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| Senior Drew Matthews anchored the men’s 4×400-meter relay in the event prelims Friday.
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AUSTIN, Texas –The Kansas men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relay squads both advanced to the event finals with qualifying times in the prelims Friday afternoon at the Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. The two teams will vie for meet titles in the finals Saturday starting at 4 p.m.
On a day that was slowed by numerous weather delays, the Jayhawks didn’t allow stoppages to affect their performances, especially in the preliminary heats of the 4×400-meter relays. The women’s squad, comprised of Whitney Adams, Nicole Montgomery, Adriana Newell and Wumi Omare turned in a solid outdoor season-opening outing in their race. The Jayhawk quartet passed the baton around in 3:47.01 to finish second in their heat and earn the sixth qualifying spot to the final Saturday.
The men’s squad followed their female counterpart’s lead by punching its ticket to the 4×400-meter final as well. The team of Ivan Henry, Jaime Wilson, Strymar Livingston and Drew Matthews combined for a final time of 3:10.70, good enough to finish second in their preliminary heat and fifth overall. The foursome will hit the Mike A. Myers Stadium track for the final Saturday at 4:10 p.m.
The KU women also posted an impressive outing in the sprint medley relay later Saturday evening. Adams, Montgomery and Newell each laced up the spikes for the second time Friday after their 4×400-meter performance earlier in the day and were joined by junior Zainab Sanni. The Jayhawks came within four seconds of breaking the KU record in the event, finishing the 1,600-meter race in 3:55.89 and claiming fourth place.
The distance medley relays closed out the night for Kansas. The women’s team of Nashia Baker, Daria Cook, Hannah Dimmick and Lydia Saggau combined for a solid outing in the event not often run during the outdoor season. Running in the sixth-position for the majority of the race, the anchor, Saggau, closed her mile leg strong, passing two runners over the final 200 meters to get her team a fourth-place finish as the clock read 11:45.64.
The men’s distance medley group of Brandon Bernal, Alex Wilson, Daniel Koech and Bryce Richards tuned in an eighth-place finish in 10:00.33.
Jayhawks will be busy once again Saturday as they will be in action at the Texas Relays as well as the Emporia State Relays. KU is slated to compete in both the men’s and women’s 4×800-meter relays in Austin, set to start at 10:40 a.m. Action from Emporia is set to begin at noon. Follow all the Kansas performances throughout Saturday by logging on to KUAthletics.com and following on Twitter at @KUTrack.
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