Men's Track Sending Three To NCAA Outdoor Championships
05/28/2002 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
May 28, 2002
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University men's track and field squad will be well represented this week at the NCAA Outdoor Championships as the Salukis will send Adam Judge, Jaanus Uudmae and Jeff Young to compete in the prestigious event at Louisiana State University.
"This is a great accomplishment for these guys,'' said SIU head coach Cameron Wright. "In order to make it here you have to be in the top one percent of college athletes in the country. It's been a long time since we have sent three athletes to nationals, probably since my freshman year back in 1992, so this is definitely a great thing for our program. We think these guys are ready to go and we are very proud of them.''
Young, an All-American in the 60-meter hurdles this indoor season, will be making his second appearance at nationals, as will freshman Jaanus Uudmae. Judge will be making his first trip to an NCAA championship event after narrowly missing the cut during indoor season.
A junior from Des Moines, Ia., Judge will be the first Saluki to compete this week, as he will be the ninth-seeded athlete in the hammer throw which kicks off Wednesday at 4 p.m. Judge has dominated in the event so far this year, setting an SIU and Missouri Valley Conference record in the event with a throw of 216 feet, 1 inch.
Young, a junior transfer from Seton Hall and native of Camden, N.J., will go into the 100-meter hurdles as the 19th seed based on a personal-best time of 13.77 seconds. Young will compete in preliminaries on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Uudmae, a freshman from Tallinn, Estonia, is seeded 11th in the triple jump with a mark of 53 feet, 5 inches and will compete on Friday at 6:45 p.m. Uudmae finished 11th in the nation in the event during indoor season.
All three athletes have a shot at exceeding their seeded times and marks and could come back to Carbondale as All Americans.
"I think you can take all of the seeds and throw them out the window,'' said Wright. "Our guys hit those marks late in the year and are ready to go farther. A lot of the other seed marks were set earlier in the year. Jeff has been here already and has been an All American, so that will definitely help him out, and Jaanus has experienced this before as well. I think all of them have about the same shot at being All Americans.''
The trio of athletes have led the men's track team all season long. Judge has also set the SIU record in the weight throw (69-4) and won the MVC titles in the weight and hammer throw this year. In addition to placing sixth in the nation on the 60-meter hurdles, Young set an SIU record in the event at 7.77 seconds and was the MVC champ in the 100 and 60-meter hurdles in 2002. Uudmae was second in the MVC in the triple jump during indoors, and was third during outdoors, to go along with sitting at No. 2 and 3 on the SIU indoor and outdoor all-time lists, respectively. All three are eligible to return next season to help SIU improve on a disappointing team showing in 2002. The Salukis placed fifth at the MVC Indoor Championships and were 6th at outdoors.
"We would have liked to have done better as a team this year, but to have these guys at NCAA's is a step for the program,'' added Wright.