Feb. 11, 2010

LUBBOCK, Texas -

Complete Release in PDF Format

The No. 10 Red Raiders and Lady Raiders head to College Station and Seattle, Wash., this weekend for the Texas A&M Challenge: Big 12, SEC and Conference USA and the Husky Invite with some extremely competitive competition being at both track meets.

The Texas A&M Challenge will have three teams from the Big 12, SEC and Conference USA. The three conferences will battle against each other and scores tallied per conference will decide the champion. The Big 12 will be represented by Texas A&M, Texas and Texas Tech. The SEC will have Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee while Conference USA has Houston, Rice and UTEP competing.

Texas A&M has the highest ranked teams according to the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as both the men and women are No. 1 in the nation. The Tennessee women are No. 6 and UTEP's women are No. 16. The Texas Tech men jumped up five spots in the ranking to No. 10 and are the only men's team ranked at the meet other than Texas A&M.

The Lady Raiders will be sending two student-athletes to the Husky Invite to run the 5,000M on Friday night. Lillian Badaru and Winrose Karunde will travel to Seattle, Wash., to compete in the 5K field. Badaru won the Big 12 Indoor Championship in the 5000M last season.

The rest of the Red Raiders and Lady Raiders will make the trek to College Station. The men's horizontal jumps should be some of the best competition of the weekend. The Red Raiders have Bryce Lamb and Darrell Roddick who are both scheduled to compete.

The distance women will be after some fast times in the 800M and 3000M. Tech has five entries in the women's 800M highlighted by Purity Biwott and Gladys Kipsang. Caroline Karunde will run the 3000M and chase a NCAA qualifying standard. Competition at the Husky Invite will begin at 6:30 p.m. PST on Friday evening, while the Texas A&M Challenge will start at 12 p.m. on Saturday. Live results of the Texas A&M Challenge can be found at www.flashresults.com.

National Rankings
Several Red Raiders have positioned themselves in the top 10 with some impressive early marks.
Omo Osaghae, 7.72, 60M H, 4th
Men's, 3:08.13, 4x400M, 8th
Men's, 9:48.70, DMR, 10th
Women's, 11:10.28, DMR, 6th
Shade Weygandt, 4.25 (13'-11.25"), PV, 9th
Bryce Lamb, 7.81 (25'-7.75"), LJ, 4th
Bryce Lamb, 16.27 (53'-4.5"), TJ, 4th
Kelsey Lloyd, 3989 points, Pentathlon, 4th

New School Records
Tech had two new records set this weekend. The women's distance medley relay of Purity Biwott, Trudeann Clarke, Gladys Kipsang and Caroline Karunde broke a year-old record by running an 11:10.28 at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational. The other school record was set by Latoy Williams in the 600Y at the Texas Tech Open. Williams ran a 1:08.53 to place second. Ironically he finished second to the previous record holder Jonathan Johnson.

A Surprise Start
Junior Kelsey Lloyd put herself on the national scene in her debut in the pentathlon at the New Mexico Classic. The pentathlon is five events in one day that include the 60M hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put and 800M. Lloyd scored an NCAA provisional mark of 3,989 points to win the event. She was tops in the 60M hurdles, high jump and long jump as well. Her score is the fourth-best in program history and currently fourth in the NCAA.

Lamb Impressing Early on
Freshman Bryce Lamb came to Texas Tech as the No. 1 triple jump recruit out of high school and No. 2 long jump recruit according to Dyestat and has wasted little time living up to those claims. He has only automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships with a jump of 16.27M (54'-4.50) which is fourth in the nation. Lamb has the fourth-best jump in the long jump with a NCAA Provisional mark of 7.81 (25'-7.75").

Raising the Bar
Freshman Shade Weygandt in her first two meets so far has put her name in the Texas Tech school records twice. Her first meet she set the pole vault school record at 4.11M (13'-5.75"). One week later she re-set the school record by clearing 4.25M (13'-11.25") and automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Family Connections
Texas Tech has some unique family connections in the track and field family. The Lady Raiders have two sets of twins on the team with Caroline and Winrose Karunde and Terra and Taylor Evans. The Karunde are both transfers to the program with Caroline from Wayland Baptist and Winrose from ACU. Terra has been here from the start of her collegiate career while her sister Taylor transferred from LSU this past summer.

Hurdle All-Americans
The Red Raiders have had an All-American hurdler every year since 2005. The streak began with Marlon Odom in 2005 in the 110M hurdles. Odom earned All-America honors in the 110M hurdles in 2006 and 2007 while also earning the honor in the 60M hurdles in 2007. Other names such as Bryan Scott, All-American in the 400M hurdles in 2006 and 2007, and Shawon Harris, All-American in 2006 in the 60M hurdles and 600M hurdles, have kept the streak alive. Harris was also named an All-American in the 110M hurdles and 60M hurdles in 2008. Omo Osaghae continued the streak for Tech in the 110M hurdles in 2008 and then the 60M hurdles in 2009.

Returning All-Americans
Markus Henderson, Omo Osaghae and Gil Roberts are the three retuning All-Americans for the 2010 season. Henderson was a member of the NCAA Indoor 4x400M relay that was named All-American. Osaghae was the 60M hurdle national runner-up while Roberts was the national runner-up in the 400M and a member of the 4x400M relay as well.

13 NCAA Individual Champions
Tech has compiled 13 NCAA Individual Champions in its program history. The most recent was from D'Andra Carter as she won the 2009 NCAA Discus title in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It was the first field event national title in program history and the 12th title on the female side.

Facility Honors
The Terry and Linda Fuller track was named the American Sports Builders Association's Facility of the Year Award in December. The facility was renovated and a Super Mondo X track was put down and Tech hosted the 2009 Big 12 Outdoor Championships the past May.