April 1, 2006 TRACK AND FIELD DOMINATE AT GATORADE CLASSIC CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Indiana State men’s and women’s track teams both performed well en route to first place finished at the Gatorade Classic on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University on Friday and Saturday. The meet was only scored by the finishes of the Division-I competitors and the women finished first with a spread of 204 to their nearest competitors SEMO 187. The men posted a dominating score of 295 over second-place SEMO 167. “We won in a big way today,” men’s head coach John McNichols said after the meet. “We pretty much dominated from the team’s scoring aspect, and benefited on some events in that only the D-I schools were scored.” Competition began with an NCAA divisional throw by Jason Carruthers in the hammer throw on Friday. The distance was shorter than his mark at the Spring Classic last weekend, but was still placed the senior 21 feet ahead of his nearest competitor for first place. Fellow senior Charlie Sparks also scored big points for the Sycamores with the third-place finish. The men continued the strong showing on day two by capturing seven first-place finishes along with top-five finishes in almost every event. Seniors Jerry Clopton, Jordan Fife, Drew Traub and Charlie Sparks led the way showing leadership and experience in each of their first-place finishes. Clopton crossed the line at 10.74 in his first-place finish in the 100-meter dash. Fife, ran 3:55.44, finishing with a huge kick down the stretch for a close first in the 1,500-meter run. Two other Sycamores, Kyle Walsh (3:56.95, 3rd) and Justin Kunz (4:03.29, 5th) also finished in the top-five of the event to provide more points for ISU. Traub and Sparks continued to excel in the field events with Traub placing first in the shot put (57’-10.5”) and Sparks in the discus (173’-4”) while both tallying NCAA divisional marks. Traub also threw well in the discus, finishing behind Sparks with an NCAA divisional mark of 169’-10”. Sean Bowman had a strong showing for the second week in a row and showed no signs of slowing after red-shirting the indoor season with a first-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:27.56 in his debut in the event. Blaine Zimmerman and Antonio McDaniel gave the Sycamores a one-two-three finish in the event with the pair finishing at 9:30.94 and 9:37.77, respectively. In the jumping events, sophomore Jake Conn cleared a height of 15’-6” in the pole vault for first-place honors, while Paladin Jordan soared to an NCAA divisional mark of 49’-5.75” in the triple jump and a first place finish. The Sycamores bunched finishers in several of the events to bring in blocks of points in the 800-meter run, 5,000-meter run and 110-meter hurdles. Indiana State also finished well in both relays with second-place finishes for both teams. On the women’s side, Indiana State tallied six first-place finishes in what proved to be a see-saw battle between the Sycamores and SEMO, the Ohio Valley Conference indoor champion in 2006. “Things went pretty well for us as a team today,” women’s head coach John Gartland said. “It was back and forth and we were able to do well early, went one-two in the steeplechase and finish strong in the 4 x 400-meter relay for the win.” Indiana State jumped to a quick lead after the results of the women’s long jump where the women finished one-two. Samantha McClendon traveled 18’11.75” on her way to the first-place finish, followed closely by Janae Bridges in second with a distance of 18’-11.25”. The women built on the lead with a second back-to-back finish in the 5,000-meter run with Dani Prince and Laura Engle finishing one-two. Prince crossed the line 22-seconds ahead of her teammate with a finishing time of 17:35.72. Engle also had distanced herself from the pack with a second-place time of 17:57.37, more than 30-seconds faster than third. Despite SEMO capturing first-place in the 1,500-meter run, ISU sophomore Heather Stembridge made it a race with a 4:46.43 second-place finishing time. SEMO made up a lot of ground on Indiana State during the throwing events, but the Sycamores would prove stronger on other field events. Santia Spight cleared a height of 5’-6” on her way to a first-place finish in the high jump. Melissa Ullenbruch continued her comeback tour with a first-place finish in the pole vault, clearing an NCAA divisional qualifying mark of 12’5.75”. Teammate Nikki Royer was close behind in second, clearing a height of 11’-6”. Back on the track, Myra Bess raced to a first-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles and followed up her performance with a second-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles. Bess also ran on both relay teams that finished third (4 x 100-meter relay) and second (4 x 400-meter relay). Indiana State finished in the top three on the 400-meter dash, 800-meter run and 200-meter dash down the stretch on the legs of Mary Kate Conway, Hannah Weide and Janae Bridges. The Sycamores would seal the win on the second to last event when Leah Durr (11:48.61) and Sarah Jarvis (12:01.00) went one-two in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. “I was pleased with the performance today,” Gartland said in his final thoughts. “We came back well after, what I thought, was a poor performance last week and really got out and asserted ourselves.” The men and women will return to action Thursday-Saturday when they travel to Charleston, Illinois to take part in the Big Blue Classic on the campus of Eastern Illinois University. Women’s Team Scores Men’s Team Scores
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