KEVIN JENISON
GoSycamores.com
CEDAR FALLS, IOWA ? A conference champion and several personal bests were among the highlights for the Indiana State University Sycamores after the first day of the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships Saturday in the UNI Dome on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa.
Indiana State freshman Brandon Pounds (Indianapolis, Ind.) took home a conference championship in his first event on Saturday, winning the weight throw with a toss of 18.54 meters. The Sycamore will go after his second title on Sunday in the shot put competition.
“We have had better days but we did have a conference champion and advanced several athletes to the finals tomorrow,” John McNichols, Indiana State men's track and field coach, said. “There is only so much you can do depending on how you did today and our position in the team race may be in jeopardy. It is a very tight race and we still have the possibility of pulling it out but you have to have the bodies in the finals to have a chance and we do.”
The Sycamore women did not pick up any conference championships but did have some outstanding performances.
“It was a very disappointing first day,” John Gartland, Indiana State women's track and field coach said. “We lost a number of opportunities where we thought we were going to score. We put ourselves in a big hole and now we are fighting as a team to stay in the top half of the team race. We did have some good things happen today and I hope that we can come back tomorrow.”
The Indiana State women scored just 13 points on the first day of competition and are currently sixth in the team standings. Southern Illinois leads with 58 points with Northern Iowa second at 38 and Wichita State third with 35.
The Sycamore men's team is in third place at the present time with 31.5 points, just ahead of Illinois State, who is fourth with 30. Southern Illinois leads with 46.5 points with Northern Iowa second at 38.
Leading the Indiana State men's team into the second day of competition will be Sean Wright, who had the fastest time in the 400 meter preliminaries at 48.63, Michael Roberts, who had the fastest time in the 60 meter hurdle preliminaries at 8.19, and Daryl Truitt, who had the second fastest time in the 60 meter dash preliminaries at 6.82 and the fifth fastest in the 200 meters at 22.16.
Gary Ogburn had the second fastest time in the 200 meter preliminaries at 22.00, Jeramie Gray the third fastest in the 60 meter dash at 6.86 and Anthony Bertoli the eighth fastest in the 60 meter hurdles at 8.44.
The Sycamore women's team effort on Sunday will be led by several qualifiers from the preliminaries on Saturday. Jeanne' Middleton had the fastest time in the 60 meter dash at 7.56 and the fifth fastest in the 200 meters at 25.15. Erica Moore blew away the field in the 800 meters to have the fastest time at 2:12.04 heading into Sunday's finals and the fifth fastest time in the 60 meter hurdles at 8.76.
Also advancing will be Mary Kate Conway, who was seventh in the 400 meter preliminaries with a time of 57.69, and Adriane Wunderlich, who had the sixth fastest time in the 800 meter preliminaries at 2:15.46.
In completed events on Saturday, Josh Williams finished fifth in the men's weight throw with a toss of 17.98 meters while Anthony Bertoli placed sixth in the pole vault at 4.90 meters with Steven Swinford seventh at 4.75 meters and Tucker Field ninth at 4.45 meters. In the only other men's field event completed Saturday, Jon Lautzenheiser placed 12th in the long jump at 6.85 meters.
In women's field events completed Saturday, Kelsey Hanley placed fourth in the weight throw with an NCAA provisional mark of 18.88 meters while Kortney Unger finished 13th at 14.51 and Autumn Sowders was 15th at 13.12 meters. In the long jump, Lauren Martin was 12th at 5.33 meters and Erica Moore 16th at 3.72 meters.
Three other events were finished on Saturday, the 5000 meters, the distance medley and the pentathlon.
In the men's 5000 meters, Scott Keeney placed fourth with a time of 14:52.57 with Michael Disher seventh in 14:58.10. In the women's pentathlon, Amanda Jones finished seventh with 3,262 points with Dana Sander eighth with 3,223 points.
Kacie Klem, Lauren Martin, Kaci Smith and Heather Stembridge combined to place fourth for the Sycamore women in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:56.43 while Jeremiah Vaughan, Colton Slack, Konstantinos Tzirtziris and Kyle Walsh combined to place fifth for the Sycamore men in the distance medley relay with a time of 10:12.64.
The final day of the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships begins at 11:30 a.m. (ET) with the final three events of the men's heptathlon. ISU's Anthony Bertoli is currently in eighth place with 2,576 points with the 60 meter hurdles, pole vault and 1000 meters yet to be contested.
