their time in Fayetteville last weekend with a mark of 3:06.05. The time ranks as the fifth best in NCAA competition in 2015 and is the best in the Big 12 this season.
Cameron Echols-Luper ranks 12th in the nation in the men's long jump after his performance two weeks ago at the Tyson Invitational. His top mark was a personal-best at 7.72m (25-4) and is third among Big 12 competitors.
Changing Their Stars
Eighteen times this season, a Horned Frog has improved their top marks in competition. Over the two-day Tyson Invitational, seven seasonal-bests were achieved. The marks set on the women's side came from Brianna McGhee (60 hurdles), Iphona-Clemence Paiement (60 meters), Arin Rice and Bailey Sullivan (1 Mile). On the men's side, new standards were set by Cameron Echols-Luper (long jump), Antonio Franklin (60 meters) and Scotty Newton (triple jump).
Into the Rankings
The TCU men's squad is currently ranked at No. 14, after jumping seven spots from last week in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) computer rankings. It's the highest ranking for the Horned Frogs this season. TCU opened the season in the No. 25 slot, the highest preseason mark for the TCU men since 2011.
Etched In History
The first school record to fall in 2015 came in the women's distance medley relay at the Tyson Invitational. The team of Bailey Sullivan, Tiffany Terry, Anna Cozart and Arin Rice (three freshman and a sophomore), paced to a time of 11:42.32, almost eight seconds faster than the previous record set in 2001.
Big 12 Honors
The men's team has earned Big 12 Athletes of the Week honors twice this season.
This week, the 4x400 relay team garnered the conference award after posting a time of 3:06.05 in their win at the Arkansas Open. The team of McClanahan, Bozmans, Watts and Baker moved into the No. 3 slot in the program's record books with the time. Watts (third leg) and Baker (anchor) posted the two fastest splits at 46.18 and 45.29, respectively.
On Feb. 4, junior Sam Watts received the Big 12 Male Co-Athletes of the Week award after his performance at the New Mexico Team Invitational in Albuquerque. At the meet, he recorded a time of 20.69 for a first-place finish in the 200 meters for the world's fastest mark in 2015 at that point in the season. He also put up a time of 6.84 in the 60 meters, which was a personal-record. It's the first time he's earned the accolade in his young career.
Players Mentioned
