Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Track and Field Squads Begin Post Season at MVC Championships
05/11/2005 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
May 11, 2005
By Shalae Schulte
www.siusalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - In a vote by the league coaches, the Southern Illinois University women's track and field team is picked to finish third and the men are picked to finish fourth at the 2005 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Championships. The meet, hosted by Northern Iowa, will take place Friday through Sunday May 13-15 in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
On the women's side, defending outdoor champions Wichita State is picked to win with five first-place votes and 61 points. SMS, with two first-place votes and 51 points are picked second, while the Salukis earned 47 points and a third-place pick. Illinois State (40), Indiana State (34) and Northern Iowa (30) with one first-place vote are picked to round out the top six. Drake (17) and Bradley (8) finish seventh and eighth in the poll.
The 2005 MVC Indoor Champions, Northern Iowa, are picked to win the men's race with six of seven first-place votes and 44 total points. Wichita State earned 42 points for second, while Indiana State (32) and SIU (28) are picked third and fourth respectively. Illinois State (21) and SMS (17) with one first-place vote are picked to finish fifth and sixth. Drake is picked seventh with 12 points.
The Saluki women are coming off of a win at the 2005 MVC Indoor Championships with a five-point victory over Wichita State. SIU posted 14 All-MVC student-athletes, including five event titles.
The Saluki throwers swept the top three places in each throwing event at Indoors including a title sweep of the shot and weight throw by Amarachi Ukabam, currently ranked first in the conference in the shot put, discus and hammer throw, heading into the Outdoor Championships. The junior currently owns three all-time conference records in the indoor and outdoor shot put and the indoor weight throw in just her first season in the MVC and her marks at the indoor meet broke both MVC Indoor Championship meet records.
Other top throwers include Venisha Williams and Brittney Riley, ranked second and third in the hammer as well as Megan Cenkush and Katy Ritten. Cenkush is ranked second in the shot, sixth in the discus, fourth in the javelin and sixth in the hammer. Ritten is ranked third in the shot and fourth in the discus.
In the sprints, Kelsey Toussaint is ranked in the top three in three events in the MVC this season. The senior, earning All-MVC Indoor honors in the 200-meter dash and the 4x400 meter relay, is ranked second in the 400 and third in the 100 and 200.
On the men's side, the Dawgs are looking to improve on a sixth-place finish from a year ago and a fourth-place at the 2005 Indoor Championships. The Salukis (73) finished in fourth at the Indoor by half of a point behind Wichita State (73.5) backed by three individual titles from Joe Byrne (5,000), Tony LaChiana (3,000) and Freddy Rule (high jump).
Rule is currently ranked first in the high jump heading into the Outdoor Championships, while LaChiana and Byrne will both run in the 5,000 and 10,000.
Hurdlers Anthony Acklin and Mannie Daux are ranked first and second in the 110-meter hurdles, while Acklin is also ranked third in the 400 hurdles. Long sprinter Felix Anderson has posted marks this season to rank third and fourth in the 400 and 200 respectively.
In field events, triple jumpers Kenen Shadd and Antwon Stapleton are second and third in the MVC this season. Mark Milleville and Matt Weishaar also rank on the MVC leader board in the throws. Milleville sits third in the shot, fifth in the discus and fourth in the hammer, while Weishaar ranks sixth in the hammer and seventh in the javelin.
The decathlon and heptathlon will kick off competition at 11:30 a.m. Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday. The field events will start at 1 p.m. Friday and the men's 10,000-meter final will wrap up the first day of competition at 7:45 p.m.
Saturday's field events will begin at 2 p.m., with running events to start at 3:30 p.m. with the women's 100-meter hurdles. The men's 3,000-meter steeplechase will be the final event of day two set to start at approximately 6:35 p.m.
Sunday's field events will begin at 11 a.m. with running events to start at 1 p.m. The men's 4x400 meter relay will wrap up competition at 4:20 p.m.
Results can be found at www.siusalukis.com following each day of competition. Event-by-event results can be found at http://unipanthers.collegesports.com/ot/niwa-05-MVC-championships.html throughout each day of the championships.
