The Tower will shine with orange lights Wednesday, March 18 to honor the Texas Track and Field teams for winning both the men’s and women’s Big 12 Conference Indoor Championships.
The Longhorns last swept the titles in 2006, but this year’s victories mark the first time a single school has won both the men’s and women’s titles at the Big 12 Conference Indoor Championships since 2012. This year’s women’s team successfully defended their 2014 title, and the men’s team returned to the conference’s top position after last winning the title in 2013.
After the title sweep, men’s head coach Mario Sategna‘s peers selected him as the Big 12 Conference Men’s Coach of the Year, and sprinter Courtney Okolo was named the Women’s Indoor Track and Field Co-Outstanding Performer of the Year.
“Winning is going to continue to happen at the University of Texas at Austin,” Sategna says. “I think now more and more these athletes in that program are starting to see the light. They saw that if they pull together as a team and as a group there’s going to be some great things that happen.”
To win the Big 12 titles, the women’s team went toe-to-toe with Kansas State and pulled off the victory during the final four events with a 6.5 point lead. The men’s team, meanwhile, outperformed second-place Texas Tech by more than 40 points.
[Learn more about the Tower’s different lighting configurations.]
The Longhorns then competed in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, where each team finished sixth overall.
During the NCAA championships, Courtney Okolo won the national title in the 400 meters race, and the Longhorns also won the national title in the women’s 4×400 meter relay with the No. 5 time in collegiate history.
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