Joseph Richards III Named Big 12 Male Athlete of the Week

The accolades keep rolling in for the Texas Tech men’s and women’s track teams for the 2015 season.

Joseph Richards III was named the Big 12 Male Athlete of the Week after turning in the fifth fastest time in the 400-meterdash  in the nation at the Wes Kittley Invitational this past weekend.

Richards ran a Big 12 Conference best 45.61 edging out All-American 4x400 relay teammates Steve Champlin and  Kyle Collins to win the event. It is Richard’s personal best in the event.
Richardson was also part of the 4x 400  team which won their race with a time of 40.50.

Texas Tech has had an athlete win this honor in each week of the 2015 outdoor season so far.

This is the fourth-straight Big 12 Athlete of the Week award for the Red Raiders. Hannah Carson won the award last week, JaCorian Duffield earned it the week before her and Chris Caldwell took the honor the week before that. This is the first time Richards III has won this award (indoors or outdoors).

This is the eighth combined Big 12 weekly award between the indoor and outdoor seasons Texas Tech has won in 2015. The previous program high for a single season was five. Six different Tech athletes have won the award this year.

The No. 9 Red Raiders and No. 15 Lady Raiders will be in action this Saturday at the Michael Johnson Classic, which will be held in Waco, Texas.

In addition texas Tech high jumper and  national indoor champion JaCorian Duffield is receiving votes in the April edition of the Bowerman Trophy Watch List, as announced today by the U.S Track & Field And Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

The Bowerman, which debuted in 2009, is presented annually by the USTFCCCA to the most outstanding male and female collegiate track & field athletes in the nation.

Duffield swept both the Big 12 and NCAA Indoor high jump championships earlier this year, clearing what was a personal-best 2.29m/7-6.0 at the time to claim the national title over teammate Bradley Adkins and become the third indoor NCAA Champion in Texas Tech history.

At the next meet in which he competed, the Texas Relays, Duffield started his outdoor season with a bang, clearing a personal-best and school-record 2.31m/7-7.0, which at the time was the No. 1 jump in the world, and is still currently the top mark in the NCAA.

Duffield has broken his own indoor and outdoor high jump records a combined four times in 2015, and was named the USTFCCCA Mountain Region Indoor Field Athlete of the Year, last month.

Past winners of the Bowerman Trophy include Olympic gold medalist, World Champion and decathlon world-record holder Ashton Eaton (2010), 10,000-meter Olympic silver medalist Galen Rupp (2009), 2011 IAAF World Champion at 1500 meters Jenny Simpson (2009), 2013 100-meter hurdles World Champion Brianna Rollins (2013) and 2012 Olympic high jump bronze medalist Derek Drouin (2013).