May 1, 2008
MIAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships coming to Maryville
Mules and Jennies to defend conference championships at Northwest Missouri StateKANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Outdoor Track & Field Championships will take place Saturday and Sunday, May 3-4, at Bearcat Stadium/Herschel Neil Track on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University.
Field events will start Saturday at 4 p.m. with the men's hammer and long jump along with the women's discus, long jump and pole vault. The action on the track begins at 5 p.m. with preliminaries in the 1500-meter run. Finals will take place in the men's and women's 10,000 meters and the women's 3,000 meters.
Competition resumes Sunday at noon with women's shot put and triple jump along with the men's long jump. The finals on the track resume at 1 p.m. with the 400-meter relays.
The defending champions from Central Missouri have the early advantage after the heptathlon and decathlon championships, which took place April 27-28 at Fort Hays State.
UCM's A.J. Roth passed day-one leader Craig Saalfeld of Emporia State to claim the men's decathlon, winning the javelin and 1500 meters to win.
Teammates Ross Smithey and Josh O'Brien finished seventh and eighth, respectively, to give the Mules 13 points in the championship standings.
Pittsburg State's Jeremy Dunkle and Nathan Thomas scored 11 points for the Gorillas by placing third and fourth, respectively, to keep them close to Central Missouri. Phillip Horn of Missouri Southern placed second and his eight points put the Lions in third place.
The top six competitors earned provisional qualifying marks, with Roth improving his standing on the national list from eighth to seventh. Horn, Dunkle and Thomas each cracked the top 12 nationally.
In the women's heptathlon, UCM had four student-athletes score to give the Jennies a big head start in the standings. Anne Carlson defended her 2007 championship, while teammates Jenna Schmidt (third), Erin Eiken (fifth) and Haley Morrissey (sixth) combined to score 23 points in the event.
Emporia State's Brooke Kent was second, while teammate Ryan Green was eighth to put the Lady Hornets in second with nine points.
Kent and Schmidt joined Carlson in the national top 15 for heptathletes with their provisional qualifying scores.
Both the Jennies and Mules, the defending men's champion, are in the hunt to retain their titles. The women have scoring depth in the jumps as well as the hurdles to help their cause.
With their best scoring possibilities in the throws and middle distance events, Missouri Southern could be looking to add to the indoor MIAA championship they won earlier in the year.
Emporia State may also be in the hunt as well, thanks to the scoring potential of the long jumpers and distance events.
Besides the Mules, Pittsburg State, Missouri Southern, ESU and Fort Hays State will be making noise in the men's competition.
Central Missouri and FHSU will be battling it out for points in the throwing events, while the Tigers have added strength in the sprints.
Pittsburg State is looking for big scoring in the jumps and hurdles, while Southern has its usual stable of top-notch pole vaulters and distance runners. Emporia State's jumpers -- especially the high jumpers -- will be the strength of the Hornets.
MEN'S SPOTLIGHT: Fort Hays State junior Bryan Haynes is ranked in the NCAA Division II top five in both the 100 (2nd -- 10.41 seconds) and 200 meters (4th -- 21.13)... A quartet from the MIAA are ranked among the top 15 in Division II high jump -- ESU sophomore Dustin Andrews (6-10.75) is tied for fourth, Pitt State freshman Curtis Cooper (6-9) is tied for 12th and ESU sophomore Alex Pyle and junior teammate Craig Saalfeld (6-8.75) are tied for 14th ... FHSU senior Brady Maska is ranked third in both the hammer (199-1) and discus (178-9)... Three UCM Mules join Maska in the hammer top 10 -- senior Dan Raithel (213-11) is second, freshman Drew Frizzell (194-0) is fifth and junior Jaban Moore (186-10) is eighth... Southern has two senior pole vaulters in the national top 10 -- Russell Ellis (16-5.5) and Jacob Williams (16-3.5) are sixth and seventh, respectively.
WOMEN'S SPOTLIGHT: Missouri Southern senior Jessica Selby-Tallman leads NCAA Division II in the shot put (50-4.5) and hammer (193-5)... Emporia State senior Jonel Rossbach is ranked in the D-II top 10 in four events -- 1500 meters (4th -- 4:30.10), 3000 meters (10th -- 9:59.37), 5000 meters (5th -- 16:56.21) and 10,000 meters (3rd -- 35:34.81)... Southern sophomore Kimi Shank is right behind Rossbach in the 5000 (8th --17:07.11) and 10,000 (6th -- 35:46.44)... Central Missouri junior Brittanie Roldan is fifth in D-II in the triple jump (39-9.75), while ESU sophomore Brooke Kent is sixth in the long jump (19-3.25)... Freshman Kayle Muyskens from UCM is 10th in D-II for the javelin (148-6), and senior teammate Samantha Frisbee is tied for ninth in the high jump (5-7).
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