Southern Illinois University
USA Track & Field Open
Young And Uudmae Lead SIU Track At USA Open
02/16/2002 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
Feb. 16, 2002
CARBONDALE - Jeff Young and Jaanus Uudmae exceeded NCAA provisional qualifying standards for the Saluki men, highlighting a strong day for the Southern Illinois University track teams as they closed out the indoor regular-season at the USA Open at the SIU Recreation Center on Saturday.
Young just missed an automatic bid to indoor nationals, as he clocked in at 7.26 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles. That converts to 7.77 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, breaking his own SIU record once again. Uudmae won the triple jump with a leap of 51 feet, 3 1/2 inches, just 1/4 an inch off his career-best. Uudmae is currently ranked No. 4 on SIU's all-time indoor triple jump list.
There were plenty of other highlights Saturday in addition to Young and Uudmae's exploits. Noa Beitler (2:12, 800m), Joe Zeibert (4:15, mile), and Paul Whitaker (6-10 1/4) also had top finishes at home, and Adam Judge broke his own SIU record in the 35 lb. weight throw at the Purdue Boilermaker Classic with an NCAA provisional toss of 69 feet, four inches. Gaute Myclebust also competed at Purdue, placing second in the shot put with a personal-best toss of 56 feet, 5 1/4 inches, which is tops in the MVC this season.
Other highlights for the SIU men included a second-place finish for Greg Denagall in the triple jump (48-4 3/4), a third-place finish for Scott Mahon in the 800-meters (1:57.11), a fourth-place finish for Doron Giat in the mile (4:17.41), and fifth-place finishes for Travis Pressler (3,000m, 8:43.97), Brad Brachear (200m, 22.46) and Marvin Primo (55m, 6.46).
Other highlights for the Saluki women included Latrice Gray's second-place showing in the high jump (5-6), fourth-place times from Julia Roundtree (5:09, mile) and Kelsey Toussiant (1:38.75, 600m) and a fifth-place throw in the shot put by Katy Ritten (44-5 1/4).
The 24-team unscored meet, featuring nearly 700 competitors, was the final warm-up for SIU before the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships, to be held next weekend at Northern Iowa.
