Buckeye Track and Field Travels Four to 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/9/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
March 9, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State men’s and women’s track and field teams will send four representatives to the 2004 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. Friday and Saturday in the University of Arkansas’ Randall Tyson Indoor Track. Senior thrower Dan Taylor (Middlefield, Ohio/ Berkshire) will compete for the men as a favorite in both the shot put and weight throw events, while junior jumper Rosalind Goodwin (Prospect, Ky./ Ballard) and sophomore thrower Amarachi Ukabam (Creve Couer, Mo./ Marquette) will vie for All-America status in two events as well. Junior thrower Keturah Lofton (Zainesville, Ohio/ Zanesville) makes her second appearance at nationals in the weight throw.
Goodwin, who won both the indoor long jump and triple jump titles at the Big Ten Championships Feb. 28 and 29, posted the ninth-best mark in the country in both events as she will seek to become the second All-American jumper in the last two seasons for the Buckeyes. Fellow junior Shayla Moore (Jessup, Md./ Long Beach) earned All-American in the triple jump at the outdoor nationals last season. Goodwin is set to compete in the long jump at 4 p.m. Friday, while the triple jump will commence at approximately 5:45 p.m. Saturday.
Taylor and Ukabam both qualified to compete in the shot put and weight throw events. Taylor repeated as Big Ten champion in both events Feb. 28 and 29 and will seek to improve upon his runner-up standing in the shot put and third-place finish in the weight at the 2003 national meet. The 2003 indoor and outdoor conference athlete of the year owns the top mark of the season in the weight at 24.01 meters, which is just one centimeter shy of the NCAA record. He also claims the second-best shot put hoist at 20.45m. Taylor will throw the shot at 2:30 p.m. Friday and the weight at 2 p.m. Saturday. Ukabam is the reigning Big Ten outdoor freshman of the year and will vie for her first All-America honor in Fayetteville. She received the final bid in the shot put at 16.20m, while heaving the 20.15m to rank in the Top 15 in the country. Ukabam’s competition in the weight begins at noon Friday, while the shot put begins at 4:30 p.m.
Lofton, the Big Ten champion in the weight, earned the No. 10 spot nationally with a mark of 20.52m as she heads for her second career appearance at the indoor nationals. She will join Ukabam in the weight Friday.
Ohio State’s last indoor national title was won in 2001 by Donnica Merriman in the 60-meter hurdles. The Last Buckeye to win a national title on the men’s side was Ulysses Cohen in 1980 in the 400-meter run.
