Longhorns track and field aiming for titles in last Big 12 meet
AUSTIN (KXAN) — When the Texas Longhorns move to the Southeastern Conference next year, there’s something head track and field coach Edrick Floreal is going to miss about the Big 12.
“The trophies,” he said, with a laugh. “We’ve won our fair share, and lost our fair share, but we’ve been pretty consistent at the top.”
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Under Floreal in his sixth season, the Longhorns are gunning for their fifth-consecutive women’s outdoor track title and the men’s are trying for their third. In all, Texas has won 24 men’s and women’s outdoor track and field titles in the Big 12 since it began competition in 1996-97.
It’s the final Big 12 meet for the Longhorns and Floreal wants to make sure his athletes go out with no regrets.
“I’m excited for the kids to compete,” he said. “I think they understand the finality of it. Any time it’s the last one ever, you want to go out on top. We’re prepared. We have a few injuries but nothing so overwhelming that it will keep us from our goal.”
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Floreal isn’t so worried about the times and marks when the Big 12 championship meet begins Thursday in Waco. He’s more worried about how his athletes compete against the field. He wants to see a level of focus and intensity that he hasn’t necessarily seen out of some of them.
“Maybe we were spoiled by the group we had last year, but they haven’t competed to the level of their talent,” he said. “If we show up, fight like hell, and compete at a high level, I think we’ll be just fine.”
He said championship meets take on a different vibe than a typical meet where athletes compete against a clock or a tape measure. All that matters is beating the person next to you, he said. The number on the podium is what matters, not necessarily the numbers on a stopwatch.
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“We want to win some stuff, get in the finals and score some points,” he said. “Championship meets are better because this generation of kids are stuck with times and running fast. Times don’t matter, it’s just your place and how you compete.”
With the recent run of Big 12 titles by other Texas programs this season, Floreal said he’s feeling a little pressure to take care of business so the Longhorns leave the conference on top.
“I feel about two feet tall,” he joked. “Every time someone wins one, I get a little shorter. (Chris) Del Conte made it clear that we gotta get it done. I wish I would have been the guy that went first and got mine out of the way.”
The men’s team is ranked second in the Big 12 behind Texas Tech and the women’s team is the top-ranked Big 12 team in the national rankings.
Leo Neugebauer, bound for the Paris Olympics in the decathlon for his native Germany, won’t do the event at the conference meet but instead is entered in the 110-meter hurdles, discus and long jump. Soloman Washington has the only seed mark over eight meters in the long jump at 8.02 (26 feet, 3.75 inches) and thrower Jeremiah Nubbe is No. 7 in the country and defending Big 12 champ in the hammer. Yusuf Bizimana is the 3-time Big 12 champion in the 800 meters and he’s back to defend his title.
For the women, Olympic hopeful Ackelia Smith leads the country in the long jump with a leap of 7.10 meters (23-3.5) and is No. 6 in the triple jump at 13.44 meters (44-1.13). A trio of shot putters — Nina Ndubuisi, Chrystal Herpin and Marilyn Nwora — are all in the top 10 and Akala Garrett has the fourth-fastest time in the 400 hurdles at 55.93.
Following the Big 12 championships, the Longhorns head to the NCAA West Prelims in Fayetteville, Arkansas as the last shot at qualifying for the NCAA championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
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