February 24, 2006
Track and Field
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEN THIRD, WOMEN FIFTH AFTER FIRST DAY AT MVC INDOORS

Day One Results

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Indiana State’s men are standing on the brink of a conference title after the first day of the Missouri Valley Conference Championships held today on the campus of Northern Iowa. The women, picked to finish sixth by Valley coaches, are currently holding the fifth position with the possibility of moving up when competition resumes Saturday.

The highlight for the men came later in the day in the 5,000-meter run when three Sycamore runners placed in the top five, including a one-two finish by Justin Kunz and Blaine Zimmerman. The duo finished the race with times of 14:58.40 and 15:01.04, respectively with John Nay finishing fifth crossing the line at 15:05.41. The trio racked up 20 of ISU’s 33 points with the top finishes.

The men’s other top finish came in the distance medley relay when Jordan Fife received the baton with the team in fourth place and raced from the back of the pack for the second-place finish. Fife edged out the team from Missouri State by .05 seconds for the runner-up position and eight points.

Anthony Bertoli and Jake Conn picked up three points after finishing five and six in the pole vault. Bertoli will be back in action tomorrow as the men’s heptathlon continues. The freshman is currently in seventh with some of his best events on day two.

The final two points came from Drew Traub’s fifth-place 57’2.75” throw in the men’s 35 lb. weight throw. With the performance, the Sycamores (33) are in striking distance of the leaders Southern Illinois (37) and Northern Iowa (36), especially after all but one entry from day one qualified for the finals on day two.

“In all of my 23-years at Indiana State,” head coach John McNichols said after the first day of action, “we haven’t been sitting in as good of shape as we are right now heading into the finals. The fact that we had every runner, but one, make the finals was just amazing.”

Nigel Bigbee, Jamie Dearman and Paladin Jordan will run in the 60-meter hurdles; Jerry Clopton will run in both the 60- and 200-meter dash; Brad Ada, Justin Pyle and James Twitchell will be another Sycamore trio in the 800-meter run final and Sean Wright and Damani Morris will run the 400-meter dash for Indiana State on day two.

The Sycamore women also have finalist looking to add points to ISU’s total going into the second day of competition. Freshmen Hannah Weide, Mary Kate Conway and Tiffany Jelks will look for an individual title in their first ever MVC Indoor Championship in the 800m, 400m and 60m events on day two. Myra Bess will also head to the finals after a sixth-place qualifying time in the 60-meter hurdles.

“We didn’t start well today,” women’s head coach John Gartland said. “With the quality of competition in our conference, it will be difficult to move up tomorrow. It was a pleasant surprise, though, with our four qualifiers heading to the finals.”

Indiana State secured 12 of 14 first-day points in the long jump when Samantha McClendon soared to a 19’5.5” second-place finish. Janae Bridges was close behind in fourth place after a jump of 19’1.5”.

Jillian Yorn tallied 3304 points en route to a “hard fought” sixth place finish in the women’s pentathlon and secured a point for ISU. The distance medley relay team picked up the final point for the Sycamores during the first day of competition after the team also finished sixth.

Along with the finals, day two will play to many of Indiana State’s strengths with the shot put, triple jump, pole vault and high jump still on the field docket. Other events that the Sycamores have been strong in over the course of the indoor season (the mile and 3,000-meter races), will also being run on the final day of competition tomorrow when the championships resume.