PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Tuesday, May 20, 1997

Texas women blaze to Big 12 title; NCAA next

By JAIME ARON AP Sports Writer

WACO, Texas (AP) - The Texas Lady Longhorns went into the final day of the Big 12 track and field meet in ninth place, 23 points behind leader Nebraska.

"I was very nervous," UT women's coach Bev Kearney said. "But it wasn't the type of nervous where you hope someone else falters. I knew it was just a matter of doing what we had to do and we'd be fine."

They were even better than that. The Lady Horns dominated Sunday's sprint events so thoroughly that they ended up winning the meet by 27 points. That's an amazing swing of 50 points.

Four events made the difference: the 4x100-meter relay and the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes.

Nanceen Perry got things rolling by blowing through the pack on the second leg of the relay. The team won in 43.6 seconds, a season-best.

The 400 was next and Texas began making its move as Suziann Reid was first and teammates took up third, fifth and eighth - good for 21 points.

Next was the best race of the day, the 100.

Teammates Sabrina Kelly and Perry crossed the tape in 11.29. It took a photo to figure out that Kelly actually won by a smidgen. Other Lady Longhorns were fourth, fifth and eighth, giving Texas 28 points in the event.

Then, there was the 200. Perry won in a personal-best 22.73, with teammates finishing second, third, fifth and seventh for a whopping 30 points.

Over just those four events the Lady Longhorns scored 89 points. Runner-up Nebraska, which scored 110 points, was the only team to score more than that for the entire meet.

But Texas wasn't done. Even using a squad of mostly backups, UT still won the mile relay.

"We heard other teams talking about how they were going to do this and that," Perry said. "We just had to stand up and prove we could do it."

Texas did endure some disappointment. In the 800, Dana Riley - the Big 12 indoor champion and last year's SWC winner - was disqualified for a false start, even though Kearney said Riley's feet never moved.

The disqualification was especially frustrating because Riley had been in Austin on Saturday morning for graduation ceremonies, then she drove to Waco for the 800 preliminary.

Those lost points came between the 100 and the 200. When Kearney told her sprinters what had happened, they reacted with true team spirit.

"They said they wanted to know what they needed to do now," Kearney said. "I told them to win."

Almost overlooked because of the sprinters' success was the surprising second-place finish by Carla Littlejohn in the shot put. It was practically a given that Nebraska's Tressa Thompson would win, but Littlejohn's finish softened that blow and prevented the Cornhuskers from loading up in the event.

"I definitely had them scoring more in the shot put and us scoring less," Kearney said of her pre-race calculations.

Kearney's pre-race scoring also was off in the sprints.

"Everywhere I scored us, we scored higher, except for the 800," she said. "I'd rather have to add points to our total during a meet than to take them away."

The Lady Longhorns have qualified six individuals and both relays for the NCAA Championships June 4-7 in Bloomington, Ind. Five other provisional qualifiers will almost definitely make it, too.

"The NCAAs will be a lot different from the conference meet simply because it rides on the back of individuals, not the team concept," Kearney said. "But it is part of our goals."

The Texas men also won the conference title and set themselves up for a nice trip to Indiana in a few weeks. The Longhorns have seven spots for sure and appear likely to take three more.

The man to watch is Richard Duncan, who for the second straight year has qualified in the long jump, the high jump and the triple jump. No one else has ever competed in those three events even once.

"I'm really happy," said Duncan, who was the national long jump champion last year but finished second in it at the Big 12 meet. He also was second in the triple jump and was third in the high jump.

"Last year, I was a little disappointed because I didn't get All-American in all three events. That was my goal and now I have another chance." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story to A Friend: