LUBBOCK, Texas (February 4, 2006) - The TCU men's and women's track & field teams claimed eight first-place finishes at the Wes Kittley Open, held at the Athletic Training Center on the campus of Texas Tech University on Saturday. The women took home five gold medals while the men had three of their own.
The Flyin' Frogs claimed all three positions on the medal stand in both the women's 55 meter hurdles and 200 meter dash. Kishelle Paul claimed the gold in the 55 meter hurdles with a time of 8.11 while Julie Curtis and Mary Minor both set personal-bests, logging times of 8.25 and 8.33 respectively. After taking the 55 meter dash crown earlier in the day, Virgil Hodge led TCU in a sweep of the 200 meter dash with a personal best time of 23.84. Deborah Jones finished second and Paul took the bronze. The medal was Jones' second of the day as she had already set a seasonal best time and won gold in the 400.
Freshman Candis Kelley turned in another fine performance for the Frogs, finishing first in the shot put for the second time in her short career with a toss of 50-00.00 (15.24m). Fellow Frog Zelma Wade earned the silver medal with a throw of 48-03.25 (14.71m).
"The performances by Candis and Zelma were a pleasant surprise," TCU head coach Darryl Anderson said. "They competed and trained very well with Coach Kenneson and I'm very proud of them."
The men's team had a number of standout performances as well, highlited by the gold-medal winning efforts of Justyn Warner, Otis McDaniel and Kip Kangogo.
Warner finished three-one hundredths of a second ahead of teammate Bradley Reed to claim the 55-meter dash title with a time of 6.33, while McDaniel earned gold in the 200 with a mark of 21.59. Kangogo clocked a 4:15.60 in the one mile run to earn his second first-place finish in as many competitions.
Other Frog medal winners included Lewis Banda in the 400 (2nd-47.39); Jackson Langat in the 600 yard run (3rd-1:09.37); Cody Cook in the 1000 (3rd-2:35.62); David Jeffrey in the high jump (T-2nd-1.93m); Thomas Killen in the shot put (3rd-15.89m); Jamee Jones in the 55 (3rd-7.04); and Calandra Stewart in the mile (2nd-5:06.50)
"I'm very pleased with our team," Anderson said. "We're getting better with every meet and just need to keep improving."
