Sports
Shelby Frank stars for Texas Tech track & field at NCAA championships
Two-time NCAA runner-up Shelby Frank on outlook with Texas Tech Shelby Frank was the NCAA indoor championships runner-up in the weight throw in 2023 and 2024. She transferred from Minnesota to Texas Tech for 2025. At the NCAA track and field championships, where points are hard to come by, putting up 10s and 8s — […]
Two-time NCAA runner-up Shelby Frank on outlook with Texas Tech
Shelby Frank was the NCAA indoor championships runner-up in the weight throw in 2023 and 2024. She transferred from Minnesota to Texas Tech for 2025.
At the NCAA track and field championships, where points are hard to come by, putting up 10s and 8s — that is, 10 points for first place, eight for second — is key to gaining separation for a really high finish.
The Texas Tech women’s track and field team had only one 8 and no 10s on their latest trip to Eugene, Oregon, and finished 12th — solid, but probably not as well as the Red Raiders had hoped, given their No. 8 national ranking going into the meet.
The four-day competition at Hayward Field concluded Saturday, June 14, with Texas Tech ending up with 22 points.
Shelby Frank delivered 14 with a second-place finish in the hammer throw on Thursday, June 12, and a third-place finish in the discus Saturday. That made the senior transfer from Minnesota an eight-time first-team All-American, status accorded the top eight finishers in each final event at an NCAA championships. Frank threw 233 feet, 1 inch in the hammer and 207-11 in the discus, both personal records.
“What a fabulous weekend Shelby had,” Tech coach Wes Kittley said. “Two school records. Two personal bests.”
Fresno State senior Sierra Jackson threw a meet-record 215-11, and Frank and the throwers right behind her in fourth, fifth and sixth all threw personal bests.
“It’s the most unbelievable discus I’ve ever seen,” Kittley said. “In NCAA history, that was the best competition. It may sound like bad to get third place, but I was so proud of her, nearly throwing 208 feet, just what a great competitor she’s been for us.”
The Red Raiders’ other points came from a pair of fifth-place finishes, by sophomore Temitope Adeshina in the high jump (6-1 1/2) and by senior Victoria Gorlova in the triple jump (wind-legal 44-4 3/4).
Fifth is the lowest Adeshina’s finished in four career appearances at NCAA meets. As a freshman last year, she was fourth at the NCAA indoor, third at the outdoor, and this year she won the title at the NCAA indoor.
Had each Tech athlete competing in Eugene finished exactly as she was ranked going in, the Red Raiders would have scored 27 points, which would have been good for eighth.
Tech’s other entrants Saturday were Tamiah Washington, who got 10th in the triple jump with a mark of 42-10 1/4 into a slight negative wind, and Zoe Burleson, who placed 13th in the discus with a throw of 183-2.
“I felt bad for Temitope and for Victoria and Tamiah,” Kittley said. “They just didn’t have their best day. They weren’t bad. They just weren’t great, and you had to be great today. If we’d have gotten just two to three to four more points out of each one of them, we would have been sixth or so in the country.”
Tech had five entries who competed Thursday and failed to advance to Saturday, led by Fanny Arendt, who was 11th in the 800 meters (2 minutes, 3.13 seconds). In the 100-meter hurdles, Destiny Smith was 14th in 13.18 and Tonie-Ann Forbes was 18th in 13.37, both wind-legal times.
In the 1,600-meter relay, Arendt, Mekenze Kelley, Mercy Umoibang and Vanessa Balde were 20th in 3:35.47.
The Tech women’s top team finishes at the NCAA outdoor were fifth place in 2008, seventh place in both 2022 and 2024 and 10th in 2007. The program’s highest point totals at the outdoor were 36 in 2022 and 32 in 2008.
Arendt, Smith, Washington and Burleson achieved second-team All-America status.
“We got several All-Americans today and scored 22 points,” Kittley said. “That’s not bad. It’s terrible when you feel like 12th is not good, but it’s really good.”