KEVIN JENISON

GoSycamores.com

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. ? The Indiana State women's track & field team won nine events and the men's team three as the Sycamores lost the Gene Edmonds Cup competition with the Purdue Boilermakers for the 15th straight year 182-141. The Sycamore women nearly pulled off the upset as they fell to the Boilermakers 81-80 while the men were defeated 101-61.

“It is a very disappointing loss,” John Gartland, Indiana State women's track & field coach, said. “To come so close to winning against a very good Big Ten team but not getting the win is just disappointing.”

Gartland said that the team knew that every point would count in this meet.

“The women were scrapping and battling for every point,” Gartland said. “The great thing about this meet was that there were a lot of great performances from both teams.”

The men's team started out by winning the first two events but could not keep up the effort.

“We just didn't have a very good day,” John McNichols, Indiana State men's track & field coach, said. “They were able to advantage of our inexperience in certain events. It is pretty early in the season, though. We just need to sort things out and figure out how to not let this happen again.”

Despite the loss, McNichols said that there was progress made during the meet.

“We did see improvement from some of our younger athletes and that is a good sign,” McNichols said. “There were a number of high quality athletes in this meet and our kids did compete hard.”

The Sycamore women now have an automatic qualifier for the 2010 NCAA Indoor National Championships, had two school records set, and had many personal bests established during the competition.

Indiana State senior Kylie Hutson automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships by winning the pole vault with a vault of 13'-11.25” (4.25 meters) which also broke the Lambert Field House record that she established last year.

Sycamore senior Lauren Martin improved on her provisional qualifying mark and almost reached the automatic qualifying mark by winning the triple jump with a new school record jump of 43'-4.25” (13.21 meters). Martin also finished third in the long jump with a jump of 19'-8.25” (6.00 meters).

Junior Kelsey Hanley surpassed the provisional qualifying mark in the weight throw for the third straight meet as she won the event with a throw of 64'-5” (19.63 meters). Freshman Felisha Johnson finished second in the weight throw with a personal best attempt of 61'-0.25” (18.60 meters). Johnson also finished third in the shot put with a heave of 44'-8.25” (13.62 meters).

Senior Erica Moore won a pair of events as she took the 600 meters and the 60 meter hurdles. Moore set an Indiana State record as she dominated the 600 meters with a winning time of 1:29.50. Moore had the previous record of 1:30.25 set last year. She also won the 60 meter hurdles in 8.73, just a half-second away from a provisional qualifying time and finished fourth in the long jump with a personal best jump of 19'-2” (5.84 meters).

Senior Annie Smith finished second in the high jump at 5'-6” (1.68 meters) with junior Chennelle Martin third at 5'-4.25” (1.63 meters).

Junior Jaquelle Spencer came within a photo finish of posting a pair of wins for the Sycamores. Spencer and Purdue's Leah Eber both finished the 60 meter dash in 7.68 with officials having to look at the photo of the finish to determine that Eber just edged Spencer at the line. Spencer came back to win the 200 meters with a personal best time of 25.38 which is the 13th best time in school history and just a second off a provisional qualifying mark.

Freshman Stacia Weatherford ran to victory in the 400 meters with a personal best time of 57.13, the 12th best time in school history and just a half second off a provisional qualifying mark. She also finished third in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 9.12.

Sophomore Kacie Klem was the other individual winner for Indiana State on the day, taking the mile run with a time of 5:03.86. Klem was also third in the 3,000 meters with a time of 10:33.20.

Sophomore Kaci Smith finished second in the 800 meters with a time of 2:18.10.

Indiana State also picked up a victory in the 4x400 meter relay as Martin, Weatherford, freshman Leann Michl, and Moore ran to victory in 3:47.81.

On the men's side, senior Joshua Williams led a 1-2-3 sweep for the Sycamores in the weight throw with a throw of 63'-4” (19.30 meters). Senior Lyle Nolcox was second at 61'-11” (18.87 meters), and sophomore Brandon Pounds was third at 60'-4” (18.39 meters).

Junior Major Clay surpassed the provisional qualifying mark in the high jump for the second time this season as he tied Purdue's Geoffrey Davis at 7'-1.75” (2.18 meters) but finished second in the event with more misses than Davis.

Sophomore Drew LaMaster and sophomore Jeremy Pratt accomplished personal bests in the pole vault, each clearing 15'-11” (4.85 meters) with LaMaster placing third and Pratt fourth. Sophomore Tra Wilson was third in the long jump at 22'-1.75” (6.75 meters) and sophomore Ernest Rollins finished second in the triple jump at 47'-1.5” (14.32 meters).

Indiana State picked up two more wins in the track events as sophomore Jeremiah Vaughn won the mile and junior Konstantinos Tzirtziris won the 600 meters. Vaughn had a winning time of 4:12.27 in the mile while Tzirtziris had a personal best time of 1:21.82 to win the 600 meters.

Junior Michael Roberts came within two-tenths of a second of provisionally qualifying in the 60 meter hurdles as he finished second in 8.17. He also had a personal best 22.67 in the 200 meters in finishing fourth.

Junior Daryl Truitt also just missed a provisional qualifying mark in finishing second in the 60 meter dash with a time of 6.86. Wilson was third in the 60 meters in 6.93 and also finished third in the 200 meters in 22.63.

In a race where the top four runners finished within one second of each other, ISU junior Andrew Stull finished third in the 400 meter with a personal best time of 50.36. Junior Andrew Lepkowski was third in the 800 meters in 1:56.55 while freshman Albaro Escalera was third in the 3,000 meters with a personal best time of 8:34.72.

The Sycamore 4x400 meter relay team of Stull, junior Tykeen Fulton, freshman Dexter Childress, and freshman Derek Stinefield finished third with a time of 3:24.17.

Indiana State will put their efforts to the test again next weekend as they compete Friday and Saturday (Jan. 29 and 30) at the Wisconsin Elite Meet.