Track & Field's Success at Big 12 Meet
5/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Outdoor Track
FORT WORTH, Texas – In less than three years in the league, TCU's director of track & field Darryl Anderson's Horned Frogs have already racked up 10 individual Big 12 titles and plan to add a few more next week.
TCU's first year at the Big 12 Championships produced six crowns. Chaniqua Corinealdi won the first Big 12 title for TCU in any sport in the women's 60 meters in Ames, Iowa. The preliminary round was separated by 0.12 seconds, where she finished second, setting up an electric final in the event.
In the final, Corinealdi made a late charge to secure the title, clocking in at a time of 7.34 seconds. She left no doubt as she crossed the finish line 0.05 seconds ahead of the second and third place finishers.
On the men's side, Charles Silmon came in as the favorite and did not disappoint. In the prelims, he grabbed the top spot with a time of 6.65 seconds. He had a rough start in the finals, but powered his way back to edge out the victory by 0.02 at 6.66 seconds.
Then freshman Raymond Bozmans finished eighth in the race at 7.02.
TCU made history in it's first Big 12 Championships, becoming just the fifth school to sweep the men's and women's 60 meter titles, joining Texas, Nebraska, OU and Texas A&M.
It was only the beginning of a strong 2013 campaign by Silmon, who notched three conference titles at the outdoor championships.
His first of three came in the 4x100 relay, teaming with three freshmen: Harvey McSwain, Ronnie Baker and Bozmans. The quartet crossed the finish line with a time of 39.61 seconds to grab TCU's eighth consecutive conference title in the event, with the previous seven coming in the Mountain West.
Silmon also continued another impressive streak by TCU sprinters by capturing the 100-meter dash crown. Not only was it his fourth-straight conference title in the 100-meters, but by winning the event with a wind-aided time of 10.18, he also continued a 10-year-old streak of a Horned Frog winning the event at their respective conference meet. That streak was started in 2004 by Olympic gold medalist Michael Frater.
TCU went 1-2 in that 2013 race, with Bozmans finishing in second with a time of 10.45 seconds.
But Silmon wasn't done there. Less than an hour after capturing the 100-meter crown, he ran a then personal-best in the 200 meters at 20.33 to win and cap off a stellar conference championship meet. His time at that point was the NCAA leader and the sixth-best in the world.
McSwain was also in his 200-meter final, placing sixth at 21.21.
Silmon's performance at the meet earned him the High Point Award and the Outstanding Male Performer of the Year.
He completed his 2013 campaign by winning the national championship in the 100 meters, behind a wind-aided time of 9.89 seconds. With the win, Silmon became the first student-athlete to win the Big 12 and the national title in the 100-meter dash in the same year.
Silmon wasn't the only one to capture gold at the Big 12 meet that year though. Cameron Parker's first jump in the men's triple jump would've won him the conference title and smashed the stadium record in the process, but he wasn't done there. His first attempt landed at 16.22m (53-2.75), but his third jump sealed the deal, with a wind-aided distance of 16.25m (53-3.75). The mark put him at No. 3 all-time in the TCU outdoor record books and was his third consecutive conference title.
Someone else who won a national title at the 2013 outdoor meet was Lorraine Ugen. So naturally, coming into 2014 Big 12 Indoor Championships, she was considered the favorite to win the women's long jump.
With her third jump of the day, she notched a distance of 6.59m (21-7.5), giving her the padding of 0.41m to claim the title. The mark tied the Big 12 meet record and was the top jump of the year in the NCAA to that point.
Then-freshman Anna Robinson finished eighth in the event that year at 5.81m.
Ugen followed that performance with an even better one at the indoor national championships, grabbing her second national title of her career behind a jump of 6.73m (22-1). She became the second student-athlete to win the Big 12 and the national title in the indoor women's long jump in the same year.
2014 was also a good year for Jordan Moore, who claimed both the indoor 60-meter hurdles and the outdoor 110-meter hurdles. At indoors, the freshman charged down to a time of 7.86 seconds, 0.08 seconds faster than second place.
He put on an even better performance at the outdoor meet, edging out the runner-up by 0.02 seconds at 13.64 and tying the school record set by LaTarence Dunbar in 1999.
Moore became the fifth student-athlete to sweep the conference's 60 and 110 hurdles in the same year.
At this year's indoor meet, Cameron Echols-Luper became No. 10 with his win in the long jump. His fifth jump would be the mark that gave him the win at a distance of 7.61m (24-11.75). It was the first indoor conference long jump title for the TCU men since 2004.
With the outdoor championships set to start a week from today, the Horned Frogs are locked and loaded to add a few more conference titles to their trophy case.
In the 100 meters, TCU pits two in the top five (Ronnie Baker and Kolby Listenbee) and four in the top 10 (Sam Watts and Ramone Bailey) of the Big 12 rankings. The next closest school has two.
Watts and Listenbee are also in the top 10 of the 200-meter dash.
The Horned Frogs have the top-ranked men's 4x100 relay and fourth-best women's 4x100. The men's team also ranks third in the 4x400.
Bailey and Echols-Luper are ranked in the top three of the men's long jump, with Scotty Newton checking in at No. 7. Newton and Ryan Finnie are both listed in the top five of the men's triple jump.
Brianna McGhee and Lavon Collins rank sixth in their respective events, the women's 100 hurdles and the men's 400 hurdles.
Paola Miranda, the school record holder, comes in at No. 5 in the women's hammer throw.
Other top 10 performers include Joshua Washington (400 meters), Tiffany Terry (400 meters), Anna Robinson (long jump), Aaron Tombleson (hammer throw) and Makena Schroder (javelin).
Day one of the 2015 Big 12 Outdoor Championships starts Friday, May 15, at the Cyclone Sports Complex in Ames, Iowa.
