2003 Ohio State Track and Field Outdoor Season Recap – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/16/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
June 16, 2003
Columbus, Ohio – The 2003 outdoor season served as a landmark campaign for the Ohio State track and field squad as the university played host to the inaugural running of the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships May 30 and 31. Ohio State carried a strong contingent to the regional competition as 31 Buckeyes earned bids to vie for individual regional championships and the opportunity to advance to the 2003 NCAA Championships.
10 Buckeyes emerged from the regional championships as national qualifiers as Joel Brown (ninth in hurdles), Drew Carter (seventh in the long jump), Aaron Fisher (19th in 3,000-meter steeplechase preliminaries) and Dan Taylor (third in shot put and eighth in discus) competed for the men, while Krista Keir (discus), Keturah Lofton (13th in hammer prelims), Molly Logan (semi-finalist in the 100-meter hurdles), Shayla Moore (10th in triple jump), Tami Smith (high jump) and Amarachi Ukabam (discus and shot put) highlighted the OSU women’s contingent.
Brown, Carter and Moore scored All-American honors in their respective events, while Taylor earned All-America honors in both the shot put and discus with Top 10 showings.
At the Mideast regional championships, a pair of OSU throwers led the way as junior Taylor and freshman Ukabam each posted regional qualifying marks in three events – shot put, hammer and discus. Ukabam claimed the initial regional crown in the women’s discus with a heave of 170-11, while Taylor scored Top 3 marks in each of the events as he eclipsed his own OSU record in the discus with a 193-7, while also scoring second in the shot put with a 67-0.50.
Brown also competed in multiple events as he claimed runner-up in the 110-meter hurdles, missing first place by just .01, and joined the OSU men’s 4×100-meter relay, which advanced to the finals. Brown’s time of 13.58 in the 110 meters serves as an Ohio State all-time mark. Logan also earned a bid to the NCAA’s with a third place finish in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, while Smith, Moore and Carter also qualified for national competition, highlighted by Carter’s personal best 26-3.50 to claim regional runner-up in the long jump.
Three other OSU regional competitors – Keir, Lofton and Fisher – helped the Buckeyes to a fourth place standing on the men’s side and sixth place status in the women’s competition with national qualifying marks.
Seven Buckeyes claimed Big Ten championships in 2003 as Brown scored first in the 110-meter hurdles, while distance runners Derrick Butler and Fisher took first in the 10,000 meters and the 5,000 meters, respectively. Senior Nicholette Chambers, the indoor pentathlon champion, added a title in the women’s heptathlon with a combined score of 4,982 points.
In the field events, Smith notched her fifth-consecutive combined indoor and outdoor title-winning performance in Big Ten high jump competition, while Ukabam won the women’s discus with a throw of 170-11. Chambers, Smith and Ukabam helped the Buckeyes to a fourth place standing in the women’s competition.
Taylor, the 2003 Big Ten Indoor Athlete of the Year, helped OSU to fourth on the men’s side with a title in the shot put and runner-up marks in the discus and hammer en route to claiming outdoor conference athlete of the year honors as well. During the season, Taylor was named Big Ten Athlete of the week on four occasions.
The Penn Relays served as perhaps Taylor’s finest event as he claimed titles in both the shot put and hammer throw, while Ukabam scored a title in the women’s discus.
Numerous Ohio State records were set in 2003 as Keir topped her own mark in the discus with a 186-1 to place first at the Baldy Castillo Classic March 21, while Taylor set marks in the discus (193-7) May 30 and hammer (217-5) May 2.
Pole vaulters freshman Robyn Mroz and sophomore Becky Heintz each set Ohio State standards in the pole vault at a height of 11-11.75 at the same event May 10.
###Go Bucks###
