Texas Tech men's track and field gets 2nd, Tech women win four events at Big 12 meet

Texas Tech track and field teams failed to give Texas the one more punch in the snout Wes Kittley wanted before the Longhorns' pending departure to the Southeastern Conference.

The Red Raiders settled for four women winning individual conference titles on Saturday's final day of a weather-ravaged Big 12 outdoor championships that were delayed all three days in Waco. The Tech men can take heart that Caleb Dean just missed breaking his school record in the 400-meter hurdles in his first meet this season.

Texas swept the team championships, however, and denied Tech's bid to sweep the men's conference indoor and outdoor crowns for the second year in a row.

"We just weren't as sharp as I thought we would be," said Kittley, the Red Raiders' coach, "and I think the weather delays (were a factor)."

The Tech women's titles came from Juliet Cherubet in the 1,500 meters, Temitope Adeshina in the high jump, Zoe Burleson in the discus and Rosemary Chukwuma in the 100 meters. Cherubet's time of 4 minutes, 9.33 seconds broke meet and Clyde Hart Stadium records.

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The Kenyan freshman also finished second in the 5,000 meters, sharing the meet's high-point scorer award with TCU sprinter Iyana Gray.

Adeshina cleared 6-2 3/4 in the high jump, and Burleson threw 189-1 in the discus. Chukwuma ran a wind-legal 11.12 seconds in the 100.

"Juliet was just phenomenal," Kittley said. "Temitope looked great in the high jump. Rose looked really good in the 100. Zoe, man, so proud of her.

"So we had some really good things. As a team, we just didn't put everything together that we needed to to win."

The Texas women won their fifth Big 12 outdoor championship in a row, racking up 150 points to Brigham Young's 98 and Tech's 96 1/2.

The Longhorns held off the Tech men 134-115, the Red Raiders narrowing the gap by winning the meet-ending 1,600-meter relay. Carl Hicks, Charlie Bartholomew, Shaemar Uter and Oskar Edlund ran 3 minutes, 3.09 seconds, which was a season-best and the Tech men's only first place in the meet.

"I was really pleased how we finished off the meet in the four-by-four," Kittley said. "We showed some pride there, and I thought that was important."

Both Tech teams came in compromised, however. Ruta Lasmane, the NCAA women's champion in the indoor triple jump, was out with mononucleosis.

On the men's side, NCAA sprints champion Terrence Jones had raced only once this season, on a relay, because of a hamstring injury. Dean, a three-time Big 12 champion, had not raced at all because of an adductor-muscle issue.

Nevertheless, in a blistering fast 400-meter hurdles, Baylor's Nathaniel Ezekiel won in 48.00 and Dean was second in 48.43. Both were easily inside the 2024 Olympics qualifying standard of 48.70, Ezekiel breaking the meet record Dean set last year, and Dean matching the second-best time of his career. The 48.43 could put Dean as high as fourth in NCAA Division I this season, pending outcomes from other conference meets.

"I couldn't be more proud of Caleb Dean," Kittley said. "That guy hadn't run in eight weeks."

Jones didn't fare as well as Dean. The two-time NCAA champion in the 60 meters failed to advance out of Thursday's preliminaries in the 200 meters, an event he won at this year's NCAA indoor. He finished eighth in Saturday's final of the 100.

Friday's schedule, after a nearly four-hour delay, picked back up with events starting as late as midnight. Because many preliminaries were canceled, those events were run on Saturday as finals in more than one section.

There was another stoppage Saturday night for almost two hours.

"I thought we didn't handle the stress of it all very well," Kittley said. "I think the kids, when we got Terrence back and we got Caleb back, I think they just relaxed a little bit, and I think we weren't quite as dialed in as I would have liked to have seen us on the men's side."

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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech men's track gets 2nd, Tech women win four events at Big 12