TCU
Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championship
Longmire Wins Big 12 Long Jump Title
2/22/2019 10:11:00 PM | Men's Indoor Track, Women's Indoor Track
LUBBOCK, Texas – TCU track and field began competition at the Big 12 Indoor Championships on Friday, where one Horned Frog was crowned conference champion and several others advanced to Saturday's finals. In her first Big 12 Championship meet, Destiny Longmire dominated the women's long jump and won the conference title.
LONG JUMP
Longmire set the standard for the field with her opening jump, jumping a personal-best 6.39m (20-11.75). That jump was all she needed and she never trailed in the meet. Entering the conference meet, Longmire's previous season-best jump of 6.28m was ranked No. 10 nationally. While Friday was her first Big 12 title, it was her second conference title of her career with her winning a Mountain West title in the long jump while she was at San Jose State.
Also representing TCU in the women's long jump was Chyna Ries, who made her season debut on Friday. After battling injures all winter, Ries jumped a personal-best 6.17m (20-3) and finished fourth. She finished sixth at the indoor conference meet a year ago.
FINALISTS
TCU had several athletes perform well in Saturday's prelims. In the men's 60m, Tarrick Brock finished second in his heat with a season-best 6.64 and punched his ticket to the 60m finals. In the women's 60m, Jenea Spinks finished second in her heat as well, running a season-best 7.41 and also advanced.
Lily Beckford was the top performer in the women's 600-yard prelims, finishing with a conference-leading time of 1:19.97. In the men's 600-yard, TCU advanced a pair of runners to the finals. Derrick Mokaleng finished second in the prelims with a time of 1:09.62 while Jostyn Andrews finished third with a time of 1:09.92.
In the men's 200m prelims, Tinotenda Matiyenga ran a season-best 21.00 and finished fifth for a spot in the finals.
Freshman Rainey Anderson also had a season-best in the men's 60 hurdles, finishing in 8.06 and securing a spot in the finals.
POLE VAULT
Both of TCU's pole vaulters broke their own school records for the indoor pole vault. In the men's pole vault, Adam McAdoo moved the men's record up to 5.08m (16-8) while Kendahl Shue improved the women's record to 3.88m (12-8.75).
COACH'S THOUGHTS
"I'm really excited for the long jump girls," head track and field coach Darryl Anderson said. "Anytime you come in and win a title in the Big 12 it says a lot and for Destiny to come in and jump nearly 21 feet says a lot. As we move forward to the NCAA championship meet, she's for sure in the meet and should be projected to score there. Then for Chyna, with this being her first meet, I'm really happy for her. In her career, she's been through a lot. TCU is her third school, she's been injured, and she hasn't done anything all indoors. Then she comes in today, in her first meet, and finishes fourth in the Big 12 and that says a lot about her character and her ability to stand against adversity. Everywhere else, we qualified well in relation to what we expected to do coming in. We got one in the women's 60m, one in the women's 600, and we have the shot put, 3000, triple jump and mile relay coming up for us tomorrow. On the men's side, we were short in a few events. We thought we'd get two in the 60 but got one. We thought we'd get two in the 200 and got one. But we have two in the 600, one in the 60 hurdles, one in the 800, and then tomorrow we add Du in the triple jump and the mile relay. So tomorrow, we have a lot of room to do some things in this meet. We'll go get a good dinner, good night of sleep, then come in tomorrow and fight."
DAY TWO
TCU will resume competition at the Big 12 Indoor Conference Championship Saturday. In addition to those who advanced from Friday's prelims, Saturday will feature Chengetayi Mapaya in the triple jump and both the men's and women's 4x400 relays.
Players Mentioned
