Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Seven Salukis set to compete at NCAA Indoor Championships
03/12/2015 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
| NCAA Indoor Championships | |
| Dates | Fri., March 13 Sat., March 14 |
| Location | Fayetteville, Ark. -- Randal Tyson Track Center (5,000) |
| Meet Info | Schedule | Men's Start Lists | Women's Start Lists |
| Video | Day One: ESPN3 - 6:00 p.m. CDT Day Two: ESPN3 - 6:00 p.m. CDT Sunday, March 22: ESPNU Tape-Delay, 7:30 p.m. CDT |
| Live Results | Flash Results |
| NCAAChampionship Central | Championship Central |
| NationalRankings | National Top-25 (Pre-Championship) Saluki Women: 20th Saluki Men: 77th |
| Performance Lists | Men's National | Women's National |
| Meet Notes | SIU Meet Notes |
| Records | SIU Record Book |
| SIUSocial Media | @SIU_TrackXC  | Saluki Track and Field  |
By Tyler Wooten
SIUSalukis.com
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Saluki track and field will look to make some noise on the national stage this weekend when seven Salukis will compete at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday and Saturday.
To qualify for the national meet, student-athletes needed to finish within the top-16 of their individual events by the end of the regular season. Those 16 representatives in each event will be competing not only for team or individual national championships, but also to grasp one of the coveted top-eight spots for First-Team All-American status. Places nine-through-16 receive Second-Team distinction, which is in its fifth year of existence. Prior to 2011, both the top-eight finishers and the top-eight American-born athletes received All-America honors.
The Salukis will have seven participants at the national meet competing in five events across both days. On Day One, seniors Sophia Lozano and DeAnna Price will compete in the weight throw at 4 p.m. Day Two will be a busy day for the remaining Salukis in competition. Sophomore Kyle Landon will get things started in the men's high jump at 3:30 p.m., followed immediately by a Saluki duo of senior Ashley Gaston and freshman Raven Saunders in the women's shot put at 3:45 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., freshman Lindsey Murray will make her national debut in the women's pole vault, and one hour later at 6:30 junior Josh Freeman will participate in the men's shot put.
For Saluki track and field, seven is the most student-athletes to qualify for the indoor national meet during the tenure of head coach Connie Price-Smith, dating back to her first season as head coach of the combined program in 2004-05. In that same span, Price-Smith and her staff have sent 35 Salukis to the NCAA's indoors -- an average of 3.2 per season. Coupled with her 44 total sent outdoors (4.4 per year), SIU has sent an average of 7.2 national qualifiers per season across both indoor and outdoor seasons under her tutelage.
In the same time frame, those qualifiers have brought home 42 total First-Team All-American titles, six NCAA runners-up and five NCAA titles. Indoors, SIU has 20 All-Americans under Price-Smith -- 16 coming from the women's side that includes three indoor NCAA titles as well. In its history, Saluki track and field boasts 146 First-Team All-Americans, 19 NCAA Runners-Up and 15 NCAA Champions.
The No. 20 Saluki women own five of SIU's seven total NCAA qualifiers. Sans its freshmen, the Saluki women have a wealth of national qualifying experience in this group. Gaston is coming off her first trip to nationals outdoors last June, where she competed in both the discus (22nd place) and shot put (21st place). Lozano is also coming off a recent trip to the NCAA finals, hers coming last indoor season in the weight throw (13th place). Price, who missed the indoor national meet and the entire outdoor season in 2014 due to a knee injury, was an All-American outdoors in the hammer throw during her first two seasons as a Saluki; this is her first trip to nationals indoors.
But, SIU's freshmen have not disappointed. Saunders is Southern's highest-ranked national qualifier in both men's and women's competition at No. 2 in the shot put at 17.99m (59-00.25). That mark -- the all-time SIU, MVC and American Junior (Under-19) record -- was the No. 1 distance in the NCAA until LSU's Tori Bliss eclipsed the 60-foot mark at the SEC Championships. Saunders is the first 59-foot female shot putter in the history of SIU and the MVC, and she is just 10 centimeters away from cracking the all-time collegiate top-10. If Saunders were to win the national title, she would become the first true freshman to ever to win the NCAA women's shot put title indoors in available records (NCAA records only detail champion's year in school back to 1999).
The same holds true for Murray, as no freshman -- redshirt or otherwise -- has ever won the indoor women's pole vault title in available records (NCAA records for women's pole vault champions also only date to 1999). Murray -- SIU's first-ever women's MVC pole vault champion in either season -- enters with the 12th-best clearance in the nation this season at 4.30m (14-01.25), the all-time SIU indoor record by nearly one foot.
But, the Harrisburg, Ill., native will have her work cut out for her, as this season has been dubbed the "Year of the Vault" due to an immense volume of records being demolished on both the men's and women's side. The women's collegiate record was broken three times in two weeks earlier this season -- twice in consecutive weeks by national leader Demi Payne of Stephen F. Austin (4.75m/15-07.00), who most recently won the USATF national pole vault title.
On the men's side, sophomore Kyle Landon will look to recapture some of the magic he had in Eugene, Ore., last summer. Landon, a native of nearby Chester, Ill., is SIU's lone returning First-Team All-American from last season, where he finished tied for third in the high jump outdoors as a freshman at 2.20m (7-02.50). Landon has pushed the bar up slightly this season with the nation's 12th-best height of 2.21m (7-03.00), but there is currently a three-way tie for the national lead at 2.28m (7-05.75). Landon could become one of only three Saluki male high jumpers to ever earn All-American honors during both the indoor and outdoor seasons -- joining the ranks of Olympians Darrin Plab and Cameron Wright.
Finally, Saluki junior Josh Freeman is making his third trip to a national meet -- his second straight indoors. Freeman qualified with the NCAA's 14th-best shot put mark at 19.40m (63-07.75). He holds both the SIU indoor (19.43m/63-09.00) and outdoor (19.86m/65-02.00) shot put records. If the descending list holds true, Freeman's all-time best of 19.86 meters would push him into eighth place for First-Team All-American honors.
ESPN3 will stream the meet live, beginning at 6 p.m. CDT both days. A tape delay of the championships will air Sunday, March 22, at 6 p.m. CDT on ESPNU.
Day One Competitors | Friday, March 13 (all times Central)
4:00 p.m. - Sophia Lozano, Weight Throw
4:00 p.m. - DeAnna Price, Weight Throw
Day Two Competitors | Saturday, March 14 (all times Central)
3:30 p.m. - Kyle Landon, High Jump
3:45 p.m. - Ashley Gaston, Shot Put
3:45 p.m. - Raven Saunders, Shot Put
5:30 p.m. - Lindsey Murray, Pole Vault
6:30 p.m. - Josh Freeman, Shot Put
Players Mentioned
