It is certainly fitting that the 2019 indoor track season kicks off with the Red Raiders ranked #1 in the nation for the men's team and the vastly improved women's team ranked #26. I am not the only one who thinks this will be a banner season for the Red Raiders. And, the first meet of the year is the meet that honors Texas Tech T&F icon, Corky Oglesby - who passed away just 14 months ago and who will be inducted into the Texas Track and Field Hall of Fame tonight.
This meet will be a rather low-key kickoff event -- Tech will be joined by OU, UTEP, plus some sprinters from Houston (Houston will bring a larger contingent to next week's Tech home meet). On another thread, Kid Burns asked what events will be particularly interesting at this home meet and I thought I would concentrate on those events which will have some key Tech athletes competing and arrange them by schedule order for the Saturday meet.
TRACK
This meet will be a rather low-key kickoff event -- Tech will be joined by OU, UTEP, plus some sprinters from Houston (Houston will bring a larger contingent to next week's Tech home meet). On another thread, Kid Burns asked what events will be particularly interesting at this home meet and I thought I would concentrate on those events which will have some key Tech athletes competing and arrange them by schedule order for the Saturday meet.
TRACK
- 1:20 - women's 600 yard run - the Tech T&F faithful will get our first look at Arkansas transfer Damajahnee Birch as she competes against 2 really good UTEP runners
- 1:30 - men's 600 yard run - in what may be the race of the whole meet, we get to see Tech's Vincent Crisp, who last year ran the fastest 600 yard run in NCAA history, compete against the JC national 400 meter champ, Sean Bailey, who last year ran for Western Texas and who is now at UTEP. In the same heat of the race will be Tech's new 800 meter freshman Sven Cepus. This race will be electric!
- 1:50 - men's 300 - I have never seen this race contested in this part of the country, but it will your first chance to see Divine Oduduru compete for Tech since he won the NCAA 200 title last June. Tech's Tyree Mathis will also be in the race.
- 2:10 - the men's 60 hurdles - Tech will have Norman Grimes and new super-freshman Robert Teer going head to head with Big 12 defending champ Bryce Douglas from OU, American Conference defending champ Amere Lattin from Houston and former Clemson All-American Marcus Maxey, who is training at OU these days and running for Nike.
- 2:40 - the women's 60 - Tech's Tiffani Johnson, Sara Limp and Daja Gordon, plus newcomer D'Jenne Egherevba go up against the UH All-American sprinter Brianne Bethel
- 2:50 - men's 60 - Andrew Hudson and newcomers Derrius Rodgers and Jacolby Shelton will go up against some good OU all-conference sprinters
- 3:00 - women's 1000 - Tech's Nokuthula Dlamini will go head-to-head with the CUSA 800 runnerup from UTEP
- 3:10 - women's 200 - newcomer Robyn Byrd competes in the fast heat with 2 all-Big 12 200 meter runners
- 3:20 - men's 200 - Houston graduated the indoor national 200 meter champ (Elijah Hall beat Divine O indoors), but they still have All-American 400 meter runner Kahmari Montgomery, who was just named to the Bowerman Award watch list with Divine and A-A hurdler, Amere Lattin running. Tech will have freshman Jacolby Shelton -- should be a great experience for him.
- 12 noon - women's vault - Tech will have 5 vaulters, including newcomers Chinne Okoronkwo, Ryleigh Redding, Allyn Tyer and Ashton Moon and OU will have 4 vaulters, 2 of whom were All-Big 12 last year
- 2 p.m or so (after the women finish) - men's vault - the competition is not great from the other schools, but Tech will have a strong contingent of vaulters, including all-Big 12 vaulters Brandon Bray and Drew McMichael
- 3:00 - the women's LJ - most of Tech's talented jumping crew will be competing against a freshman from OU who looks like she could be a contender.
- After the women's LJ, the men will warm up and start jumping -- it will probably be around 4:30. This will be the first time to see Odaine Lewis (3rd in the national meet LJ) and Charles Brown (5th in the national meet LJ) compete for Tech since last June.
- 3:30 - men's and women's HJ start concurrently -- after the sprints are finished, there will be 2 pits set up on the inside of the track and the high jumping will commence. For the Red Raider women, A-A Zarreia Willis and Cyre Virgo will go against All-Big 12 Falyn Reaugh from OU (for you Dallasites, Falyn Reaugh - pronounced RAY - is the daughter of long-time Dallas Stars announcer Razor Reaugh).
- At the same time, the men's HJ commences around 3:30 and you will see Tech's current corps of jumpers, including freshman Jequan Hogan, plus all of the former Tech jumping greats - Trey Culver, Bradley Adkins, and Jacorian Duffield. It was at this very meet last year that Trey jumped 7-7.75!
