Texas Tech Athletics
NCAA Midwest Regional
Tech Sending Six More to NCAA Outdoor Championships
May 30, 2009 | Track and Field
May 30, 2009
NORMAN, Okla. - The Texas Tech track program is sending six more student-athletes and the men's 4x400M relay to the NCAA Outdoor Championships as Gil Roberts and Gladys Kipsang both won individual titles on the final day of the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships held in Norman, Okla.
Kipsang made it two years in a row that Tech has won the 1500M at the Midwest Regional. Kipsang won her first Midwest Regional title with a time of 4:23.82. It is the second year in a row that Tech has won the 1500M as Sally Kipyego won the event last year.
Roberts won his first Midwest Regional title in the 400M on Saturday afternoon. He won the event with a time of 45.11. He is the first Red Raider to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 400M since Andrae Williams and Michael Mathieu in 2005.
Senior Patience Knight will make her fourth-straight trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships as she placed fifth in the women's shot put. She qualified with a throw of 51'-11.75".
Asia Diaz will be making her first trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 800M. The senior placed fourth with a time of 2:06.84. She is the first female since Althea Chambers in 2006 to qualify for the 800M.
Sandra Iwunze advanced for the second year in a row to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 400M hurdles. She placed fourth with a season-best time of 58.14. Kelsey Lloyd placed seventh with a time of 1:00.03.
Gilbert Limo is making his second-straight trip to the national meet in the 3000M steeplechase. In only his second time to run the event all year he ran a season-best time of 8:51.68.
The 4x100M relay of Jonisha Boleware, Terra Evans, Tori Smith and Trudeann Clarke ran a time of 45.10 to place fifth overall.
The men's 4x100M changed slightly from the preliminaries. Omo Osaghae led off and handed to Brandon Tucker. The stick than went to Bill Lawhorn with Markus Henderson running the anchor leg. The team finished in sixth place with a time of 40.72.
Osaghae committed a false start in the blocks of the 110M hurdles and was disqualified.
Brett McDaniel threw 171'-01" in the discus but failed to advance to finals.
Brian Porter placed seventh barely missing out on a spot to nationals. He cleared 16'-11" scoring two points for the Red Raiders.
Darrell Roddick equaled his season-best in the triple jump with a mark of 52'-11". He placed sixth and will now wait until Monday to hear if he will get an at-large bid to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. He qualified for the meet in the long jump yesterday.
The women's 4x400M relay of Diaz, Trudeann Clarke, Boleware and Lloyd ran a season-best time of 3:36.13 for a fifth place finish and help the Lady Raiders in the team race.
The final race of the day was one of the most electrifying of the entire meet. Brandon Washington started handed off to Rodney Mims. Mims pushed Tech into the lead and handed off to Lamont Adams who was passed by Texas A&M and then gave the stick to Roberts.
The final 100M of the race had Texas A&M and Baylor following Tech as it came down to the very end. The Red Raiders ran a season-best and the third-fastest time in school of 3:02.75 and was inched out by the Baylor Bears.
The Lady Raiders for the second-straight year finished second in the team race with 61 points. Texas A&M won the women's team race with 96 points. The men were third with 49 points as Texas A&M was first with 98 and Nebraska was second with 84.25.
Players Mentioned
