Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Uudmae And Young Heading To NCAA Indoor Championships
03/06/2002 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
March 6, 2002
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois University men's track and field athletes Jaanus Uudmae and Jeff Young will be competing in the NCAA Indoor National Championships Friday and Saturday at the University of Arkansas.
Young, a junior from Camden, N.J., will be competing in the 60-meter high hurdles on Friday, while Uudmae, a freshman from Tallinn, Estonia, will be competing in the triple jump on Saturday.
Young enters the competition seeded ninth with an SIU-record time of 7.77 seconds in his event.
"Jeff's going in there to win it,'' said SIU coach Cameron Wright. "There is a guy named Ron Bramlett from Alabama that is head and shoulders above the rest of the field, but when you line up in that race anything is possible. Jeff is going for it. He is only .005 seconds from being the second-best runner going in.''
Young, who transferred to SIU from Seton Hall this year, was the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Champion in the event in February.
Uudmae is seeded 11th in the triple jump with a personal-best leap of 52 feet, four inches, which stands at second-place on the the SIU all-time list. Uudmae was second at MVC Indoors this year.
"Our goal is for him to set a personal-best for the year and go in there and try to bring home an All-American plaque,'' said Wright.
"This is going to be the best in the country, and we feel that having two guys in - and just outside of three guys getting in -that we are starting to get better as a program and we want to get to the point where we are taking six or seven guys every year,'' added Wright. "They are pretty fired up, pretty excited, and it is going to be a good experience for them.''
SIU just missed sending a third athlete to nationals, as junior Adam Judge was cut from the 15-man weight throw field despite a NCAA provisional qualifying and SIU record toss of 69 feet, four inches. It appeared that Judge was going to make the field after capping a standout season by winning the weight throw at MVC Indoors, but a technicality will prevent Judge from competing in his first NCAA Championship.
"The NCAA only allows 270 athletes to compete at nationals, and because there we three extra relay teams that automatically qualified, Adam missed the cut because those extra spots were taken," said Wright. "Coach (Kevin) Robinson and I have been involved in NCAA Division I for a long time as both athletes and coaches, and neither one of us has seen the 16th guy not get in in the weight throw. Typically they take 17 to 18 guys. He missed it by two centimeters -- that is so close. The kid has worked real hard and he obviously deserves to go. We feel he will use this as motivation for the outdoor season.''
The outdoor season will kick off next weekend, March 13th, as the SIU men will travel to the Louisiana State Relays. The Saluki women will return to action March 23 at home in a tri-meet featuring Eastern Illinois and Central Michigan.
