Southern Illinois University
Friday Night Special
Track and Field shines at EIU Panther Invite
02/22/2009 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
Feb. 22, 2009
By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Southern Illinois University registered 21 top-five finishes at the Eastern Illinois Invitational this weekend. Miracle Thompson, Gwen Berry, Malaikah Love and Cody Doerfein each recorded event titles for the Dawgs.
SIU was again most dominant in the throws, taking a combined 12 top-five finishes between the weight throw and shot put events.
Berry won the weight throw with a NCAA Provisional mark of 63-07.00 (19.38m), as the Saluki women grabbed each of the top-five spots for the fourth time this year. Sasha Leeth (NCAA Provisional 63-00.25, 19.21m), Rickael Roach (62-04.00, 19.00m), Jeneva McCall (59-10.50, 18.25m) and Olga Ciura (57-08.50, 17.59m) rounded out that group.
On the men's side, J.C. Lambert (61-11.75, 18.89m), Joe Paradiso (61-06.25, 18.75m) and Ryan Shumaker (61-02.75, 18.66m) finished second, third and fifth in the weight throw, respectively.
Berry (3rd, 45-10.50, 13.98m), Jordan Harris (4th, 45-04.25, 13.82m), Maria Pretnar (5th, 44-04.00, 13.51m) and Paradiso (4th, 53-09.25, 16.39m) were SIU's top-five placewinners in the shot put.
The Salukis also turned in two first-place finishes in the pole vault and one in the triple jump. Miracle Thompson (12-04.75, 3.78m) and Cody Doerflein (16-00.75, 4.90m) won event titles in the pole vault, while Malaikah Love (39-09.25, 12.12m) was victorious in the triple jump.
Thompson (3rd in 60m hurdles, 8.77), Meredith Hayes (4th in 60m dash, 7.85), Alisa Baron (2nd in 800m, 2:20.07), Love (2nd in long jump, 19-07.50, 5.98m) and Nina Okafor (3rd in long jump, 18-08.00, 5.69m) were SIU's other top performers.
SIU competes at the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships on Feb. 28-Mar. 1.
Players Mentioned
