Monday Morning Matador: Big XII Champs again!

Here we are at the last breaths of the school year and Texas Tech continues to strive for greatness. Let’s look at what the Red Raiders have been up to this past week.

Track & Field crowned Big 12 conference champions

In the Big 12 conference championship, the men’s track team tallied 164 points to take the title for their fourth outdoor championship (and second consecutive indoor/outdoor sweep of the conference). Divine Oduduru was among many who broke meet records with his 9.99 100m event. The previous record, 10:03, had been the time to beat for seven years. In the 4x100 relay, Oduduru, Keion Sutton, Andrew Hudson and Jacolby Shelton clocked a meet record of 38.83. The women’s group gathered 93 points in the championship as well, but were only able to place fourth overall. To see more in depth stats for both men and women’s track & field teams, follow the link in the title.

Baseball gets half a double-header, beats FIU

Even though rain plagued West Texas throughout the week, the baseball team worked with what they had. The No. 9 Texas Tech Red Raiders were led by Cameron Warren’s five RBIs to throttle FIU on Tuesday, 9-6. Tech has now won 11 of their last 12 games, with a habit of late game dramatics (averaging more runs in the post-fifth inning). Weather kept both teams from continuing their double-header. Texas Tech has one more conference series against TCU starting this Thursday, and is half a game out of first place in the Big 12 standings.

Softball conference tournament suspended

In the Big 12 Championship tournament, Texas Tech hit the ground running with a 7-3 victory over Kansas but tripped in the following game against the top-seeded Oklahoma. Oklahoma, who had given grief to Tech already this year, suffocated the Red Raider offense. Despite the 8-0 loss, Tech had a chance to take the redemption bracket the following day but rain (again) forced the committee to abandon the second and third place games on Saturday. Coach Adrian Gregory has had her most successful season with the Red Raiders, currently 39-14 (10 of those losses coming in conference play), and the selection show Sunday placed the Red Raiders in the Baton Rouge, LA, regional. This will be their sixth appearance in the NCAA Softball tournament. Tech will face off against Louisiana Tech this Friday and then either Monmouth or LSU in the remaining games.