Texas Tech track opens season with abbreviated home schedule
Since Texas Tech opened the Sports Performance Center in January 2018, the Red Raiders' track and field teams have become accustomed to competing at home virtually the entire indoor season. Why leave town when there's a steady supply of schools from all over the country, plus top professionals, happy to come compete in the modern, $48 million arena?
That temporarily changes this year.
Tech opens the season hosting the Stan Scott Memorial from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday. With the ongoing Jones AT&T Stadium construction project right outside the Sports Performance Center, though, Tech will host only three regular-season home meets this year and the Big 12 indoor championships on Feb. 23-24.
"It'll be different than any of the seven (seasons) since we've had this indoor facility," Tech coach Wes Kittley said.
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Tech hosted six home meets in 2018 and 2019 and five in each of the past four years, plus a big high school meet. The latter has been scrapped for this year.
"I was told we can't do it," Kittley said. "I think with OSHA and the combination of all the trucks coming in and out of here and all the numbers we would have if we would have a high-school meet, they were just scared that somebody might get run over or have an accident, so they just said this year we won't have it."
The other home meets are the Corky Classic Jan. 19-20 and the Jarvis Scott Open Feb. 9-10. Tech teams will travel for meets Jan. 26-27 at Louisville and Feb. 1-3 at Kansas State.
Texas Tech track honors Stan Scott
The season-opening meet is named for longtime track and field official Stan Scott, who died Dec. 1 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Scott, 71, was still working Tech meets last year. He officiated at U.S. championships and Olympic Trials.
Scott grew up in Andrews and attended West Texas A&M before becoming a teacher and coach.
"He was a tremendous human being and so important to our (program)," Kittley said. "We probably have 50 officials every week that come to our meets, and Stan certified probably all of them and also encouraged them and called them and got this whole thing started years ago.
"As our teams have gotten better and people wanted to be a part of it, he's been right there all along. But if it hadn't been for him in the first days when we weren't very good, getting this thing started, we wouldn't be where we are today."
Texas Tech men's outlook
The Red Raiders won the Big 12 indoor championship last season and finished fifth at the NCAA indoor. They return sprinter Terrence Jones, who won the NCAA title in the 60 meters, and first-team all-Americans Caleb Dean and Antoine Andrews in the 60-meter hurdles. Also back are 60-meter man Don'Dre Swint and high jumper Omamuyovwi Erhire, both second-team all-Americans.
The Red Raiders added 10 newcomers from the NCAA transfer portal. The most notable include quarter-miler Charlie Bartholomew from Oklahoma State, horizontal jumper Stacy Brown from Texas and sprinter Jalen Drayden from Arizona State. Bartholomew ran on OSU's Big 12 and NCAA champion distance medley relay, and Drayden is a three-time all-American. In the long jump, Brown was a first-team all-American outdoor in 2022 and a second-team all-American indoor in 2023.
Texas Tech women's outlook
Sprinter Rosemary Chukwuma and horizontal jumpers Ruta Lasmane, Anne-Suzanna Fosther-Katta and Onaara Obamuwagun are the names to know among the Tech women's returnees. Taking into account indoor and outdoor competition, Chukwuma and Lasmane have achieved all-America status six times apiece, Obamuwagun three times and Fosther-Katta twice.
The Lady Raiders should get help from several impact transfers: All-America pole vaulters Kaitlyn Banas and Mackenzie Hayward from Arkansas, seven-time NJCAA sprints champion Success Umukoro from South Plains College and seven-time Big Sky Conference sprints winner Alyssa Colbert from Northern Arizona.
"We have a lot of depth on this team," Kittley said, "especially on the men's team and a lot of good quality on the women's side."
Onward and upward
Among athletes not returning this season are middle-distance runners Marco Vilca and Sylvia Schulz and high jumpers Caleb Wilborn and Sidney Sapp. Vilca, Schulz and Wilborn had eligibility remaining, and Sapp, who was sidelined by a shin injury last year, did not pursue a medical hardship waiver.
Kittley said Wilborn, a two-time all-American, is pursuing a doctorate at North Texas and no longer competing.
Vilca and Schulz graduated, moved back to their home countries and started jobs. Sapp, who also finished school, was a Big 12 outdoor champion in 2022.
"Some wanted to come back and use that sixth year, and then some of them already had jobs," Kittley said. "If they turned them down, they were going to lose those jobs."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech track opens season with abbreviated home schedule
