January 21, 2006
Track and Field
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEN FINISH FIRST, WOMEN FOURTH VS BIG TEN TRIO

Complete results

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana State men’s track and field team beat a trio of Big Ten challengers on Saturday in Bloomington while the women, despite an individual win, came in fourth. The final scores for the men were Indiana State 148, Indiana 139, Ohio State 123, Purdue 117 and on the women’s side Ohio State 155, Indiana 147, Purdue 137, Indiana State 85.

The women had a lone individual winner in Yolanda Wright in the triple jump. The senior jumped 40’0.50” (12.20m) and picked up nine points for the Sycamores. Freshmen Hannah Weide narrowly missed a first place finish in the 600-meter dash with a second-place time of 1:35.41, only six-tenths off the lead. Ebony White and Janae Bridges were the other top finishers for the Sycamores placing third in the weight throw (53’3.50”) and 200-meter dash (25.30), respectively.

“It is tough to find some positives after a meet like this,” women’s head coach John Gartland said. “We are going to have to come out next week against Purdue and find a way to compete.”

The men found a lot of success on the track in Bloomington with five first-place finishes and with hosts of Sycamores placing in scoring positions. Freshmen Sean Wright (400m-48.54) and Curt Sunderland (high jump, 6’9”) repeated their performance from last week and took top honors in their respective events.

Senior Jake Hack’s push at the end of the 800-meter run overcame the leader and sealed the first-place finish with a time of 1:55.01 and .11 seconds ahead of second place. Junior Paladin Jordan returned to the Sycamore line-up and won the triple jump with a bound of 49’1.00” (14.96m).

The Indiana State men placed in the top-three in all but four of the events during the afternoon and rounded out their first-place by coming from behind in the 4x400m relay and finishing first with a time of 3:16.64.

“I was surprised today,” men’s head coach John McNichols said, “not by the performances of each athlete, but by the way the team just came out and stuck with each event. We had to come from behind in a lot of the events today and the team was steady throughout and across the board had some incredible performances.”

The men and women will travel to West Lafayette next weekend and face the Purdue Boilermakers for the second time this year. The men will look to repeat their results, while the women will have payback on their mind after today’s meet.