LUBBOCK, Texas—Porscha Lucas defended her title in the 200-meter dash by one one-hundredth of a second Sunday to help Texas A&M win its third straight Big 12 women’s outdoor track title.
The Aggies, the nation’s top-ranked track and field team, finished with 126.5 points to beat Texas Tech by 15.5 points. Nebraska was third. It was Texas Tech’s best outdoor finish in conference history.
Nebraska won its first men’s title since 2004 with 148 points. Texas A&M finished second with 126 points and Texas was third with 83.5 points.
“We did everything we possibly could do, and we did a few things a little better than expected,” Aggie coach Pat Henry said of his two teams’ finishes.
Lucas won the 200 in 22.92 seconds, barely edging out Baylor’s Tiffany Townsend (22.93).
Lucas ran the second leg of her team’s 400-meter relay. The Aggies finished in 42.97, beating Baylor’s time of 43.85.
The relay team kept its focus simple.
“Getting our hand-offs down and sticking our marks and just concentrating on running,” Lucas said. “It always takes a lot of hard work. It’s good to continue what we’ve been doing in previous years.”
It was the second straight year the Aggies won the event.
Nebraska coach Gary Pepin said he would have been disappointed if his men’s team hadn’t won and was glad with his women’s team’s performance.
“It was a really good team meet for us—on both sides,” he said. “We had the number of athletes we needed and they performed well once they got here.”
In the night’s final event, Baylor men made it 10 straight wins in the 1,600-meter relay, finishing in 3 minutes, 4.93 seconds. The Bears beat Texas A&M, which ran it in 3:05.34
Texas A&M sophomore Gerald Phiri won three races Sunday for the second year in a row, the first time a sprinter has done that.
He won the 100 meter in 10.35, beating Baylor junior Trey Harts.
“It feels good,” Phiri said. “It’s not so much being Big 12 champion. Last year I was the first double-Big12 champion ever, especially as freshman, so my job this weekend is to be the first double two-time Big 12 champion, and I’m halfway there,” he said shortly before winning the 200 in 20.72.
He and his teammates also won the 400-meter relay, finishing in 38.86.
Texas junior Destinee Hooker, the nation’s top high jumper, set a new Big 12 meet record Sunday, winning her third conference outdoor title with a leap of 6 feet, 4 3/4 inches.
Hooker, a three-time NCAA champion and a five-time All-American, beat Nebraska junior Epley Bullock.
Bullock, the nation’s No. 2 high jumper, missed on her third try at 6 1/2.
Hooker, who went on Sunday to try unsuccessfully to set a new collegiate record of 6-7, won the high jump in 2006 and 2007 before taking last year off to train with the U.S. Olympic volleyball team prior to the Beijing Games.
Her third shot at the record, she said, came closest, which is atypical. Usually jumpers have their best jump on the first attempt, Hooker said.
“At least I know I’m capable of making it,” she said.
Hooker, who also plays volleyball for the Longhorns, is the fifth best high jumper in the world and holds the collegiate indoor record at 6-6.
She finished sixth at the Olympic Trials last year. Her sister, Marshevet Hooker, was a NCAA champion, All-American and Big 12 champion in the long jump, sprints and sprint relays, respectively, and finished fifth at the Beijing Olympics (22.34) in the 200 last summer.
Colorado’s Jenny Barringer smashed a meet record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Barringer ran the race in 9:58.14.
She shaved more than 10 seconds off Oklahoma State’s Mary Davies’ 2006 Big 12 outdoor mark of 10:09.42.
In winning her second outdoor conference title, Barringer distanced herself from her competitors early.
“I kept looking back and didn’t think I sprinted out too hard,” she said. “But I expected people to go with me a little more so I’d have some company. It was a good, comfortable, clean race and that’s what I really wanted.”
Tech sprinter Gil Roberts, a sophomore, ended Baylor’s eight-year dominance in the 400 meters. Roberts bested Texas A&M senior Justin Oliver to win in 44.86. It was the fourth fastest time in the world.
“I’m really kind of lost for words,” Roberts said. “I’m pretty excited about it. It wasn’t one of my expectations coming out here. I was just trying to get a win.”
Texas Tech junior Omogan Osaghae took the 110-meter men’s hurdles in 13.65, beating Nebraska’s Lehann Fourie by three one-thousands of a second.
“What I concentrated on was just technique … and staying consistent,” Osaghae said.
In the women’s 400-meter hurdles, defending champion Sandra Iwunze of Tech, a sophomore, beat Longhorn freshman Angele Cooper. Iwunze ran it in 58.20 seconds, .47 seconds ahead of Cooper.
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NOTES: Texas senior Jake Morse (steeplechase) and junior Tevan Everett (800 meters) claimed Big 12 titles for the Texas men’s track and field team on Sunday. Morse, a three-time All-American and the current national leader in the steeple with a season-best time of 8:34.57, cruised to victory, clocking an 8:59.62 to win by almost five seconds….Tevan Everett, who leads the nation in the 800, won his first outdoor Big 12 title in 1;48.88. UT senior Jacob Hernandez placed third with a time of 1:50.50….Lisa Koll, a junior from Iowa State, won her second long distance event of the meet, winning the 5,000 in 16:33.12….Texas Tech senior Patience Knight, who was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor near her heart in March 2007 but still managed to compete as she underwent rounds of chemotherapy, won her second-straight Big 12 title in the shot put.
