Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Track's Dunbar and Scotten Honored By MVC
02/03/2004 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
Feb. 3, 2004
By Josh Magill
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Senior Korto Dunbar and sophomore Ray Scotten were named the Missouri Valley Conference female track athlete-of-the-week and the male field athlete-of-the-week, respectively, as announced by the league office Tuesday.
Dunbar, who hails from Greenbelt, Md., finished first in the 60-meter hurdles last weekend at the Rod McCravy Memorial (hosted by Kentucky) with a Valley and season-best time of 8.49. She placed third in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.67, which was also a season best and the sixth best time in the Valley this season.
Dunbar capped off her efforts at the memorial with a fifth-place finish in the 200 meters in a time of 24.82. The time earns Dunbar the distinction as the fastest 200-meter sprinter in Saluki history, surpassing Kathleen Raske's old mark of 24.99 set in 1989.
"Korto was running on some fresh legs and was just anxious to get out there and compete," assistant coach Lawrence Johnson said. "We are ultimately trying to seek a bid for the indoor national meet in the 60-meter hurdles, but we (as a coaching staff) were more impressed with her 200 time. It was really good to see her go out there and perform as well as she did this weekend."
Scotten, who finished second in the pole vault at the Rod McCravy Memorial, posted a vault of 17-7 3/4, which is only .12 meters short of the NCAA automatic mark for the indoor national meet. The height is a Valley best and keeps him second on the all-time best list at SIU.
Last weekend was the second time in two weeks that Scotten has cleared the NCAA provisional mark for the indoor national meet, having vaulted 17-06.50 the week before on Jan. 24. It is the second time in two seasons he has provisionally quallified for the indoor national meet.
This is the second time this season that both Scotten and Dunbar have been honored by the MVC as athlete-of-the-week.
