April 2, 2008

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Mike A. Myers Stadium will host the 81st Annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays this weekend in Austin, Texas.  The University of Kansas track and field teams will compete in the four-day invitational with highly-touted college and high school athletes from around the country.  Along with the Kansas Relays, the Texas Relays is one of the biggest outdoor meets in the country. 

Meet competition begins on Wednesday, April 2 with the decathlon at 12 p.m. and the heptathlon at 12:30 p.m.  Running events start at 6 p.m. with the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase.  Day one will end with the men's 5,000-meter run at 7:20 p.m. Thursday's field events begin at 12:30 p.m., the track events start at 11 a.m. and the day ends with the men's 3,200-meter relay at 5:45 p.m.  Friday begins at 9:30 a.m. for running events and 10 a.m. for field events.  The day finishes with the men's 4 X 1,500-meter relay at 9:45 p.m.  On Saturday both the field and running events will begin at 9 a.m.  The meet will conclude at 4:25 p.m. with the finals of the 1,600-meter relay.

Both the men and women's track and field teams at the University of Kansas are ranked in the top-20 in the national rankings released by the USTFCCCA. The women are the nation's 15th-ranked team while the men stand at 18^th in the country. Kansas is one of 10 programs in the nation to have both of their men's and women's teams in the top-20 of the rankings.

The Jayhawks opened the outdoor season last weekend at the Missouri Relays in Columbia, Mo.  Eight Jayhawks won event titles, four earned regional qualifying marks and one set a meet record.  In his collegiate debut, freshman Iain Trimble set the meet record in the men's javelin, while senior Julius Jiles won the men's 400-meter hurdles and qualified for Regionals while winning the 110-meter hurdles.

At the Texas Relays last year, Crystal Manning captured the women's triple jump title while Ashley Brown and Julius Jiles placed fourth in the 100-meter and 110-meter hurdles, respectively.  Overall, Kansas collected four individual victories and picked up five new individual regional qualifying marks.

Complete results of the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays can be found at www.kuathletics.com shortly after the conclusion of each day's events.