2008 Woodie Awards
Owls leap to second at C-USA Championships
Brody Rollins
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: Sports
The men's track and field team has grown by leaps and bounds this year, mainly due to its impressive ability to leap and bound. The Owls flew into second place at the Conference USA Indoor Championships two weeks ago, helped by first-place finishes in both the heptathlon and pole vault. Freshman Shea Kearney cleared a mark of 16 feet, 11 inches, to grab first in the pole vault on his third and final jump of the afternoon.
Unfortunately for the Owls, host University of Houston managed to make up those points in other events and notched 152 points to repeat as champions. Rice finished with 116.5, followed by the University of Memphis' 104. The University of Texas El-Paso and the University of Tulsa rounded out the top five with 100 and 88.5 points, respectively.
The majority of the team will now get a well-deserved break from the action. But time to rest was not granted to a few: Kearney and sophomore Jason Colwick were given one last chance to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships at last weekend's Arkansas Last Chance meet in Fayetteville, Ark. Fortunately, they made the most of that chance, as both of them tied the pole vault school record of 17-3 set by Paul Brattlof (Lovett '83). While their jumps were high enough to place in the top 20 nationally, the pair fell short in their bid to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Kearney's success this season is especially remarkable, given that his previous best was a jump of 16-4, which he vaulted during his senior year of high school. What was even more impressive was that he finished an astounding six inches higher than the second-place finisher from the University of Houston.
"If I didn't make it, I lost, and we only scored two points out of the pole vault, [but] if I did make it, I won the title," Kearney said. "It was intense. When you get to conference nothing compares, because now you're an elite college athlete and what you did in high school means nothing."
In other jumping events, senior Omar Wright finished second in the high jump with a mark of 6-8. In the triple jump, freshman Ugo Nduaguba jumped 49-4 to take a second-place finish, 15 inches ahead of fifth-place senior Devon Fanfair.
Unfortunately for the Owls, host University of Houston managed to make up those points in other events and notched 152 points to repeat as champions. Rice finished with 116.5, followed by the University of Memphis' 104. The University of Texas El-Paso and the University of Tulsa rounded out the top five with 100 and 88.5 points, respectively.
The majority of the team will now get a well-deserved break from the action. But time to rest was not granted to a few: Kearney and sophomore Jason Colwick were given one last chance to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships at last weekend's Arkansas Last Chance meet in Fayetteville, Ark. Fortunately, they made the most of that chance, as both of them tied the pole vault school record of 17-3 set by Paul Brattlof (Lovett '83). While their jumps were high enough to place in the top 20 nationally, the pair fell short in their bid to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Kearney's success this season is especially remarkable, given that his previous best was a jump of 16-4, which he vaulted during his senior year of high school. What was even more impressive was that he finished an astounding six inches higher than the second-place finisher from the University of Houston.
"If I didn't make it, I lost, and we only scored two points out of the pole vault, [but] if I did make it, I won the title," Kearney said. "It was intense. When you get to conference nothing compares, because now you're an elite college athlete and what you did in high school means nothing."
In other jumping events, senior Omar Wright finished second in the high jump with a mark of 6-8. In the triple jump, freshman Ugo Nduaguba jumped 49-4 to take a second-place finish, 15 inches ahead of fifth-place senior Devon Fanfair.
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