The Missouri women’s track and field team kicked off the NCAA championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Thursday with a new school record for the 4×100 meter relay.
The team of freshman Maya Cody, juniors LaQuisha Jackson and Sandrae Farquharson, and senior Alyssa Felton took 13th place in the relay with a time of 44.31 seconds, breaking the old record by .09 seconds. The team did not advance to Saturday’s finals, however.
The old school record was set May 28 by this same team en route to qualifying for the championships at the preliminary round in Lawrence, Kansas. This squad is only the second women’s relay to make it to the national championships from Missouri; the first one was in 1984.
Junior Valeria Thames placed sixth in her heat in the 100-meter hurdles, but she placed 16th overall and did not advance to the finals. Thames entered the competition as the school record holder in the event. She broke the the record three times this season.
Farquharson also competed in the 400-meter dash, running a 55.21 second race to finish 23rd overall.
To close the night out on the track, the 4×400 meter relay team of Cody, Thames, Jackson and Farquharson ran a time of 3:35.63 to place 18th overall. This time was a little more than 1 second off their school record of 3:34.10, set at the preliminary round to qualify for nationals.
The Missouri women’s lone field athlete, junior Alyssa Applebee, was the first Mizzou track athlete to be an first-team All-American this year, finishing seventh in the pole vault. Her best jump came at 4.20 meters (13 feet and 9.25 inches).
All of the Missouri women who competed Thursday were first-time NCAA championship qualifiers.
In the decathlon, senior Ser Whitaker closed off the events in 16th place with 7194 points. He is the first decathlete since 2011 to make it to the national championships from Missouri.
The men’s finals will be held Friday. Senior Markesh Woodson was the only Tiger to qualify for the finals. Senior Tony Carodine and sophomore John Warren will also compete in the triple jump competition Friday evening. Karissa Schweizer will take on the 5,000 meter run on Saturday. The sophomore distance runner is ranked eighth in the event with her personal record of 15:58.09 from the Mt. SAC Relays.
_Edited by Peter Baugh | pbaugh@themaneater.com_
