Track posts impressive numbers in Nebraska

By Jonathan Meyers     2/12/09 6:00pm

To take a line from Aerosmith, the men's track and field team's performance this week was the same old song and dance. Although the team split up for two separate meets, the clear headliner was once again junior pole vaulter Jason Colwick, who vaulted an incredible 5.60 meters at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb. on Saturday to break not only the indoor record he set just last week, but also the outdoor record of 5.55 meters he set last spring at the Texas Relays.

To complete the story, Colwick was named Conference USA Male Athlete of the Week for the second time in a row, as his vault not only easily won the meet, but also set the meet record. Colwick is now the owner of the nation's top collegiate mark in the pole vault, and he is currently 15th in the world this year.

Head coach Jon Warren (Jones '88) said he was not surprised by Colwick's repeat performance.

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"He went from No. 3 in the nation to No. 1 in the nation," Warren said. "It's very difficult to top a meet record and to get No. 1 in the nation. He's vaulting well enough, or could be vaulting well enough, to talk about ... medaling in the Olympics."

Colwick was not the only pole vault star for the Owls this weekend. His teammates, junior Chris Kato and sophomore Garrett Stafford, also more than held their own with vaults of 4.90 meters and 4.75 meters, respectively. The Owls also continued to get solid contributions from freshmen, including Dan Sloat's third place time of 1 minute, 55.07 seconds in the 800 meters.

Warren said he was pleased with Sloat's perseverance over the past couple of meets, culminating in this race.

"His previous races were not indications of what he could do," Warren said. "He got in a big traffic jam with about 300 meters to go last week. [But this week,] he did really well."

Freshman Clayton Chaney also finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles, nearly setting a personal best with a time of 8.14 seconds. Freshman Collin Shurbet also had a good performance in the 400-meter dash, with a time of 50.37, good enough for fifth at the University of Houston All-Comers meet.

Warren said the indoor track Shurbet ran on actually prevented him from finishing with a better time.

"He got in a real bad box," Warren said. "He got two guys on the other teams on either side of him and trapped him in."

The shot putters gave another solid effort as well, with sophomore Clay Baker throwing 15.81 meters to finish first at the All-Comers meet, while freshmen Will Meyers and Alex Zinchenko continued to improve in Nebraska. Meyers claimed eighth with a throw of 15.78 meters and Zinchenko tossed 13.48 meters to finish 18th.

In the heptathlon, sophomore Connor Hayes finished sixth, showing solid efforts in each of the seven events. Warren said he is currently planning to have Hayes, Chaney and senior Tyler Whitham compete in the heptathlon at the conference meet.

"Connor had a pretty good heptathlon," Warren said. "He just put a nice seven events together. ... He knows he can be consistent and do really well. [And] I still think he can be a great jumper."

As far as the Texas A&M Invitational set for this weekend, Warren said he had a good idea about both his strategies and expectations for the meet.

"I think the throwers can do well, the triple jumpers we hope will do well, [and we will] get some good marks in the [400 meters] from Shurbet and [sophomore] Ryan Gard," Warren said. "This is the meet where we hope we see the kids coming around. We're bringing everybody, and hopefully we'll get some results we're happy with.

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