KU Relays: Jayhawks win three events to highlight first day

Friday, April 21, 1995

By DICK LIPSEY Associated Press Writer

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Emporia State and Pittsburg State won two events each and the host Kansas Jayhawks won three to highlight the first full day of competition in the 70th annual Kansas Relays.

Emporia State's John Corwin won the college javelin and Jason Stuke won the college division shot put on Friday.

Pittsburg State took both college division long jumps with Mark Kimbrough winning the men's competition and Melanie Lewis the women's.

"It didn't feel like a winner at all," Kimbrough said of his winning leap.

The Jayhawks won the men's sprint-medley and 4-mile relays and the women's javelin.

Kansas' Amy Baker won the javelin with a toss of 160 feet, 11 inches, which was a provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA championship meet.

Michael Cox of Kansas ran his anchor leg in an unofficial 4 minutes, 0.5 seconds, to hold off Missouri and win the 4-mile relay in a close battle.

Kansas coach Gary Schwartz praised Cox's race strategy.

"He knew he'd better take it out and not go easy," Schwartz said.

Garden City Community College won both the men's and women's college 800-meter relays in close races with Cloud County CC.

Garden City ran 1:26.94 on a cool and windy day to win the men's race.

"The weather wasn't a factor because we figured we were going to win anyway," said Garden City anchor Marcus Gladden.

Twins Kristen Schultz and Kirsten Schultz of Kansas State, who finished second and third in the javelin, also posted provisional qualifying marks for the NCAA meet.

Chris Tozier and Wayne Barber of Wichita State both established provisional NCAA qualifying marks. Tozier won the university shot put at 58-9 1/4 while Barber was second in the long jump behind Tyrone Minor, who competed unattached.

Three other provisional qualifiers came in the women's university long jump, led by Diana Lettridge of Northern Iowa at 20-7 3/4.

Carla Prewitt of Johnson County Community College, the defending national indoor champion in the shot put, won the shot with a heave of 46-5 1/4.

"It's kind of chilly out here, and that affected my performance," Prewitt said.

Jacshelle Sasser of Northwest Missouri State, who won the women's college high jump, won the high school girl's triple jump at the 1993 Kansas Relays while competing for Kansas City Metro High School.

"To me, winning the Kansas Relays is very important," Sasser said. "I grew up here."

In other women's results, Kansas State beat Kansas to win the sprint medley relay, and Sandy Thomas of Central Missouri State won the 1,500-meter run.

In other men's results, Eric Boxley of Arkansas State won the university pole vault at 17-0 3/4 over John Bazzoni of Kansas, and Tom Magnuson of Nebraska-Kearney won the college 1,500-meter run at 4:01.93.

Copyright 1995 By The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.