EIU Women Lead OVC Track After Day One

Eastern Illinois women and Southeast Missouri men lead the Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Track Championships following day one action at EIU's O'Brien Field.

The EIU women hold a 19.5 point advantage over second place SEMO.  EIU has 73.5 points with SEMO in second with 54.  Murray State is third with 43 followed by Tennessee State in fourth with 33.  Jacksonville State (21), Eastern Kentucky (18), SIU Edwardsville (16), Belmont (11), Tennessee Tech (3) and Austin Peay (0.50) round out the teams that have scored points.  Morehead State did not score on the women's side.

The SEMO men hold a nine-point advantage over EIU in a two-team race.  SEMO has 91.5 points with EIU second with 82.5  Belmont and EKU are tied for third with a distant 23 points.  TSU has 22.5, SIUE 21.5 and Morehead State has 5.

Friday marked the first time a meet has been conducted on the new track surface at O’Brien Field and athletes responded with three stadium records and two OVC records during competition.

Newton High School graduate Maura Cummins tied the stadium record as she won the high jump for EIU with a height of 5’9.75”.  She matches the record previously set by EIU’s Tina Dawson in 1989 and Connie Long of Wichita State in 1987.  LaShea Shaw and Ashley Conway both of Murray State placed second and third.  Shaw cleared 5’7.75.  Conway cleared 5’5.75”.Britney Whitehead set the stadium record and just missed the OVC record as she won the steeplechase with a time of 10:45.59.   She broke Juli Koenegstein of SEMO’s stadium mark by four seconds but missed Koenegstein’s OVC mark by 0.14 seconds.  Claire Brown of SIUE was second with a time of 11:10.85 followed by Courtney Bishop of Belmont in third at 11:11.80.

The third stadium record was set in the 100m women’s prelims by Murray State’s Alexis Love.  Love ran a prelim time of 11.51; 0.09 seconds better than the previous stadium mark set in 1985 by Denise Blackman of Southern Illinois.

The two OVC records fell in the men’s and women’s pole vault.  EIU swept the podium in both events.  Jade Riebold cleared 13’1.50” to win the women’s event passing her own OVC mark of 12’5.50” set last season.  Abigail Schmitz and Annemarie Reid were second and third at 12’9.50” and 12’5.50”.  Mick Viken passed his own OVC record mark by 0.75 inches as he won the event with a height of 17’2.25”.  Eric Gordon was second and Dan Chalus third at 15’11.25” and 15’5.50”.

In the women’s 10K final Viivi Rantanen of EKU ran away from the pack to win by just under a minute with a time of 37:27.73.  Carolyne Tanui of Murray State was second at 38:36.03 and Elizabeth Dole of EIU was third at 38:47.39.

EIU’s Pablo Ramirez won the men’s 10K with a time of 30:52.05.  Matt Miller of Belmont was second at 31:08.08.  Craig Munie of SEMO was third at 31:35.36.

Ole Hesselbjerg of EKU won the men’s steeplechase at 9:24.14.  Charles Johnson of SEMO was second at 9:28.68 and Max Gassmann of EIU was third at 9:30.62.

EIU’s David Johansson won the men’s javelin with a throw of 204’.  Brian Grote and Joel Krause of SEMO placed second and third with throws of 196’8” and 179’9.

Kevin Farley of SEMO won the men’s discus at 166’6”.  Jared Diaz of EIU was second at 164’5” and Jamil Mashni of SIUE was third at 151’2”.

Blake Carter of SEMO won the men’s long jump covering 25’0.75”.  Laderrick Ward of SIUE was second at 24’9.25” and Royce Dates of TSU was third at 24’4.50”.

Reginald Miller, Jr., of SEMO cleared 7’1” to win the men’s high jump.  Zach Hill of EKU was second clearing 6’8” and winning on number of attempts over TSU’s Sean Jenkins who also cleared 6’8”.

Tonia Pratt of Murray State won the women’s discus with a throw of 152’3”.  Janie Howse of EIU placed second at 136’7” and Angel Davis of TSU was third at 132’3”.

Sydney Potts of Murray State won the women’s javelin with a throw of 127’11”.  Maribeth Williams and Taylor Prince, both of Jacksonville State, placed second and third.  Williams throw was 127’3” while Prince’s throw was 126’.

Ashontae Jackson of TSU led a 1,2 finish for the Tigerbelles in the women’s long jump.  Jackson had a jump of 19’11.50”.  Clairwin Dameus was second with a  jump of 19’2.50”.  Jalisa Paramore of EIU placed third at 19’.

Competition resumes on Saturday morning at 10 a.m.