Southern Illinois University
Gladstein Invitational
McCall automatically qualifies for NCAA Indoor Nationals
01/23/2010 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
Jan. 23, 2010
By Jason Clay
www.SIUSalukis.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Sophomore thrower Jeneva McCall continued her early season dominance and automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Nationals by winning the weight throw on Saturday for the Southern Illinois track and field team at the Gladstein Invitational.
McCall's mark of 70-00.25 was four feet further than any other competitor on Saturday and it was the third-best mark in SIU Indoor history. She has now won 5-of-6 throwing events in the three meets she's competed in this year.
"Jeneva keeps getting better with each meet," head coach Connie Price-Smith said. "She does everything right in practice, which then carries over to the meet. 70 (feet) was a big step for her and hopefully she'll keep improving on that."
Southern Illinois finished the meet by setting four provisional marks to go along with McCall's national qualifying mark.
"We had a very good day and good meet," Price-Smith said. "We won some events and set a bunch of personal records. Meredith (Hayes) won the hurdles and Stephen (Arvanis) ran a really good meet and won the 800 with a personal record."
Junior Meredith Hayes won the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.55. Senior Terri Counts (8.74) and junior Miracle Thompson (9.00) came in third and fifth place as the Salukis dominated the event.
Stephen Arvanis used his career-best time of 1:51.80 to win the men's 800-meter invitational. His winning time was just four-tenths of a second off from hitting the NCAA provisional mark.
Tredene Davis, Kendra Deck, Tess Shubert and Kandise Thompson teamed up to win the women's 4x400-meter relay. Their time of 3:46.25 is the second fastest in SIU history.
Sophomore Kendrick Branch set a new personal record of 6-06.75 to finish second in the high jump. Brandon Deloney also notched a second-place finish for the Dawgs. He posted a time of 21.97 in the men's 200-meter invitational.
The women's weight throwers had five of the top nine finishers and along with McCall winning the event, Rickael Roach and Gwen Berry both hit provisional marks. Roach's second-place finish with a mark of 66-00.50 was a personal record for the sophomore.
SIU faired just as well in the men's shot put, where they had four of the top eight finishers. J.C. Lambert led the group, finishing in third place with a mark of 54-05.25 and Joe Paradiso set a new personal-best at 54-03.25.
Players Mentioned
