KEVIN JENISON
GoSycamores.com
NORMAL, ILL. ? Indiana State senior Erica Moore sits in a familiar position after the first day of the heptathlon at the 2010 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships, leading the field as she attempts to defend her 2009 championship.
“We were not really sure if Erica was going to be able to compete because she was sick earlier this week,” John Gartland, Indiana State women's coach said. “But she recovered and came through in a big way today. She was just amazing against some of the best women athletes in the conference.”
The Indiana State men are tied for second with Illinois State and Wichita State after the first day of competition, each team scoring 19 points. Southern Illinois leads with 54 points while Drake is fifth with five points and Northern Iowa sixth with one point.
Southern Illinois also leads the women's team race with 45 points. Illinois State is second with 20, Wichita State third with 18, Indiana State fourth with 12, Northern Iowa fifth with 11, Missouri State sixth with four points, and Bradley seventh with three points.
Moore has totaled 3,282 points after the first four events to hold nearly a 100 point lead over Northern Iowa's Olimpia Nowak who is second with 3,191 points. Tanya Friesen of Wichita State sits in third place with 2,893 points. The Indiana State senior is just ahead of her pace at the 2009 championship where she led the field after the first day of the competition with 3,271 points.
Moore was second by just a half-second in the opening event, the 100 meter hurdles, as she finished in 14.61 with Nowak winning in 14.55. The Sycamore senior came back with a personal best jump of 5'-7.25” (1.71 meters) to win the high jump for the second straight year and take over the heptathlon lead. That jump is the 10th best in Indiana State history and the best this season on the team.
After a second place finish in the shot put, Moore finished the first day with another personal best in winning the 200 meters. Moore had a throw of 35'-10” (10.92 meters) to finish second in the shot put, which was still good enough to keep her in the lead despite Nowak winning the event. The Sycamore capped her first day of competition by running a personal best 24.51 in the 200 meters and winning by three seconds of Northern Iowa's Lindsay Gierke.
Indiana State's Kelsey Hanley earned All-Conference recognition in the women's hammer throw with a personal best and the third best throw in Indiana State history of 199'-9” (60.88 meters). That is just three feet short of Carrie Myers 2000 record throw of 202'-9” (61.80 meters). Southern Illinois' Jeneva McCall won with a MVC Championship record throw of 206'-7” with Saluki teammate Gwen Berry second at 202'-10”.
Sycamore freshman teammate Felisha Johnson placed eighth with a personal best throw of 176'-9” (54.88 meters) and freshman Kasey Kahle was 15th with a throw of 133'-9” (40.77 meters).
Sophomore Tara Perigo came through with a big performance in the women's javelin, taking fourth place with a school record throw of 145'-3” (44.27 meters). Perigo broke the 11-year-old record of Jenny Folz who threw 132'-5” (42.50 meters) in 1999.
“We were wondering where we would be able to pick up some points with the absence of Kylie Hutson and Tara gave us a bunch of those points with her performance today,” Gartland said. “She is normally known as a shot putter but really came through in the javelin today.”
Perigo was in third place until one of the last throws of the competition when Illinois State's Toni Whitfield surpassed Perigo on her last throw.
Freshman Robert Webb is currently sitting in ninth place after the first day of the men's decathlon with a total of 3,237 points. The highlight of the day for Webb came in the high jump where he finished second with a personal best jump of 6'-4.25” (1.94 meters). The freshman also had personal best efforts in the 100 meters (11.55 to finish fifth), 400 meters (53.19 to finish ninth), and the shot put with a throw of 29'-10.25” (9.10 meters) for 10th. He also had a jump of 20'-6.25” (7.25 meters) to finish eighth in the long jump.
Freshman Dexter Childress started competing in the decathlon but had to withdraw during the high jump competition.
Indiana State picked up eight points in the men's hammer throw as senior Lyle Nolcox placed fourth with a throw of 186'-6” (56.85 meters) and sophomore Brandon Pounds was sixth with a personal best throw of 183'-3” (55.85 meters).
Freshman John Lopp finished seventh in the javelin throw with a toss of 170'-3” (51.90 meters).
The Sycamores had four runners in the top 10 of the men's 10,000 meter run, led by sophomore Craig Padgett who was fourth in 31:32.09. Senior Scott Keeney was sixth in 32:08.76, junior Tyler Kent eighth in 32:28.70, and senior Eric Schulz was ninth in 32:41.20.
Competition resumes at 11:30 a.m. (ET) Saturday with the final three events of the women's heptathlon and the final five events of the men's decathlon. Field events will begin at 4 p.m. (ET) with the women's shot put, men's high jump, and women's long jump. Track events will begin at 6 p.m. (ET) with the preliminaries of the women's 100 meter hurdles. The conference championships end on Sunday with the first event going off at 12:00 p.m. (ET).
